Certainly, the heart could have been drawn on the palm before the White's party. LE must have looked into this with those who attended. According to the Bonita papers, PR often would draw the heart on JB's hand as a sort of memento. I do not recall PR adding this detail about her activities in interviews. As several Sharpies were taken as evidence, they were searching for the correct red one?
IMO the event of Christmas is intrinsic and not merely coincidental to the murder. The Holiday season is stressful for many. The pot boiled over for the R family at this time. BDI has the advantage of explaining much of the CS and the nebulous GJ indictments. BR's motive would have been jealousy? ("She was always flaunting herself.") The gift giving to JB stoked these feelings? JB received three pieces of gold jewelry from the extended family. This would have registered as 'expensive' to a child. Then, there are the bikes for both JB and PR. The one meant for BR remains obscured.
BR was both incurious and over-informed. In his interview with Dr. Bernhard, he provides his own scenario. She asked if he knew what happened. He answered "She was killed." However, JR had told him that JB had gone to heaven; and so, he could have used similar language as a response. To split hairs, this also is not "She was murdered." or "She died."
For the sake of argument only, let's for the moment take BR's outline to Dr. B as actually speaking of himself. Firstly, I do not believe that anyone went to bed after arriving back home. The parents were on the third floor and the kids in the kitchen? ("Why couldn't I hear my baby?") BR's simmering hostility towards his sister has reached critical mass, and he decides on retribution? He knows that she finds the basement a scary place, making it a suitable location. He quietly leads her down there at the point of his Swiss army knife (his former present) with the Maglite (former present to household ) in the other hand to guide the descent in the frightening darkness? Then he bashes her head with it? His previous striking of her with the golf club did not result in a serious injury. Thus, he would not expect there to be one at this time either. After a bit, it's apparent that JB isn't getting up from the floor. He turns on the lights and sees no head wound nor blood? He gets his toy train track and pokes her in an effort to revive?
At some point, he returns upstairs and confesses to his parent(s)? This would explain the time gap between head blow and fatal strangulation. The parent(s) discover the unconscious JB and wrongly assume that she is dead. A plan is developed to cover up what BR had done with "Mind Reader" serving as a primer? PR foolishly incorporates her paint brush in the ligature and applies it, not aware that JB is still alive and leaves behind her fiber evidence. Then, she writes the RN with JR's approval, and they call for legal counsel, which advises the 911 call? "I am the mother." is not "her mother", and could logically refer to BR as well.
This is leaving out the redressing. But hey - I don't have all the answers! To be clear, this is just speculation. I am not firmly BDI. Loose ends prevail inevitably which ever way one turns.
proust20,
IMO, Christmas is intrinsic to the murder because it offers the
opportunity to JonBenet's killer, one not afforded at other times.
If you think JonBenet was sexually assaulted then you have the underlying
motivation.
JonBenet's death was not planned as the disorganized staging reveals.
The location for JonBenet's initial assault is likely to be her bedroom, unless she was sharing Burke's bedroom?
The case could be JDI with Patsy assisting. Yet why would the parents inject their son into a homicide staging along with unsuitable clothing, when everything required is available in JonBenet's bedroom?
The staging is intended to reflect that of JonBenet normally dressed for bedtime. The size-12's and Burke's long johns fail to accomplish this.
So the parents fail on staging 101 as there are red flags present.
It's safe to assume the parents did not redress JonBenet. Suggesting Burke Ramsey was responsible for this.
The parents likely arrived at the crime-scene (staged) late that morning, leaving them little choice but to re-locate JonBenet to the wine-cellar and sketch a ransom note, in the hope of obscuring which Ramsey actually killed JonBenet?
In other words your over-informed Burke Ramsey overplayed his hand, understandable in someone so young, he thought the size-12's were OK, and his long johns appropriate, ie. JonBenet is dressed.
We know why they are red flags, he did not, this is what let him down. The confirmation of this is in his interview with Dr. Bernhard, where he outlines what happened to JonBenet, i.e. he offers a sequential narrative that he cannot know anything about, assuming he is not involved.
Burke answering
"She was killed." is redundant as you can say the same about President Kennedy.
i.e. Burke had an alternative narrative to the one that actually took place, this is the one he can discuss publicly, the other one is buried deep in the recesses of his mind!
Over-informed indeed.
.