@Meara
Your above outlined possibilities concerning the RN are well reasoned. There is the outlier view exposed by Pat Brown that Burke was the author, and that he copied his mother's writing style. That intruder(s) wrote the RN is typical of IDI contortions.
I'm glad you brought this up. Burke did well in school and played sports but had difficulty with handwriting. It's one reason I discount Pat Brown's theory that BR wrote the note. It's also one of the details of the case which, when considered with others, makes me think he is on the autism spectrum, since that problem is among the symptoms of ASD in males.
The RN warned that the family was being "monitored". If the Rs deemed the RN as genuine, they displayed exceptional courage in contacting LE without reflection. Also, the ransom amount of 118k indicated that S.B.T.C had inside knowledge about John, which ought to have given him pause, if he were indeed under surveillance. John's security links to LM should have cautioned him professionally. Workaholic instantly forgets the responsibilities of his lucrative business?
You raise interesting points. I'm not sure courage was involved. PMPT reports that JR told a British TV host he decided to call the police because he realized he and PR didn't have the resources to close the airports and block the roads. The statement suggests that his first choice was to obey the kidnappers, but he was afraid a foreign faction would try to take JBR far away or out of the country. Is any of this true; or, is it something he thought up to tell police in case they asked and then used to embellish/reinforce the foreign faction narrative on the talk show? We should suspect the latter. By his own account, JR had barely begun to read the note when he told PR to dial 911. So when did he make that crucial decision? To me, this complication indicates JR knew the RN’s contents before 5:52 AM, that he and PR had planned how the discovery/911 call scene would unfold, and that JR was prepared to spin the foreign faction ruse, as needed. I say this because, although calling police to get the airports and the roads out of Boulder sealed was supposedly the basis for one of the most important decisions of his life, and were “the first thoughts that went through his mind,” they must have gone fast and out the other side, because nowhere in the accounts of that morning are they ever mentioned.
I used to think it was very significant that JR didn’t notify Lockheed but have changed my mind. People are supposed to read everything in their hiring contracts and the employee manual, but few actually do, even though they sign off on it. Most people read the most important parts and skim through the rest, knowing that much of it is information they’re unlikely to need and can easily look up if they ever do. You’re right, though; several factors should have made him put 2 and 2 together. And didn’t.
Good luck in hunting down the details of how Patsy gave her husband the RN! The lack of their fingerprints (or anyone's) on it is not proof of dissembling; but, it is noteworthy, and similar in this regard to the MagLite and its batteries.
Thanks! Their accounts are all over the place! However, this fits with my theory that they agreed on the central elements of the discovery/911 call scenario but didn’t work out all the details. This would explain why they are clear on the same points and vague on the same points
Inevitably, the RN is connected to the timeline. As it took 25 minutes to write as is, the latest it could be begun was around 5:25am, in order for PR to place her 911. There is the Practice Note, as well as torn out pages from inside Patsy's pad, on which the note was written. How much more time? It cannot be said with certainty that PR 'discovered' or 'found' the RN. Her doing so is just part of the official scenario. So, Patsy finds the note, gives it to JR, and they call BPD at once, before either of them searched the house. When PR was with the operator, did JonBenet's father run around frantically calling her name? -JONBENET! WHERE ARE YOU? - (Oh, that might wake up Burke.) - LA had to instruct daddy to search the house from "top to bottom".
Yes. Especially the point that we don’t know for sure whether PR found the note on the stairs. I don’t think she did. Lots to say about this. For another post…
Patsy dialed 911 at the very last plausible moment before the morning flight out of state. Whether she knew or not that the RN was bogus, she failed to mention JonBenet by name during the call ("I'm the mother."/"She's blonde.")
A detail that troubles us all. My goodness, if you call the animal shelter to see whether they have your lost dog, you tell them its name! Patsy being center stage? Afraid she'd come undone if she said JonBenet's name? Distancing?
An odd aspect is that the RN has no connection to the WC tableau. The note is from greedy terrorists, yet the scene suggests a pedophile. S.B.T.C was not scrawled on the walls. There was no message to fat cat Mr. Ramsey. Assuming that the RN were written after the murder, why not try to explain what had to be found? If the chronic SA were intrinsic to the killing, why incorporate a final assault involving PR's brush as staging. Even if not staging, it betrays awareness about what had been occurring with JB. Why make apparent what you wanted to obscure? The disconnect could be the result of overlapping or putative scenarios? Or one hand not knowing what the other was doing in the limited time available? Another IDI contortion is that the FF just chanced upon a child, who was already a SA victim.
This is really interesting. It has been noted that ransom kidnappers and pedophiles have different motives, and that the two types don’t coincide; and that the baffling staging may be the work of two different people. But I haven’t seen these ideas before. "...the RN has no connection to the WC tableau." “Why make apparent what you want to obscure?” That framing might apply to other aspects of the case.
