Would certainly be the cost saving option. You can bet that if they have or think they have a chance at conviction, they will go for it.
What's curious to me is the 7 hrs between the reported kidnapping and the body being found. What the heck was the BPD doing all that time, having not even searched the house and then directing the family and friends to do so. They spent all that time waiting for a phone call?
Reportedly, that little basement room is difficult to find, unless a person is familiar with the interior of the house.
IOW's, it was overlooked during the first search of the house.
they were searching the house (along with the Ramsey's). repeated searches. and setting up phone tap equipment waiting for the kidnapper to call. on hour #7, John went down into the previously unsearched storage room, found the body, disturbed it, and carried it upstairs. as I recall, there was also an allegation that even after finding the body - the police did not lock down the house - the Ramsey's should have immediately been isolated to a single room.
They *did* search the house. There's more to that story. For one thing, the initial patrol officer who went down to the basement tried to open that door and couldn't budge it.
The natural assumption in that situation is to assume the door is locked from the inside. He asked someone about it and was told it was painted shut. That came originally from a family member, but I don't know which one.
It wasn't - it had a block of wood that was used to keep it shut - the door was warped and tended to come open on its own. Christmas things were kept in there and some of the children's gifts were hidden in there. JonBenet was scared of the room and parts of the basement, so it was a good place to hide things from the kids.
So, to lock the door and just keep it shut, the block of wood was nailed above the door jamb and could be swiveled down to hold the door shut. It was perfect to keep kids out when they were small, because they couldn't reach it. John R said it was loose and would fall down on its own, without anyone using it as a lock.
I don't quite believe that. I know it happens, but he was trying to say that if an intruder left JonBenet and hurried out, the woodblock lock might have just fastened itself on its own. To me, if the door were warped, I would think the block would have to kind of be forced down, to purposely lock it.
There was also an out-of-place chair down there, in front of the door of the train room, which shared a wall with the wine cellar, but had to be entered by going down a short hall and around a corner. The chair didn't belong there, but I don't know where it came from.
I wondered if the kids, namely Burke, being older and perhaps more curious, hadn't put it down there to get up and unlock the door to the wine cellar to see if any presents were hidden in there.
I always felt that wine cellar door was "locked" on purpose that night. In case anyone was exploring.
The patrol cop who missed finding JonBenet has cried and cried about it ever since. He honestly believed them when they said it was painted shut.
John R also discouraged Fleet White (the parent of Fleet, the little boy) when they went to the basement to look around, per Det. Arndt's orders, given as busywork to keep the antsy men's minds occupied while waiting for the ransom call that never came, from opening *that* door.
He did, anyway, but is very tall (easier for him to notice the above-door latch and undo it) and it was very dark, "Stygian" as Steve Thomas noted, and he never looked down on the floor or noticed the white blanket wrapping up JonBenet. He has always said he couldn't explain how he missed her.