OK, I know you're doing a big post and discussion of FFJ today and I've been over there reading about the window in the train room. If you look in the photos of the shelf in the train room, under the Death on the Nile poster, there is a can of Dr. Pepper. Something like that could break a window and make a mark. Just how big is the hole in the window? Big enough for a mans hand to reach through? At that angle? Without getting cut?
The hole is big enough to put a hand through. Many of us can't register at FFJ (I don't know if registration is closed or one needs a special invite or what) so we may as well discuss it here.
What JR is trying to do about the window is to "unstage" it as a point of entry.
The window well still has dirt/debri that clearly has not been slid across as someone came in on their belly or butt. There is some disturbance, but nothing like we'd see if someone came in that way. The grate is in place, and the spider web on the grate is intact.
When questioned, months after the murder, JR doesn't quite remember the details of how he got in, even though he admits he may have stripped to his underwear and put his shoes back on and kicked the window and slithered into the window well.
JR also can't quite remember why he didn't have a key. He might have driven himself home -in which case he'd have the garage door opener. Then again he may have taken a cab, he doesn't quite recall. The Barnhills had a key, but he supposedly didn't want to wake them. He didn't have the foresight to realize he didn't have his key and call the Barnhills and have them leave a key under the mat.
He may or may not have gained entry to the house through that window on more than one occasion, he doesn't exactly recall.
If I took a cab, didn't have my key, had to stand in my yard taking off my clothes down to my underwear, put my shoes back on, kicked my window out and slithered in through the window well, I'd damn well remember doing it, and how I did it. Especially if I'd done it more than once.
Obviously millionaires don't live through half a Colorado winter with a hole in the window. It's right there in Burke's train room. There are pieces of glass found the morning of the 911 call. If JR broke the window during the summer then 1) it would have been fixed before Christmas, and 2) the glass would have been swept up. LHP doesn't recall the window being broken. (This would be a great question for BR, if we could be sure of an honest answer)
Most likely then, JR broke the window the night of the murder. He had broken it to make it appear an intruder came in that way, but he had not completed the staging when PR made the 911 call.
What JR is doing the morning of the 26th, the morning of the 911 call, is to "unstage" the window as the point of entry. The police see the window and conclude that there is no sign of forced entry. JR knows that no one will believe his incomplete attempt to stage the window as the POE for the intruder, so he makes up the story about breaking it during the summer when he didn't have a key. Otherwise it's going to look like he broke the window to fake an entry point for the fictional kidnapper -which is exactly what he did. He knows the body will be found. He knows if they find the body and he claims the window is where the intruder came in, he's cooked. So he "unstages" by making up a story. He tells FW this so FW won't be suspicious about it. It's not clear if JR tells the cops about this on the morning of the 26th, but by the time they interview him, they ask about the window, so they know about the "I forgot my key" story.
If JR wanted the police and FW to believe an intruder came in through the window the night before, then he obviously would not claim he'd broken the window on a prior occasion.
Even if he wanted the police to think a previously broken window was a perfect opportunity for the kidnapper it's obvious no one came in that way the night before. JR knows this and so "unstages" the window as the POE.
See DocG's analysis starting here for more details.
http://solvingjonbenet.blogspot.com/2012/08/clear-evidence-of-staging-basement.html