You're saying that you could read a letter that states right off the bat that your BABY has been kidnapped, and yet, you would have the mental competency to continue reading the rest of the first page, the entire second page and then, the entire third page before acting???? Really??
Not me. There is no way that I could continue reading such a long note.....once I read that my daughter was kidnapped, I already know that I would be freaking out and would IMMEDIATELY stop reading the note so that I could: 1. Call the police 2. Wake up my spouse 3. Search franctically around the house for my daughter. (Not necessarily in that precise order, but you get my drift).
In order to read the entire note, IMO, it would take a certain amount of collectiveness about oneself. It would take a certain amount of calmness, i.e., in order to read the rest of the note, I would have to have a certain amount of wits about me. Once I read that my daughter is kidnapped, all bets are off and there are NO wits about me. Once I read that horrifying information, that is all I would need to know to put the papers down and get LE on the scene ASAP. I just know how I would react.
There is NOOOOO way that I, a mother, could read that my daughter was kidnapped on page one, and then simply continue on to read page two, and then page three, before I made a move. No way, no how.
Imagine...you find a note in the wee early morning hours that says your child has been kidnapped....do you seriously go on to read page two and page three??? OR, do you IMMEDIATELY go see if your daughter is in her bed as soon as you read the words that she has been kidnapped???? Most parents, I believe, would IMMEDIATELY put down the letter upon reading that their kid was kidnapped and look for their child....and the very millisecond that they couldn't find their child, they would be on the phone with 911. Right away. Immediately. Forget about The Rest Of The Story in the Ransom Note. I read a note that says my child is gone....boom, I am looking for my child. Can't find her? Pure and sheer panic as I call 911...INSTEAD of choosing to read the rest of this ridiculous manifesto. My thoughts: Get LE on scene NOW.
ETA: Patsy did the same.
well, exactly.
And hence, we can't draw any conclusions from the choices PR made (calling LE and friends & clergy) to the RDI theory that PR wrote it to explain their dead daughter on the grounds she breached the warnings on the RN -- contacting LE would result in the immediate execution of her daughter.
While I am unaware of any survey research on the matter, I bet that if you were to survey a large sample of parents (esp those who have never heard of JB to be as unbiased as possible) and ask them what they would do in a hypothetical kidnapping (what would be better would be to do scientifically speaking would be do an actual kidnapping since what people say and what people do differ) and an RN that threatens to not contact LE would agree with Elevan & PR decisions.
The choices PR made that morning do not provide any evidence for RDIST that she wrote the RN. They are entirely consistent with her innocence, and the fact she contacted friends and clergy, and stated she did not read the entire RN, is more consistent with innocence than some convoluted over-thinking RDIST theory she intended to "breach" the warning of the RN to explain a daughter that was dead all along (not really an explanation that would fool anyone).
Use that good Southern Sense of yours. If PR or JR attempted at any time to explain that the reason JB was dead was that they read the RN very carefully but breached its warning not to contact LE, so the kidnapper murdered JB, then that would be evidence to support such a theory.
Is there any RDI who finds Elevan's choices unreasonable, or indicative of guilt or suspicion? (Worth a poll IMHO)