JonBenét Ramsey Case: My Theory & Key Questions

[Lebowski]

imo, there's a little bit of a puzzle about why there wasn't snow coverage on the pavement. the snow had fallen, and there was a thin blanket on non-pavement. it would have fallen on the pavement too! and the temperature had never come above freezing (or even close) during the night, so it shouldn't have melted.

i suspect it was a very light, powdery snow, and it just sat on the pavement rather than "sticking" like they were in wet contact. both of those are things that tend to happen when the temperature is double digits below freezing, as it was. and, if that's the case, it could have blown and "drifted" off to the sides of the pavement. piled up against the edge of the grass, etc. even if the average wind speed had been low that night, i think even the slightest breeze could have swept aside a thin layer of powder snow. my guess is that's what happened.

 

[Meara]

wow, thank you

I meant *I* was going to do the deep dive, I wasn't asking you to!

note to self. here's how to manipulate meara into doing work for you...

I was bemused by your comment, so I went back and reread the preceding comments to get the flow of the conversation. That's when I discovered that, somehow, I had missed your comment about doing a deep dive into the snow issue! Haha! Obviously, we'd both reached the same conclusion, that it would be helpful to have the info, or most of it, collected in one place. So hold on to those thanks. I inadvertently preempted you!

 

[Lebowski]

...

The question has come up in the past: JR said the basement was overheated. Could heat escaping from the broken window have melted the snow around the grate? I don’t think so. Below is a link to a photo of the grate area covered with snow (just the link. The photo is very large!). It is not a BPD crime scene photo despite the label. It was taken some time after 12/26/96, in the afternoon, in bright sun, when the temperature would have been near its peak for the day. There is no discernible melting. If the snow around the grate under these conditions didn’t melt, then IMO the snow there on the morning of Dec. 26th - in 5 degree weather, with no sun - didn’t melt from warm basement air, either.
https://shakedowntitle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1-fullscreen-capture-20161221-075821-pm.jpg

I wish I could give you a date-stamped picture of the grate area with a light dusting of snow with no footprints. 404 - File Not Found. Oh well. However! – the meteorological data and the comparison photo are consistent with Sgt. Reichenbach’s statements, and his statements are not contradicted by those of any other officers at the scene that morning who inspected the exterior of the house. Additionally, and very significantly, it was the absence of footprints in the snow around the grate (and other possible points of entry/exit) that most reinforced the responding officers’ suspicion of JR and PR - this despite the family’s prominence and the all but certain advice before they left the station to handle the Ramseys with kid gloves. They weren’t suspicious based on “maybe.” They must have been very sure about the missing footprints, footprints no intruder could have failed to leave. That’s not a smoking gun. But it’s really close.


JMO but, given the documented snow/window evidence and information (before we even get to the spiders), and the lack of debris on the train room floor, I think any viable IDI theories have to include a means of entry other than the train room window.

SBM, BBM

i'm skeptical of this just in terms of the physics. heat or hot air (two different things) escaping from the window would have a negligible effect on snow resting on the bedding outside the window well, compared with the effects of the ambient air. my furnace blasts hot gasses out its exhaust, and that doesn't stop icicles from forming on a metal screen a few inches in front of it. (they actually form *because* of it, due to the water vapor in the exhaust.) the only examples i've ever seen where an exhaust vent can significantly melt snow and ice over an area a few feet wide are the giant steam pipes sticking out of the ground at, e.g., college campuses, where they use a centralized boiler and a pipe system to heat the radiators in all the buildings.

 

[Meara]

SBM, BBM

i'm skeptical of this just in terms of the physics. heat or hot air (two different things) escaping from the window would have a negligible effect on snow resting on the bedding outside the window well, compared with the effects of the ambient air. my furnace blasts hot gasses out its exhaust, and that doesn't stop icicles from forming on a metal screen a few inches in front of it. (they actually form *because* of it, due to the water vapor in the exhaust.) the only examples i've ever seen where an exhaust vent can significantly melt snow and ice over an area a few feet wide are the giant steam pipes sticking out of the ground at, e.g., college campuses, where they use a centralized boiler and a pipe system to heat the radiators in all the buildings.

I was going for documentable-with-link and hadn't considered the physics. Your explanation goes deeper and supports BPD's statements that there was snow around the grate.

 

[Lebowski]

I should add that warm air escaping from the window would just rise straight up, not spill over sideways.

 

[Meara]

imo, there's a little bit of a puzzle about why there wasn't snow coverage on the pavement. the snow had fallen, and there was a thin blanket on non-pavement. it would have fallen on the pavement too! and the temperature had never come above freezing (or even close) during the night, so it shouldn't have melted.

i suspect it was a very light, powdery snow, and it just sat on the pavement rather than "sticking" like they were in wet contact. both of those are things that tend to happen when the temperature is double digits below freezing, as it was. and, if that's the case, it could have blown and "drifted" off to the sides of the pavement. piled up against the edge of the grass, etc. even if the average wind speed had been low that night, i think even the slightest breeze could have swept aside a thin layer of powder snow. my guess is that's what happened.

Yes, the dusting of snow would have fallen on the paved areas, too. But here's the catch: light snow tends to melt on pavement, even when the air temperature is very low. Earth science has the explanation. Paved surfaces absorb heat, and the ground underneath stays warmer than the ground under grass which remains exposed to the cold air. So, the heat retention and exchange between the walkways/patio and the ground explains why there was no snow on those surfaces. On Dec. 25th, the temperature in Boulder was above 40 degrees around 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM, with a high of 54 degrees in the middle of the day; and the skies cleared between 12:00 PM and 2:30 PM. The milder temperatures and direct sun warmed the paved areas enough for them to melt the light snow as it fell during the frigid night. Additionally, the light snow fell on a lawn largely covered with about two inches of older snow whereas the paved areas were already clear of snow. Based on my experience of living in the Northeast, I'd bet the snow didn't accumulate at all but melted within moments of contact. JBR's balcony had an undisturbed layer of frost, which suggests that it was cold enough to retain any snow the wind might have blown in. However, Sgt. Reichenbach didn't note any signs of snow on the balcony; i.e., it doesn't appear that the wind was blowing the snow around.