How about a different spin on an old theory? Burke did it and acted alone.
When I say that I mean everything. The murder, the things done to JBR after her death, the attempt to clean up the crime scene as best as possible and even, yes...even the note!
I keep hearing how BR was only 9, but in fact, he was nearly 10. And from what I have seen of this child, and knowing of other children on the spectrum, I feel strongly that BR is on the spectrum and demonstrates several aspects of savant behavior. BR is awkward and has trouble showing empathy and normal social interaction skills. But I feel he is brilliant. He writes software and has a highly analytical mind. And a huge part in living as a person on the spectrum is repeating things they hear and see, particularly on TV shows and movies. My nephew is autistic and every conversation I have ever had with him involves the use of memorized lines from movies and TV.
So here is my theory:
BR is awake and goes downstairs and makes himself some pineapple and milk. A midnight snack. He eats a bit and goes downstairs to play with new toys and maybe look for hidden presents for his birthday (the ones they were supposed to take to Michigan.) JBR has a bedwetting accident and looks for BR and he's not in his room, so she heads downstairs. She sees the pineapple and also has a few bites and decides to look for BR, maybe she hears noise in the basement. JBR heads downstairs and catches BR in the act of peeking in his birthday presents and she says "awww...I'm going to tell Mom!!!" She turns to go upstairs and fearing getting in trouble, he hits her over the head with the flashlight. She is dead, or at least he thinks so. He prods her with a piece of the train set several times to make sure.
He knows he needs to hide her and puts the suitcase by the window and realizes he can't lift her out the window, so he goes and drags her to the hidden room where she was found. Having a history of harming her, putting feces on her things and the previous "experimentation, I have no problem thinking he would then start "playing" with her body. He has likely put something up her in the past due to existence of previous sexual assault. He uses the paintbrush on her once and then decides to try and cover up the murder and make it look like someone else did it, so he makes the garotte (it's really not that difficult) and tries to make it look like someone strangled her. He puts the tape over her mouth with a little heart and leaves her there. He may have even put the blanket on her because he felt bad. She was his sister and that's what a normal brother would do.
He then decides to buy himself some time and make it look like a kidnapping. Or maybe he just thinks if they think she's gone no one will look for her in the house and maybe she'd be down there forever. His mother taught him to write, so it wouldn't shock me that he would use handwriting like hers. He wanted the note to sound like grown ups he's heard speaking and things he's seen on TV. He knew many a turn of phrase of his moms, Fleet may have called him a fat cat or whatever. The note is a bunch of gobblygook. He left the note where he knew his mom would see it when she came down and went to bed, but probably not to sleep.
He hears his mom yell and dad come down and the conversation on the phone. "What did you find?" We're not talking to you..go back to bed..." He does and when he does get up he pretends to know nothing. So they assume he doesn't remember coming down and chalk it up to just keeping it a secret because who cares right? He had nothing to do with it and don't want him questioned by police. They may have a fear he may have done it as well.
Then the rest. Fingerprints, fibers of anything mean nothing to me. Fibers are transferred so easily particularly within a family and at a time where there is a lot of hugging and close contact like on Christmas Day. Maybe JR truly believes BR is innocent and wants to solve the case before he dies. I don't know. But just a theory.
Lastly, this theory can still work with PR writing finding the body and writing the note to cover for BR.
Very well thought out! I actually agree with you 100% all the way up the point where the cover up starts. Let me give my amended theory using your exact start:
JBR IS asleep when they return but BR is wide awake. They put JBR to bed without changing her clothes because they don’t want to wake her up. JBR is in bed but awakes and hears BR going downstairs. She gets out of bed, puts on the oversized underwear and long John’s to be comfortable and likely more quiet as black velvet pants could make noise. She finds BR making the pineapple using a dirty bowl in the sink or dishwasher that hasn’t ran yet (PRs fingerprints on the bowl but not tea glass.) PR is upstairs packing (which is why she never changes clothes that night.) They both eat a bit and then BR goes downstairs, maybe to peak at the hidden presents in the wine cellar. (The half torn open gifts found there?) He’s not supposed to be down there so can’t turn on the lights, so he grabs the flashlight and goes down, keeping the lights off. JBR follows and catches BR in the act of peeking in his birthday presents and she says "awww...I'm going to tell Mom!!!" She turns to go upstairs and fearing getting in trouble, he hits her over the head with the flashlight. She is dead, or at least he thinks so. He prods her with a piece of the train set several times to make sure.
I theorize that BR goes back upstairs tells her she’s dead and she panics. She has been drinking at the party, may have been on some medications that didn’t mix well, and with this new development her critical thinking skills evaporate. She sends BR back to bed and spends the next 45 minutes (up to 2 hours) trying to decide what to do. JBR hasn’t woken up yet, and PR is now sure she’s dead. PR is in FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE. Finally, she decides on the kidnapping defense and begins staging the scene. This is why her clothing fibers from that very night are found INSIDE the knots on the garrote, in the paint tray, underneath the tape, and all over the blanket/body. I theorize JBR was lying face down in the hallway (where the urine stain was found, so PR could use the garrote without looking at her,) pulling it tightly enough ONLY to look like a sadistic killer had done it. This is why there was no internal damage to her wind pipe!! She needs it to look real when she’s found, so she inserts the handle into JBR (just one time) to make it look real.
She then takes JBR and tries to put her into the suitcase, but she’s either too big or PR has too much guilt about denying her proper burial. (Remember the line about denying her proper burial in the ransom note!! This is also why fibers from the bed skirt inside the suitcase were found on the body!!)
She drags JBR by her arms into the adjacent wine cellar and rolls her onto the blanket on her back, wrapping her. She places the tape and chord to look like she had been restrained, then heads upstairs again.
She then needs a new plan. She was planning to write a ransom note, but now she also needs an excuse to somehow get the body out of the house! She begins writing the ransom note, directing it to JR (remember she starts by including both of them in her first attempt but starts over,) in hopes that he may leave the house to get the money and give her time to get the body out.
She finishes the ransom note and it’s nearly time for their alarm to go off. I theorize that JR wakes up and goes downstairs, possibly finding PR
Just watched 20/20 & they parents & son were cleared of all wrong doing . Lou passed away but his daughter is carrying on the torch to solve the murder . Jb would be 34 years old . Wow !
JonBenet Ramsey was found dead on Dec. 26, 1996.
abcnews.go.com
Oh my god. Please, you yourself and (tell everyone you know) to PLEASE research the entire case before this John Ramsey media tour erases the real facts of the case. Propaganda is rampant!
- “Boulder Daily Camera's investigation published Thursday found the DNA results in the Bode report are not necessarily as clear cut as Lacy concluded they were. According to the Daily Camera, they showed the Bode report to independent experts who say that the DNA samples from both the underwear and long johns may be composite samples from multiple people: JonBenet, an unknown male and, in one sample, a third unidentified person. To the extent composites were used in the search to identify the killer, the investigation states that the DNA profile "may be worthless as evidence." According to the paper, the possible presence of a third individual's DNA on the long johns has never been publicly revealed.
The experts also stated that the presence of the DNA on JonBenet's undergarments could have an innocent explanation because the "profiles were developed from minute samples that could have been the result of inconsequential contact with other people or transferred from another piece of clothing."
According to the paper, these opinions "cut both ways" on the competing theories of the case. They neither disprove the intruder theory nor "implicate or exonerate anyone in the family."
“
Former Adams County DA Bob Grant, one of a number of consultants on the case brought in early on by the Boulder County DA at the time, Hunter, told ABC News he was confounded by Lacy's 2008 decision. "This is craziness," he said. "This is not what prosecutors do. If prosecutors are going to exonerate someone they do it by charging someone else."
- “But Lacy didn't charge anyone else in the murder. Instead, armed with newly discovered DNA evidence found on JonBenet's long johns that Lacy said she believes belongs to JonBenet's unknown murderer, she sent the Ramseys a letter of apology. It read, in part, "to the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry." The letter made international news.
