I don't think the ransom money would really have been dropped. Oh, JR would have said that he did, but since there was $18,000 in $20's and the rest in $100's, don't you think that it would have been pretty easy for him to stash that money somewhere and then just casually spent it as needed for however long it took? After all, the "kidnappers" would have picked up the dropped cash and made off with it before notifying him of where to "pick up" JB. Unless
they "called" him then (**see other option below) and said, "Ha Ha - joke's on you, you're not getting her back after all"! Click. (And no cops trailing him if he would have completed the plan as the note outlined - so there would be no dropped money to trail either).
Twenty bucks here and there for a while, until the heat wore off, and then those hundies would have just been pretty common in a millionaire's wallet, for however long it would take to treat their pals to dinner, I'd say.
Who knows, maybe the suitcase was going to be used at some point later if the plan was to dump her and not have her be found. JR was advised that the delivery of the ransom was going to be exhausting, that he should be well-rested. It has been speculated that the time for the call, according to the note should have been 8-10 am on the 27th, not the 26th. But, JR went ahead and made arrangements for the money at 7:30 am.
After the call didn't come, I think it was expected police would leave. Then Patsy and Burke could have been sent off in the company plane (so they'd be safe) to meet the other kids in Minneapolis as planned and take them all to Michigan. (JR declined to have Archuletta go after them once they learned JB was missing). Since JR would have been 'monitored' getting the money early, he would have then gotten an earlier call (the evening of the 26th) for the 'pick-up' and could have then put JB, placed into the suitcase, in the car and driven her (under darkness) to a far away 'exhausting' (fake) delivery spot for the ransom money, dropped her, then (**) returned to where he was instructed near Boulder (by a note - from sheets missing from the notepad), only to 'find' another note saying, "Too bad you called cops, now she's dead and you'll never see her again."
Of course, he'd have called police, and all the extra miles on his car, if checked out somehow, would have explained that his drop was far away enough to be exhausting, and he would have, of course, told police he'd have gone in an entirely opposite direction of what he did to drop the body. In the odd chance the suitcase was found, the decomposition, with the ligature in place, would have looked like a 'beheading', garrote style.
Sorry if this all sounds too far-fetched or like a crime novel. Just a sleepy old rambling gal who is desperate to see the case get solved.
fftobed: