RE: BR tDNA on the nightgown. It is possible that small amounts of DNA were left there when the nightgown was washed and dried. Just because its called "touch" DNA does not mean that is how it got there.
Not saying that is 100% how i believe it got there, just something to remember.
Fides: what about the garrote seems carefully constructed? I see a sloppy collection of simple knots. Perhaps the paintbrush was tied on after the fact, but again it does not appear "professional" (in LS's words and repeated by JR) or "careful" in the least.
What would have had to have been careful and meticulous, was the cover up.
This child was assaulted, cleaned up, re-dressed and hidden. Even allowing the fact that perhaps BR put the size 12's on her, he would have still had to have gotten supplies to clean her, and wiped her down well. Let us not forget, there is a bruise on her inner thigh that was suggested to have been someone's thumbprint. Someone grasping her leg hard to assault or clean. If it were a child-sized thumbprint bruise, I don't think it would have even been identified as such. It would have simply been thought of as a small bruise.
BR may have been bright, but evidence suggests he was not a neat child. Particularly if Kolar is to be believed in regard to the feces.
In my previous statement I was really just trying to expand any idea beyond thinking of everything as staging, which I think might be slightly shortsighted. We don't know much about BR's personality at all. We have no way of knowing if he was violent. One incident of violence as a child, unfortunately one with horrible consequences, does not necessarily mean that he was a psychopath. I know my sister and I got into some serious tussles as children. She pulled a knife on me at one point. Children don't always know cause and effect well.
I think this crime looks pretty deliberate. The actions may not have been intended to kill her (though the strangulation certainly looks that way) but at minimum someone tried to hurt her by hitting her on the head. I recall hearing that BR's DNA was found on the "garotte". If I'm wrong I retract that.
UKguy,
These people were not expert criminals. They did not consider every possibility that LE would notice. They would not necessarily think that the size 12's would attract attention.
I also object to the idea that JR would have thought they were ridiculous. It honestly seems to me like something a man would not consider, as boys can wear very large boxers and still be comfortable.
There does not have to be blood on her skin corresponding to blood on the panties. There was a small amount of blood found around the perineum and in the vestibule of her genitals. Since we agree that the panties are ridiculously large, consider how they would have bunched or folded in her leggings. This would have been undone when they were removed. Perhaps when the leggings were on the panties were right against her skin and when unfolded, appeared in quite a different spot.
I don't see how "they" could fail to realize that size 12s would attract attention. I agree JR might have been less sensitive to the size issue than PR would be, but then the use of size 12s would seem to be his decision, not "theirs".
There's the obvious possibility of BR putting them on her, but I have rejected BDI so I'll let others speculate on that. My point is simply that if Patsy had anything to say about how the body was redressed I don't see her opting for the size 12s. Why? There was a drawer full of correctly sized panties.
JMO but I think it's most likely the size 12s were in the "gift wrapping station" PR had set up in the basement. They were used primarily because they were available w/o having to go back upstairs to JBR's underwear drawer.
That said, I'm not sure why any panties were needed. To cover her nakedness the LJ's are more than sufficient. No intruder is likely to have wasted time redressing the body in any case. I suspect the plan to stage a kidnapping occurred to the perp(s) after the redressing. If the plan was to present the police with a kidnapping gone wrong then the obvious thing to do would be leave her naked and violated out in the open. As it was, it was impossible to tell there was a sexual assault until the autopsy was performed.
The whole size 12 think makes very little sense.