Thanks to all who continue to discuss this--it may seem 'repetitive' to some, but I'm still catching up on years of information about this case.
I would agree that if all the urine on the longjohns came from a postmortem release, the blanket would show traces of urine too. I take it that it didn't?
My goal in theorizing at all is to try to make as many things as possible make sense. That's why I tend to think JR did it, and why I also tend to think things happened in a certain way, which I'll summarize below (I don't mind repeating myself!
) In my opinion:
JR was abusing JBR. The abuse wasn't that of a pedophile, just a crime of opportunity. It probably hadn't progressed to intercourse.
JBR was showing signs of wanting to tell someone (the "I don't feel pretty" quote, the visits to the school nurse perhaps, and maybe some other things that were dismissed at the time). This makes JR uneasy. He starts to think of his own safety. I don't think the crime was premeditated, but I have to wonder if he hadn't thought about how much easier life would be if there were to be an 'accident.' (If he had committed a premeditated murder, it would have been an 'accident;' it would have been accepted as such, and we wouldn't still be talking about poor little JBR).
The night of the murder something happened that caused him to strike JBR on the head. I think she made it clear she planned to tell someone soon, or he thought she was threatening to do so. I don't disagree that this was a rage attack, but I think the person enraged, and his motive, were different from most posters.
Once the blow had been struck JR indeed did know JBR was dead or irrevocably dying--and realizing this, he also realized that he wanted her death to take place.
Unlike theories which have PR calling for JR to help her, though, JR needed no help. He inflicted the 'staged' wound for one reason--to cover up his prior activities. He then cleaned up the staged wound, something that wouldn't have happened if he and PR had decided to make JBR's death look like a sex crime!
Why clean up the wound? Why replace whatever underpants she was wearing with the size 12s, which were probably near at hand? Why re-dress her? I think this makes sense if you look at the motives for the two actions--the wiping up, re-dressing etc. were to fool
one person, PR. The 'sexual wound' was inflicted to fool
other people, law enforcement. Considered as 'one' act of staging they don't make sense, but considered as two separate acts of staging they are almost frighteningly logical.
I think JR 'staged' the crime scene the first time to make it look as though BR had struck his sister as an act of rage, possibly over his new Nintendo. We've all talked about BR being 'got out of the way' the next day; is it possible that he took the Nintendo with him because at least to one other person in the house it was necessary to get the Nintendo 'out of the way' too? The house was stripped nearly bare by the R's as soon as they could get PR's sister into it, but
one item left the house openly on the very day of the crime...just something that makes me wonder. I've mentioned before the idea that JR's concern over his golf clubs may make sense here, too--since BR had actually hit JBR with a golf club once, what would stop JR from placing a club near JBR's body and trusting PR to make the obvious assumption?
Once JR showed PR the body, the staging for LE's benefit began in earnest. JR sends PR to write the note, but probably realizes quite soon that they won't be dumping the body after all. The alternate plan is contrived but the note is left--they
have to have a reason to cancel that morning flight.
I could go on, but that's probably enough for now. One final thing, though--the blanket wrapped around JBR was there just in case some more blood had gotten onto the new underwear. IMO, JR wasn't taking any chances that it might seep onto the longjohns before PR saw the body again, and at that point any knowledge of sexual assault would have upset the applecart, so to speak.