My Theory:
Nothing in this case reads logically. I've read every page, every post, in this thread (and all the others), every article, news feed, report, pictures, anything I could find. Honestly, I doubt it's close to all of it that's out there after 20+ years.
In most theories I see components that I agree and others I don't. We don't and probably wont know the whole truth of that night. I believe JR is the only one left who knows it.
Intruder doesn't only imply "someone broke into the home". An intruder can be someone who forces their way into the home or gains access to the home with ill intent via persuasion or illusion.
I think JR, his business, his knowledge, whatever, was the reason she died that night. Someone else came to the house, after the party, and they let them in. The person was uninvited, but they got in the house because JR/PR knew them or with use of threat of harm. They entered with the intent of hurting JR, blackmailing JR, or obtaining information from JR. What happened next, I dont know and wont waste energy inventing a story.
JBR was collateral damage of this. JR & PR reacted protectively, as most people believe, but I dont believe it was to protect just BR... or BR from "what he had done". I believe it was to protect the surviving family members from further, still viable, threats.
If you step back from the "BR did it" theory of parents protecting their child by staging a horrific scene using their other child's body... you're only left with protecting themselves (could be as a family unit or just JR). If they (the parents) didnt kill JBR, why would they need protection? If JR tried to trade knowledge or money for his daughter's (or family's) life that night, he couldn't share that. He wouldn't share that if it meant his other family members could die.
Another key concern I have is about the ransom note:
They were worth a lot more money that a silly bonus of $100k and some change. Just stepping into the home, seeing the home from the outside, spoke to that level of financial ability. If I were to fake a ransom note, that I wrote to myself, and make a demand for "my" money, I would aim it towards making an impact on my real wealth. Why wouldn't PR/JR ask for 2.5 million for their daughter, knowing their own financial standing? The bonus was nothing compared to what their value was and they, especially JR, would not have devalued his worth, or his daughter's life, by listing that small amount. It's illogical.
Reasons I disagree with BR theories, which I am sharing because it enforces my theory (at least for me).
1. As a parent, a child still breathing... is a child you can save. No parent decides "this one is badly damaged, let's save that one instead". That is beyond illogical in my mind. She may have been beyond saving, but as a parent you don't risk that chance, and as a parent you cling to hope. You call 911 and risk all to save your child.
2. The staging of the crime scene was so elaborate and vicious that it doesnt fit the idea of a parent "staging a scene to protect the other child". You see your son having hit her so hard she won't wake up and you panic. So you lay her at the foot of the stairs, call 911, and claim she fell. You wouldn't fake a sexual assault, kidnapping w/ ransom note, garrote her and watch her body stop breathing. Which, who ever did the garotte, felt, saw, and heard her last breath leave her body.
3. I believe BR is autistic. I believe that explains his weirdness and that raises people's concerns about him as he doesn't come accros "normal".
4. In the interview with Dr. P, BR states he stayed in bed, unsure if his father was fighting off an intruder. This statement, which was off handed by BR, rings logical and true to me. More so than any other comment I've seen or read in this case about that night. That was a real fear, of a 9 year old child, as he hid in his bed. Someone was in that house and BR heard something that led him to believe his father was arguing or fighting this person.
PR didn't change her clothes because she never went to bed. They never went to bed.
PR could have been ordered to write the note by this person(s) as they dictated it. This would be a power play against JR. The entire note was aimed at belittling JR and attacking him. The purpose would of been to knock him off his high horse. Put him in his place anddevalue him.
This is a very loose part/question in my theory:
JR and one investigator searched the house prior to the 1:05 point where she was found in the windowless room. I read that the investigator couldn't get into the room or dismissed it (varying reports) due to their being no windows thatthe intruder could of used. Then JR searched it in AM hours, and neither found JBR. Normally when kids go missing they search entire houses, neighborhoods, ect. as often times they are safe/misplaced or hiding.
They allowed anyone the parents wanted into that house prior to her body being found. They were waiting for a call... not looking for anything or really at anyone's whereabouts/ behaviors during this time.
Could her body not have been there the first 2 searches? Could someone of snuck the body in past the few officers ? Again, speculation. The house had 9 doors to the outside, even JR states they were often left unlocked in an interview. There were 104 windows with 100 facing outside. The house was 7,000 sqft. Could it have been breached with friends and police onsite? Could the intruder theory and facts surrounding that point to someone breaking in to deliver her to that room and then exiting versus using that avenue to take her duringthe night?
Why I don't believe JR had anything to do with hurting his child, staging the scene, or that he even knew she was dead when he found her:
JR found JBR and immediately undid the crime scene by reacting exactly as you'd expect a parent to do. You wouldn't think, you would just react. John Douglas, in his book, describes this action as one of a parent finding their child in a horrible situation, reacting like a normal parent would. You wouldn't set a grand, staged scene for the sake of telling a story and then dismantle it before the story is told to the appropriate people. John Douglas uses these points in stating he didn't believe JR staged it.
If you go so far as to argue JR's response was calculated and planned, then you revert to a 8 hour time frame of
1. Getting home
2. Accident/murder
3. Planning the scenario to support the staging
4. staging the scene itself
5. Creating the ransom note which took 21 mins just to copy... let alone dictate
6. Discuss how to handle everything else and
7. Start the process.
No one is that much of a mastermind in the face of an accident, malicious or not.
This man wasn't a murderer, he had never staged a crime, and if the murder was an accident, it's harder to believe he was capable of weaving such a mastered plan of behavior and actions.
Within 40 minutes of finding her body, JR tries to leave with his family. Odd behavior. Period. His daughter is dead. Shouldn't he want to help solve it? Odd unless he felt it was unsafe for the to stay and he knew the "why" behind the "who". The threat was still very much alive and he wanted his family far away. What if he had given them what they wanted and they still killed his child and tried to frame him?
But honestly, I dont know. I dont dismiss anyone else's theories. This case is so sad. There are some people who are just "bad people" and they do horrendous things that don't fit what we would believe someone capable. I just don't personally see any evidence of these parents, or BR, of having any history of this type of behavior in anything I've read or heard. I also can't justify choosing to stop your child breathing in hope of protecting your other child. Breathing is life and they would of fought to keep it.
Please forgive any typos or grammar. My phone had a mind of it's own and is out to prove me illiterate.
Thank you for reading.
(Edited for phone rudeness)
