Youve described the exact thing about this that mystifies anyone who looks at all the known facts of JonBenets death. The only way a person can understand or rationalize the actions and behaviors of JR and PR is by considering that they were covering for BR. But if they are, exactly what is he responsible for and what was done by the parents to hide what really happened? Most people who dismiss BDI do so by saying he was physically incapable (because they dont understand the physics), or because theres no evidence that he ever had or ever would have done anything to harm his sister.
Really? We dont know what (if anything) the medical records of both children would say if they had ever been looked at. But you have to ask yourself here why the good doctor was so adamant about not disclosing any information -- to the point that he even said he would burn the records before letting anyone see them. Why would the doctor of a murdered child refuse to help the people investigating her death? Doctor/patient confidentiality? The doctor/patient confidentiality privilege does not extend after a persons death when it is that persons death that is being investigated. A simple
subpoena duces tecum (subpoena for production of evidence) overrides that privilege. The only reason the Ramseys were granted an island of privacy was as an incentive to get them to agree to an on-the-record interview (with their lawyers present yet) because they were dealing with a neutered DA. (But I got sidetracked.) The point is that we don't know what those medical records would have told us, or why the doctor was willing to risk liability himself to keep the records from being seen.
Some have heard what I think happened, so if they want they can skip the rest of my post. Ill try to explain how I think it happened for the sake of anyone who doesnt.
People are not just either good or bad -- an angel or a devil. Things arent always black and white. Sometimes good people do bad things. I dont think BR was the epitome of evil who viciously murdered his sister. But I dont think he was an angel either. I think there were influences in his life that caused him to act out in the ways that he did. Maybe he had himself been molested (there is evidence that makes me think thats a possibility), but we dont know that. Whatever the reason, he seems to have had some sexual curiosities awakened around this time in his life. Some kids do develop these curiosities earlier than others and we call them precocious. Maybe it was from one of the older boys he hung around with. Throw in here the questionable circumstances around the events of the party earlier in the week, and I have a lot of suspicion that BR and some of his friends had discovered that they could talk a younger and more naïve JonBenet into things that she would have known better than were she a little older. Patsy made her compliant and taught her what to do to please the judges. She taught her to act sexy. JonBenet even said that for Halloween she wanted to be a sexy witch. Just where does a six-year-old get a thought like that? (Answer: Patsy.)
So now you have a situation where BRs suggestion that they play a game could have an effect. I think he led her down to the basement (maybe even bribed her with a little kindness and pineapple) as far away from where Patsy and JR were, and where he would hear anyone coming long before they could get to where they were at. I think that it was there that he tied the cord loosely around her neck and then tied the other end to something else in the room. It could have even been the doorknob of the door going into the WC. This might have been part of the game of pretending to be a kitty, as Patsy said JonBenet liked to do. Once restrained like this, BR coerced her into letting him explore to satisfy his curiosity. Ill leave out details of how this might have happened, but you can fill in the blanks.
Now like this, the stage is set up for one single action that would change everything from that point on. Kids dont realize when they do something that can haphazardly place themselves or others in a dangerous situation, and they dont always think things out. But imagine how a wrong move by an unknowing young boy to a delicate girl that caused her a sudden pain, maybe a frightening amount of blood, and her first reaction is to scream. Not wanting to get caught and suffer the consequences, his reaction is to tell her to stop screaming. But shes scared and keeps screaming until he grabs something and hits her over the head with it. No rage, no ill will toward his sister, no intent to cause harm, and certainly no intent to commit murder... just a quick reaction to his desire to shut her up quick. This head blow is enough to cause unconsciousness. Her body collapses, pulling on the cord. The knot capsizes making it act like a slipknot, and it tightens around her neck. Panicked, he may have tried to raise her up and get the cord from around her neck. It could have been then that her shoulder scraped against the wall causing the abrasion, or it could have happened when her body collapsed. Either one of the injuries could have caused her death, but the combination of the two worked to cause her to die in a short amount of time. Still struggling to get her loose, the cord slipped from its position below her Adams apple to a higher position on her neck causing the petechial hemorrhages in the midline of her neck as the cord rolled over and caught her necklace. If she was tied to something at a height of the doorknob, his trying to lift her might have continued to cause further tightening of the cord in the position it was left on her neck.
At this point, I dont know if he gave up and decided he should get his parents, or if someone upstairs heard the scream and decided to go investigate. But for whatever the reason, this is where PR and JR get involved and try to figure out what to do. They find their daughter dangling on the end of a cord with blood between her legs. JR would immediately cut the cord to get her down and then check to see if she was dead or still alive.
[By itself, the strangulation would cause unconsciousness in ten to fifteen seconds. Respiration would decrease and stop within a few minutes, and unless there is a rare but nevertheless possible vasovagal response causing cardiac arrhythmia (Wechts famous vagus nerve reflex), the heart would continue beating for one or two more minutes. This can all vary on circumstances and the persons overall health, but usually within four to five minutes the process of dying is complete.]
Do the Ramseys call the police now and risk losing their son, their public image, their fortune... or should they try to cover it up to where no one would suspect him of molesting his sister and causing her death? Do they call anyone in the middle of the night for advice, or just wing it with what knowledge they have of what happened? I dont think they even knew then that she had been hit over the head. It could be that BR only said that she fell while they were playing with the cord around her neck -- it was an accident. Of course, he couldnt hide the fact of the sexual aspect, so he would have to admit to that. And therein lies the reason they decided to cover up what happened. They thought they could hide that by cleaning up the blood and changing her clothes. The obvious ligature strangulation could not be hidden (and there was also that God-awful spot on the left side of her neck caused by a burst blood vessel when the cord tightened), so they decided to leave the cord where it was around her neck, but change it just enough to throw off investigators on exactly how it happened (as well as how the paintbrush handle had actually been used). Break off the ends and tie the end of the cord around her neck to it and it then looks like it had been used to pull the cord. Use the piece of cord that was cut off when she was cut down from the suspension to tie it to her wrists and it looks like she had been restrained by some unknown assailant. Write a ransom note saying not to contact anyone or she dies, and it explains why she was killed. They desperately wanted to
hide the fact that she had been sexually assaulted. It makes no sense to think that they would poke the paintbrush into her as cover for past molestations and then clean up the blood to hide it. Their thinking was to obscure
how it all happened and create evidence that would point away from themselves.
In order to deflect suspicion from themselves, they concocted the story that JonBenet was asleep and carried to bed when they returned home. Nothing could have happened to her in their home at the hands of any one of the family members because they all went to bed after they got home -- everyone was asleep. BR was told that he would have to stay in his bed and pretend to have been asleep all night. What they didnt take into account was that the autopsy would show that pineapple had been consumed shortly before she died and too late for it to have been eaten at the party earlier in the evening. That is the significance of the pineapple: The pineapple is proof that she was awake after they got home, and proof also that they lied.
BR was there in the room with them while the 911 call was made. But they lied and said he was sound asleep, thus removing him from the picture and free from any questions. Why else should they have lied about BR being their? What would be suspicious about him being up had they actually discovered that JonBenet had been kidnapped? The only reason for that lie is to shield him from suspicion and prevent him from being questioned.
When BR heard everything his mother said on the 911 call, what did he ask? Was it, What happened to JonBenet? Who took JonBenet? Is she gonna be alright? No, he asked, What did you find? He asked that because he didnt know anything about the ransom note. He
knew what happened to JonBenet -- he just didn't know where the ransom note came from that he heard his mother tell the 911 operator about.
There are those who will tell you there are no signs that she was ever suspended. What they wont tell you (if they know) is that there is no difference in the
manner of death between someone pulling the cord and the cord being pulled by the victims weight. The only difference between the neck injuries is dependent on the person remaining suspended while the neck swells and the furrow forms. If the person remains suspended, there will be an inverted V pattern where the knot is located because that part of the ligature is being pulled away from the victims neck in the opposite direction of gravity. If they remain suspended, the furrow will also be deeper and more prominent on the side opposite the knot. If however the victim is removed from the suspension, it is no longer being pulled and the ligature will distribute itself circumferentially around the neck while the furrow is formed.
Reference:
http://www.markwynn.com/wp-content/uploads/death-by-strangulation.pdf
http://medind.nic.in/jal/t05/i1/jalt05i1p10.pdf
http://www.corpus-delicti.com/ligature.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=GGRM3QZVyjAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Forensic Pathology, Second Edition (Practical Aspects of Criminal & Forensic Investigations): Dominick DiMaio, Vincent J.M. DiMaio M.D.: 9780849300721: Amazon.com: Books