According to Cyril Wecht he entered the case via a phone call from a supermarket tabloid, the Globe. He did not know the case he was being asked to review, only told that it was on the "west coast." When he got the photos, he realized the case was that of JBR. From what he could see, he thought she had been bound with the intent to restrain, not kill. It even hinted of a sex game gone wrong. The fact that the killer had written a ransom note as an afterthought, rather than bringing it along, also seemed strangely unprepared for a kidnapping, as did the note's complexity, content and length. Wecht decided that molestation was the primary motive and that the death itself was accidental.
As he paid attention to the case and read the portion of the autopsy report that was released, he noted items that supported the likelihood of chronic sexual abusethat is, her vaginal injury had not occurred at the time of the crime. It may have been done by a finger or some object, not via outright rape, but he believed it was clear that before the murder someone had behaved inappropriately with the child.
People both inside and outside of the investigation reacted to that statement.
Yet as more of the autopsy report was released, he felt more certain of his analysis, and recent events appear to bear him out.
"I have learned that the police called in three separate child sexual abuse experts," he reports. "They separately and independently came to the same conclusion that there was evidence of prior sexual abuse. Not that I needed anybody to hold my hand, but for saying that same thing I took abuse on national television from self-appointed Ramsey defenders and sycophants. But it's the most ridiculous thing in the world, a little girl with half of the hymen gone and she's dead, and you've got a tiny abrasion, a tiny contusion and a chronic inflammation of vaginal mucosa. That means it happened more than 72 hours earlier; we don't know how long, or how often it was repeated, but chronic means it wasn't from that night. This was a tragic, tragic accident. This was a game that had been played before."
Wecht was also troubled by the blow to the head, an eight-and-a-half inch fracture that had split the bone. Around it was an area of hemorrhaging, while under the skull there had been more bleeding, but the report on that was a surprise. There was much less blood found than he had expected. He believed that meant that at the time of the blow, she'd had a relatively weak, even nonexistent, heartbeat.
"If you inflict a blow like that on someone whose heart is beating," he asserts, "the heart doesn't stop, because the cardiac and respiratory centers are at the base of the brain. You're not damaging that with a blow to the top of the head. It'll become compromised as the brain swells, but initially there's no compromise. They control your heart and lungs. The heart continues to beat. The blood continues to flow. But in the Ramsey case, they got less than a teaspoon and a half of blood. If you have a beating heart and the carotid arteries are carrying blood, this person doesn't die right away. That means that blow was inflicted when she was already dead or dying."
He also had seen a partial transcript of an interrogation of JR from very early in the case, which supported his ideas. "The cops were asking him what he knew about the experts on the case, and he said he'd heard different things. Among the things was that an expert had said that the blows were inflicted when she was dead or dying. I've been saying that for several years."
Wecht went on to write a book about the case, Who Killed JBR?, to provide his medical opinion in much more detail. Contrary to more recent reports, he does not believe that the evidence supports the notion that an intruder perpetrated this deed.
I am of the opinion that JB was abused by BR. BR's involvement in the murder in MOO: LHP stated she found JB and BR playing doctor and they yelled at her to get out of the room. The fact that BR smeared JB's box of chocolates with with his poop speaks volumes of sibling rivalry. He was an early riser, loved to fly (reason for hi-tec compass shoe). He was fixing to board his father's plane the next morning and he wasn't excited about this but slept right through until somebody woke him the next morning? Yet we hear his voice overheard on the 911 call? We all are aware of the fact that he still has an interest in flying and his bedroom was decorated in planes at the time of JB murder. Obviously still one of his passions. His fingerprints found on the glass of tea and the bowl of pineapple. His DNA found on her nightgown. Possibly his footprint in the basement (Hi-Tec). The opened Christmas presents found in the basement. BR swiss army knife found in the basement. The train track imprints on JB's back, which suggests she was in the train room at some point during her murder. We can't say that BR wasn't there. Motive - sexual jealousy. It is also fact that the parents staged the murder. There is simply to much forensic evidence linking them to it.
