Shylock said:There is something else you will need to consider. Dr. Spitz believes he sees evidence of a prior strangulation. He suggests it might have been by the collar on her shirt. So you now have THREE possible sources for the petechial hemorrhaging:
1) Strangulation by the garrote cord.
2) Strangulation by the collar or some other means not yet identified.
3) Suffocation due to convulsions caused by the head blow.
Now add into the equation that there was absolutely NO damage to the internal organs in her neck under the cord or to her tongue, AND the fact that the deep red color caused by the cord was localized ONLY under the cord (an important indicator of post-mortem bruising). Both are facts that point to the cord being applied after she was already dead to hide whatever really happened to her.
You said “the cord being applied after she was already dead to hide whatever really happened to her”.
That sounds like a possibility, but think about this, What if she did die of a head injury, that resulted In a convulsion?
Now if you were the father or mother, you think the son or whom ever did it, was in danger of being held for murder, so you both decide to make it look like an intruder came in and killed her, wow what a devious plan, now you know that she will be discovered, so why when the detective suggested that you and a friend look around to see if anything was out of place,
you go directly to the body and unstage what you wanted to look like a murder by someone else, now if he and his wife were going to be cool about it you know the note and all the crying, why discover the body and make your self look guilty, why not just say you checked the house and could not find anything, now that would look bad, because if and when the body was discovered, the husband would have a lot of explaining to do, why not just yell out to the detective that he found her, now that would keep the staging in place.
For someone who wanted to make this look like an intruder did it, should have had the police look around the house, that way he could act surprised when the body was discovered. As a rule the murderer usually does not discover the body.
But the main thing I want to say is, if she died from a blow to the head, why not just leave it that way and say she was Bludgeon to death and left there by the intruder. The note is all wrong anyway. the Ramsey family must have been reading about serial killers to think up a crime like that. Does that sound like what John and Pat read for fun? If I were them I would not bring the police into it, until after I dumped the body someplace far from the house,then I would call the police, really how much trouble would it be to put a little six year old in a duffle bag and drop her off in a secluded area, in the middle of the night, now you have a ransom note and a missing daughter, if they were cool enough to do it, why not do the next step and just dump the body, it is only going to be trouble for them to keep it. This basement thing is a mystery.
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IMO