I agree to a point. I think that Don Paugh was the abuser but I think that the molestation and murder were separate things as weird as it sounds. I think some kind of confrontation broke out at the party on the 23rd and someone attempted to call the police to break up whatever "domestic dispute" had broken out. I think only three or four people who were in the house at that time had any idea what had happened: Patsy, John, and Susan Stein for certain. From what I have read about Fleet White, I don't think he knew what was going on in the house, he doesn't strike me as someone who would actively participate in a cover up. I think he figured it out in the following days.
Stein barred the police from coming in on party night. John and Patsy were unavailable, Patsy probably in hysterics because her abuser was now abusing her favorite child. Clearly, Stein wanted to make sure that the police did not see Patsy and John at that time it would have raised way too many questions. Patsy's obsession with appearances would have kept her from reporting her father as an abuser and wanting to keep it all quiet. I think it's probable that he molested Burke as well but that's a separate conversation. Burke had probably aged up too much to fit his preference anymore. Six and nine year olds aren't in therapy unless some bad stuff went down.
For the record, I think Burke accidentally killed his sister and I don't think he has any memory of having done so. Patsy would have wanted it covered up to keep her father from being outed as a pedophile and herself as a victim that didn't protect her own child. Had anyone other than Burke caused her head injury, they would have insisted that the attacker was the molester. Their son had to be protected. I suspect that it was Patsy that finished the job, though.
I agree. I also feel BR bashed her in a rage but did not intend to kill her. And his parents covered it up to protect him. When the results of the Grand Jury indictments were finally made public, I believe there were 18 counts (9 for each parent) that the GJ recommended to indict on, and one of them I believe was "failure to prevent abuse leading to death". Neither parent was actually going to be indicted for murder or manslaughter, but obviously this charge would never be mentioned if an intruder was thought to be responsible. Let's face it, after reading James Kolar's book it is pretty obvious that the police and DA knew what happened. Colorado law protecting minors under the age of 10 prevented it from going any further. Those 18 indictments couldn't have been any clearer. AH wouldn't sign them because doing so would have incriminated BR and BR could not be held accountable. No DA wants to prosecute an unwinnable case. Hunter was close to retirement. No way was he going to leave that way.