[ableLight]

I think that's a fair point and probably the weakest part of the theory. It does seem incredible that a parent would think that coldly about a situation so soon after it happened. You may be right, but one thing is clear to me. Due to the putrefaction and rigor, her death almost certainly happened before 11 p.m., probably closer to 10 p.m. There is no way an intruder got in there and wrote that note, packed her suitcase and sneaked her into the basement and then killed her when John and Patsy by their own admission were up until at least 10 p.m.

Anyway, you may be right.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Maybe the intruder made prior visit(s) to scout out the house and gather needed items.

[pollyannaish]

The temperature of a room can make timing a death a a less than perfect thing. Also, keep in mind...this is a HUGE house and iirc, their bedroom was a long ways from the other bedrooms. They could have been up at 10 and not heard a thing.

In addition, there would have been a huge mess where the accident happened that would be impossible to not detect.

Finally, I do not believe that after the scrutiny that the Ramsey's had (including, I think, going before a grand jury which are basically a prosecutors playground) there is virtually no way they could have done this.

Again...real life is just not that tidy and there is no such thing as a perfect murders—just "unconnected" murders. Remember, stranger murders are often harder to solve than those where there are connections.