I am not familiar with what actually happens when a child is murdered, what questions are asked etc. I suspect that tv shows have made us think that all bets are off as to the police getting to do whatever they want.
But once lawyers are involved, a lot of questions probably DON'T get asked, especially of kids. And it sounds like no one really thought Burke did it, they were more sure that Patsy did it.
Once time passed and the Ramsey's left town and they finally questioned Burke, the lawyers controlled the questions and Patsy, knowing what happened could certainly coach her son.
the DAs office seemed to have been compromised for some reason. I wonder if the lawyers could have confidentially revealed the truth to the DAs office and said "back off however you can, whatever stalling with the BPD you have to do, because this will Never see a courtroom."
Reading in Kolar's book about how Burke reacted to the questions they actually did ask him, made me feel that Burke is hiding knowledge of the crime details.
If Burke didn't do it, It is possible he knows that JB was accidentally hit and his mom did it. Plus, No kid is gonna stay in bed when all that is going on, especially if he himself hit JB. he could have just stood outside a staircase or crept downstairs to see what was up.
He mentioned to the psychologist about JB being stabbed. And there was a Swiss Army knife found in the room with JB. Burke is the one who brought up the knife.
Once John saw the Ransom N, recognized the author, and then found the body before he and Fleet "officially found" it, JR may have been unsure what really happened but knew lawyers were needed no matter what. Don't forget that Burke's medical records were unavailable to the cops. And cops wanted them, so someone must have suspected Burke might have hauled off and hit her.
I think Patsy would have been willing to take the rap for Burke, but they were able to successfully keep anyone from seeing his psychiatric med records or having cops question him.
and now it is all too late.
Legally, there was no reason for anyone to take the rap for Burke. He was too young to be prosecuted per Colorado law. However, I highly doubt that the Rameys were aware of that at the time they were staging. Even if they were, I think the most likely scenario is that they did not want Burke to go through life as the kid that killed his sister. Although obviously many, many people believe it anyway, he still has plausable denial and there are always the die hard IDI's.
That is all assuming, of course, that Burke adminstered the head blow. I think it is highly likely, but I retain that inkling of doubt. That, perhaps, indicates that the Ramsey's plan was a success.