I haven't posted here in a while but with the upcoming release of indictment against the R's I wanted to add my .2 cents about this case that has managed to keep me captivated for years.
I believe that Burke was solely responsible for his sisters death and the rest was staging and evasion on the part of his parents to protect him and the families reputation.
There are two very simple reasons why I believe this, first and most important to me is to consider how the family behaved when they were not in control of the situation or surprised, these are very telling moments in any case but here especially so due to the amount of control the R's were able to maintain via their team of lawyers and pi's.
1. JR's reaction to BR talking in the background of the 911 tape.
This single moment is beyond damning to me.
The anger directed at BR was was inconsistent with the normal behavior of a scared parent, JR sounded like he was caught off guard by his son in the background, JR is a purported control freak, who is desperately trying to maintain control of a horrible situation that he knows could sink his family elicited an angry response at the person who put him in that situation to begin with. This does not sound like a parent that is concerned for his sons safety given that his daughter is missing and he believes an intruder is at fault, the normal reaction would have been one of concern and wanting to keep your child close to you at all times, that's a natural reaction from a parent, to protect. In addition to this there is the pastors account regarding JR's commentary when he found her body, these are very telling imo.
2. It's obvious that the R's are being evasive or covering for someone by all the facts that we have, this case is a mess and that's precisely what they wanted in order to make it impossible to solve. It's Christmas and the family is getting ready to travel and celebrate some more, here there is no indication of premeditation by the parents, to me the crime does not fit the known personalities of either parent, would JR who is by all accounts a successful and organized business man have left so many items out that cast doubt on their credibility and can you imagine having him written such a ridiculous RN with details that only a close family member would have known about?
Patsy who only cares about physical appearances in my opinion does not fit the profile of a killer that would kill their child in a manner that would mar her beauty, JBR had to look beautiful even in death to her. The head injury and garrote were tools that a killer that had no regard for physical appearances would have use,d and yes it's been argued and theorized that PR could have killed her by accident and that's how she acquired the head injury but what refutes that to me is that we had two separate lethal injuries, the garrote being the most grotesque as this points to deliberate murder and if it was an accident than why fashion should a crude weapon on your beloved daughter and leave it behind for investigators to see?
I do not believe that PR would choose this type of weapon out of thin air just to stage a scene to throw off investigators.
My belief is that BR was jealous of his sister and he was touching her inappropriately, there are several known facts in the case that point to this.
BR lured his sister down with the promise of a pineapple snack and a peek at presents down in the cellar, where he attempted to touch her again when she resisted he hit her with something causing her head injury, he continued to molest her while she was laying unconscious, this is why so much blood was found by the me in her head, we know that she was alive between the two separate injuries. BR knew that he would get in trouble for this so he needed to silence her permanently, she is still alive at this point so he then makes a crude garrote to finish her off with because he does not have the physical strength to manually strangulate her with his bare hands and he can't make to much noise either.
I think PR notices something is amiss when she goes to check on JBR and discovers her daughter is missing.
I'm really still on the fence about the RN because I think it's possible that either PR or BR could have written it or been written by both of them.
The R's, mainly PR cleaned up JBR to ensure that the sexual abuse wouldn't leave behind to much evidence pointing at BR, and she was redressed and covered in a blanket, this also does not fit an intruder theory but fits that of the actions of grieving parents that do not want to loose both of their children on the same night.
These are just my opinions and I hope that today's reveal will cast a little more light on what went on that night but I doubt the case will ever be really solved by prosecuting the killer.