So who is your choice of suspects, and why?
I'll have to take up a bit of your time with my answer, since you asked why, while I realize it will contain more information than you requested.
When this crime first occurred, my initial reaction what that JAR was responsible. I could not believe her parents would have killed her in that manner for many of the same reasons you present. And also because I am a mother and grandmother who would literally let someone anesthetize me and take my heart out for a transplant into one of my children or grandchildren if it was necessary.
Thus I followed the case carefully over the years, and 'followed the evidence' that has been presented to the public. Right here, I have to
emphasize that redacted information might
cause me to change my opinion once again, if I learn anything new/more than what I know now.
I've ridden the roller coaster of suspicion ( :rollercoaster: ) while others have come to a conclusion for themselves which they will value until or unless an acceptable confession is made. Isn't it wonderful to be an American and have these freedoms??
Anyway, I have also considered Patsy, JR and PR together without covering for Burke, and with covering for Burke. Because the available evidence has led away from JAR, I have had to exclude him, though my henky meter still goes off when I think of the possibility, I'll admit. Most of all, I really wanted to latch on to the IDI theory when the reports first started coming out, because it let me off the hook from having to go any further and consider the parent's involvement.
Unfortunately, the evidence, as I interpret it, always leads me back to the killer being a family member. The ONLY intruder I could accept at this point is one that had a standing invitation for access to the home at any time. To me that would have been only very, very close personal friends or other family members.
I have spent a good deal of time considering posts on other forums and a couple of blogs, with selection of
www.solvingjonbenet.blogspot.com, as presenting what I consider to be the most factually based. And I became totally impassioned about trying to see some resolve for this case, though I have always hoped an arrest would be made, when John Ramsey wrote his most recent book. There is something very wrong, in my opinion, in the
mind of someone who not only needs to sell the story (Death of Innocence) of his response to his murdered child once, when he already possesses enough wealth to provide a comfortable life by most standards for himself and a family, but then feels he must do it a second time (The Other Side of Suffering) only to attach it to his faith in Christ. Christ threw moneychangers out of the temple. And Christ asks only to "come unto
me, you who are burdoned, and
I will give you rest". A true Christian does not need to
sell his story of comfort to anyone for any reason. If he would have offered to witness his story, free of charge, to as many congregations as would hear it, at his own expense, I might have believed him. There is a story told by Christ in the Bible of the widow who gave all she had - her only mite - and was praised for being a true giver.
So much for John Ramsey's Christianity, in my opinion.
Anyway, it was what struck me about the type of
mind JR must have. I stood back, started taking a closer look at the evidence, and for me, the pieces fell into place very slowly, one at time, that have led me to believe John Ramsey killed his daughter, intended to throw off Patsy first, the police second, would have carried out the scenario he crafted within the note (which was written in a style some might see of his wife as his back up plan if there was going to be a glitch), and has carefully devoted his resources, time and energy in continuing the cover up of his guilt.
I will relent to this,
IF, and I do say
IF, Patsy was involved in a cover up, it was as an accessory after the fact - for one of two reasons:
she was purposefully and gulliballly duped (which I think she might have been too smart for, but due to prescription drug use might have been capable of), or she was terrified of what she perceived as a genuine threat against her life from her husband or her son, or any other part of her family - probably a combination of it all.
Now, my nutshell answer to you is: I think JR killed his daughter because he
was not willing to have his world come crashing down upon him, even though he was a very sick, sick man.