From the parent's persective, in which of the following scenarios is it MORE likely that you would send your kid off to a friend's house...
Scenario One Christmas Eve. After an exhausting night partying with family and friends you are jolted awake by the shrill scream of terror and agony from your little baby girl. You rush first to your daughters room. It's empty. Then to your son's room. He is gone as well. You yell their names and your boy answers from the kitchen. You run downstairs in a panic, heart hammering in your chest, and find Burke clutching a lit flashlight, tiny droplets of blood on the lens glowing like neon lights in tavern window.
Trying to keep the horror from your voice, to pretend that everything is okay, you ask, "Where's JonBenet?" No answer. "Burke, where's JonBenet! Where?" On it's own your voice has risen until you are yelling. You can't seem to tear your eyes away from the flashlight, it's pointed at the floor now and you can see what appears to be a tangle of hair stuck to the end. Red hair. Only it didn't start off red, and you know it.
"She's in the cellar. We were playing and she... she fell."
In the basement you find your baby. Her eyes are open but you don't think she can see you. Her pants and underwear are gone. Her groin is bloody. Her breathing is coming in sharp stuttering gasps, her entire body seizing with each inhalation. Breath... pause....breath.... pause... You find yourself holding your breath with every pause, waiting for her to breath again, knowing that soon, maybe this next breath, the pause will stretch on forever. What happened here is clear to you. You boy, your beloved little guy, he did this.
You decide to cover it up. You head back upstairs, take the flash from your little maniac and send him to bed -- he's had a busy night after all, and you have work to do. You have already decided to stage a fake kidnapping and buy some time... Sure, maybe your little guy might break down in a tearful confession, or maybe say the wrong thing, or he might even decide to attack someone else, but that's a risk you are willing to take.
Scenario Two: Christmas Eve. After an exhausting night partying with family and friends you are jolted awake by the shrill scream of terror and agony from your little baby girl. Sitting up, you see that the bed is empty next to you. You rush first to your daughters room. Nothing. Then to your son's room. He is siting up in bed, looking at you with bleary eyes. "What's going on Mom?" You don't know so you tell him to go to sleep.
You find your husband with your daughter in the basement. She is naked and bloody. He is crying. "I-I'm sorry," he says. Your entire life is on the line, your husband might be a pervert and a maniac, but he is yours and you love him, and in any case he's your meal ticket and the damage is already done. You decide to cover it up with a fake kidnapping. You know enough from movies to know how a kidnapper might sound, and if you can get the police away from you long enough you can surely stash the body somewhere. The only problem is Burke. He knows something is going on. You just need to have a talk with him, tell him that JobBenet was kidnapped -- he might suspect something else, so you tell him that if he says anything to anyone his mommy and daddy will go to prison and he will go to an Orphanage and he will lose his house and plane and nintendo and money and friends.