Guys and gals, I realize I'm a new poster but I wanted to share what I've read so far. I lived out in Boulder for a while and this case was often a topic of discussion. I didn't really know much about it so I didn't have any theories on it. When this guy confessed I read up on it and realized that it wasn't that hard to figure out what happened even if you just look at the available (albeit not widely circulated) evidence. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, so don't misunderstand me, but the following scenario is the only one that fits the known evidence without explicit contradiction in known evidence (the simplest explanation):
John, Patsy, Jonbenet and Burke return home from a Christmas party around 9:30 p.m. Patsy feeds Burke and Jonbenet pineapple in the kitchen. They all go upstairs around 10 p.m. to get to bed for an early flight in the morning. While John and Patsy are busy in another room Burke is in Jonbenet's room. Jonbenet is sitting on the floor playing with that stuff girls put in their hair (those pins or whatever). Burke is swinging a bat in her bedroom. He starts swinging it over her head from behind. Being 9 years old he doesn't see the danger here. Jonbenet suddenly pops up to her feet and the bat in a full strength, leveraged swing clips the right top portion of her head as she rises. The blow is fatal.
The boy panics and runs to his parents saying Jonbenet is not getting up. The parents run to the room and quickly realize that she is turning blue and there is no pulse. It's a lost cause. They get Burke out of the room and tell him to stay in his room or whatever. They tell him she will be alright and they are taking her to the hospital. John, the cool-headed lawyer, assesses the situation and realizes that this looks bad, really bad, in terms of their legal standing. Most parents would have just called an ambulance and said it was an accident. But John realizes that this won't wash and that, at best, DFACs will break the family up. He shares this with Patsy. Patsy takes over.
Patsy carries the decedent down the spiral stairs to the basement, fashions a ligature from the paint tray and tightens it around Jonbenet's neck believing that the girl is already dead (in reality she may have been in a shallow state of life at that point). She tightens it with great force. She puts tape on her mouth. I don't know how but they manage to dispose of the tape roll and unused rope/line used in the ligature. The time delay from the head blow to the ligature is less than 45 minutes. The coroner would later set the time of death to very close to 10 p.m. making a ransom note written in the home by an intruder BEFORE the death impossible. Ergo, it couldn't have been a botched kidnapping.
She comes back to the kitchen or wherever and John is ruminating deeply about what to do. He realizes this won't wash either. Police will still suspect them of murder and DFACs won't like it either. So he suggests that an intruder PLUS a botched kidnapping is in order. So Patsy writes a ransom note on the kitchen pad with her left hand (she was ambidextrous). She signs it S.B.T.C meaning Saved By The Cross. This whole process takes them very late into the night. They clean the bat by washing it and cleaning off any fingerprints. The flashlight, as good measure, is also wiped so no one suspects anyone in the home. A suitcase is placed under the basement window. John climbs into the basement window and raises the grate slightly to be sure it's not entangled in grass or leaves. The bowl from which the pineapple was served is, however, not wiped (oversight). Nor is the writing pad from which the ransom note was written (couldn't because it's paper).
They, after much thinking and planning, ruminate that it would be best to call 911 about 5:30 and report her missing. By now it's probably 3 or 4 in the morning, they've already put Burke to sleep telling him that Jonbenet is fine. He is only 9 and doesn't realize how severe the injury was. Around 5:25 a.m. they call 911 but Burke has awakened with all the activity in the house and says, "what did I do" or something like that. Then he says, "what did you find". John Ramsey says, "we are not talking to you" in a scolding manner. The boy knows that something isn't right because it looks like the parents have never gone to bed. But he doesn't realize Jonbenet is dead.
The police come over. John is amazed that they didn't search the house right away. He realizes they've got to find the body soon before putrefaction sets in, which will time the death more precisely than rigor mortis (being a smart lawyer he may have realized this). But he doesn't want to find it because he knows that would look suspicious. But finally at about 1:30 a detective tells him to search the house. Realizing how late it is (and that he could also look suspicious if specifically asked to search the house and NOT find a body that would be later found) he figures it's better at this point if he finds the body.
John and Patsy claim thereafter that they had nothing to do with their daughters death. True. They claim that Burke did not murder her. True. It really was an accident. The kook that confessed is interesting because somehow he got extremely privileged info on what happened that night and used it to advance a book deal by making a false confession. He is indeed a nutjob, but he didn't have anything to do with THAT death.
This scenario fits the available evidence like a glove on a hand. Every other scenario contradicts it.
LOL
Sorry, John the cool headed lawyer realizes he has the money and connections to protect Burke from DCFS and would call an ambulance immediately. The idea that the parents would savagely strangulate their injured daughter to protect their son is just not believable.
Gosh, I don't even know where to start. I hope your thought process regarding politics is not like this. Umm, welcome to FR?
You joined up today just to share wth us your cheesy theory? (come on be a good little "John" and confess to us what your regular FR username is)
LOL...
I never heard of any evidence that stated JonBenet suffered a severe blow to the head which killed her. Such a blow would have resulted in significant damage to the skull, I believe. The medical examiner would have recorded this fact. And yet, not a word has been whispered.
Also, why plug Burke into the picture when there isn't a single thread that traces anything back to him? Where is the probable cause that must be shown? Where is there evidence about a bat, a bat in his hands, a bat in her room, a swinging of the bat which killed her?
Um, I don't think so. If one of my kids got their head hit real hard I'd call 911 and get him help asap. I believe the Ramsey's would have done the same thing!
How do you then explain the lack of bleeding caused by the cracked skull? The coroner claims the cause of death was asphyxiation, not blunt force trauma.
If, in your theory, Burke was the unintentional culprit then the internal bleeding from the head wound would have surely been more severe.
I am having trouble believing that Karr is the culprit myself but it would seem as if the strangling had to come first followed by the blow to the head if the autopsy (as I understand it) is correct.
Well done. I see PR as the main schemer. One thing you didn't account for: the stun gun burns on JB's neck...