I've been suggesting that for years.
I think this photograph can help us to develop a better theory of what happened.
I think it backs up the theory that the paintbrush stick was not instrumental in the strangulation. With everyone's help we may be able to move this forward.
I'll explain what I mean.
The cord between the knot and the stick measured 17 inches. I don't have a 6 year old child handy, but if you have, dangle a tape measure from the back of their neck, and I'm pretty sure the 17 inches would end up well below the waist, and more likely on the area of their bottom.
The new photo shows that the stick was not hanging a 17 inch distance away from the body and it isn't resting in a pool of slack cord, it is stretched out. Looking at the photograph, I would estimate that is a maximum distance of 7 inches from the back of her neck. And if you were able to move it with your hand, it would swing across to exactly where the blanching and indentation mark is on her back, so it has simply swung over to the floor, as the body has been turned to be photographed.
Now take this a step further and know that there is an extra 10 inches of cord somewhere. Enough for another complete wrap around the neck.
From
http://jonbenetramsey.pbworks.com/w/page/11682514/The Cords
Cord Wrapped Twice Around Neck? Internet poster (snipped) [FONT=&]claims that in her 1999 [/FONT]Good Morning Americainterview[FONT=&], [/FONT]Linda Arndt said the cord was wrapped twice around JBR's neck. This is not visible in most autopsy photos because the first loop is buried so deeply in her neck. According to Internet poster (snipped) [FONT=&]reportedly shows a picture of the neck after the first loop was removed and the second loop remained. This detail about the 2nd wrapping may have been redacted from the autopsy report.[/FONT]
I wouldn't agree that the second wrapping isn't visible because "the first loop is buried so deeply in her neck" (suggesting it is underneath the ligature we can see). I think that photo released shows the neck with the first loop that was knotted around the neck, and after the second wrapping has been unwrapped. I think the second wrapping was exactly where we can see the white mark lower down on the neck.
I think JonBenet was laying face down on her tummy, with her face (left cheek) pressed into the floor and facing her right shoulder. As she was turned over to be left lying on her back in the wine cellar, her face remained turned to her right where it developed lividity. If you turn your own face to the right the neck muscles or strings (I don't have the correct term for these!) protrude on the left. I think the cord was wrapped around once and knotted, and then looped around a second time lower on the front of her neck, and pulled tight, causing blood vessels to burst under the skin, trapped in a triangular portion between these areas of protruding muscle.
I think the cord after the second wrapping may have been tucked underneath the first wrapping to enable self-tightening, without the perpetrator having to exert and experience the pull against her body, and that is when her shirt became bunched up with the second wrapping as it was being inserted under the first, maybe by someone wearing gloves, and so with impaired manual dexterity.
Then the stick was added and JonBenet's long hair became entwined within the knot on the stick. If the stick was already there and used to twist or pull the cord to tighten it, before the second wrapping, it would not have been able to be wrapped and secured a second time with her shirt bunching up as it is, and without the sharp stick leaving a scratch or injury to the skin on the back of her neck.
I used to think that there may have been an earlier partial strangulation because of the white and red cord marks on the front of her neck. Now I don't think so.