My theory of the JonBenét Ramsey murder

[snarast]

The parameters we have came directly from the Ramseys themselves.

PR was on the phone in the kitchen. The RN was on the floor in the hallway with JR on his knees reading it.

When she found the note, she only read the first line and maybe part of the 2nd line, then she bounded back up the stairs to check JB's room. JB was not there, then she screamed for JR. At some point which neither of them has been able to make clear, she handed the note to JR so he could read it. He told her to call 911. She has repeated this numerous times and always contended she never read past the first couple of lines.

Ok - well I don’t know why JR and the note would not be portable?

They were obviously in shock - so the description they produce days after may be soso.

 

[Meara]

yeah, i think i knew they were episcopalian and/or presbyterian, and i had had the sense that mainline protestants like that aren't into stuff some might consider "loony", at least not in routine practice. DIY exorcisms, speaking in tongues, snake handling, etc. that's more the evangelicals and charismatics. right? but some of the things PR said and did sound more like the latter to me. was she raised as a pentecostalist, or something? or was she charismatic-curious at the time?

I think you may be on to something. I don't know what PR's early religious training was. However, we do know she was heavily influenced by the book Healed of Cancer by Dodie Osteen, mother of televangelist Joel Osteen and a leader in Osteen Ministries. It's not a stretch to think that she absorbed some of their evangelical/charismatic theology and practice.

 

[CloudedTruth]

Ok - well I don’t know why JR and the note would not be portable?

They were obviously in shock - so the description they produce days after may be soso.

Not impossible, of course.

However Officer French detailed in his report how when he arrived that morning, JR took him directly to the note which was where JR and PR said he was reading it.....on the floor in the hallway. The pages were in pristine condition. No creases, no wrinkles, no fingerprints, no indication of being handled.

 

[snarast]

Not impossible, of course.

However Officer French detailed in his report how when he arrived that morning, JR took him directly to the note which was where JR and PR said he was reading it.....on the floor in the hallway. The pages were in pristine condition. No creases, no wrinkles, no fingerprints, no indication of being handled.

Ok well that does seem a bit sus.

 

[lonetraveler]

Honestly I can’t accept an IDI theory (without new evidence being uncovered somehow). Because there were very powerful well connected people desperate to pin this on some intruder and they never found one.

The Mary Lacy’s and Lou Smits of this case would have thoroughly investigated anyone who stepped foot into the ramsey home in the months leading up to the murder. Their IDI tunnel vision and the lengths they went to in order to find an outsider are well-documented.

Idk if James Kolar has it exactly right, I won’t argue that. His book implies that burke did it by accident or on purpose and Patsy (&likely John) aided in the coverup to protect him. But Kolar seemed to have the best handle on the evidence from the books i’ve read on this case.
Kolar was put in charge of the case for the DA’s office. After taking a year investigating and pouring through evidence, he went to DA mary lacy to present his theory (bc that was his literal job) and she said she was unwilling to damage her relationship with the ramseys by pursuing the evidence he wanted subpoenaed (Burke’s psych and medical records). And that was the end of that. She said bring me the intruder.

So, I try to imagine a district attorney and the lead investigator who preceded Kolar, Lou Smits, Hell-bent on proving the IDI theory. They have pressure to find this intruder coming from all sides- the Ramseys and their well connected friends, the mayor, the governor, etc all publicly wishing for this case to be closed and for this bogey man to be locked up so Boulder can go back to being perfect.

Smits et al had access to all the evidence, fresh witnesses, and the resources that allow flying suspects in from thailand to collect their dna. And they came up with nothing to tie an outsider to this crime.

The small amount of ‘outside male’ DNA in the brand new pair of underpants JBR was dressed in has lent weight to the IDI theory. This persists, despite the fact that, according to Kolar, investigators purchased several packages of underwear from the same brand and tested them off the shelf. Indeed, there was trace dna on many of them from the manufacturing process.

So, that’s why I say that I’m going to need a lot of new evidence to consider an IDI theory.

My view exactly!

 

[lonetraveler]

I go by what she specifically said, more than once. And when she was on the 911 call, the note was on the floor in the hallway being read by JR. She was on the phone in the kitchen. She wasn't scanning the note.

The interesting thing about the RN Imo is that it's all over the place. Yes, there is obvious vitriol and disdain directed towards JR, but it does also contain a brief moment of what can be termed a "maternal" tone. Some of the experts who examined the RN have noted that they thought it was written by a woman.

JMO but RN didn't have to scan the note to tell the 911 operator what was going on because she wrote the note.

 

[Meara]

Since we don’t have films of this it’s hard to say. To me it sounds like she is reading from the note. JR was right there listening and he could have shown her the SBTC moniker.

We just don’t have all the parameters here. [BBM]

IMHOO

No, we certainly don't! The truth is, we don't know what really happened that morning. The story we've been told could well be the story JR and/or PR rehearsed, knowing police would ask how they discovered JBR had been kidnapped. There are several clues (in PMPT, ITRI, police interviews) that point to a made-up story

• We have only PR's word that she found the ransom note spread across a stair step. Neither JR nor police saw it there. The famous photo of it in that location was taken later after PR reconstructed what she said she'd found. The photo was reprinted millions of times in the press without the disclaimer, firmly embedding the note-on-stairs/kidnapping narrative in the public's mind. The image is dramatic and arresting, even artistic, an invention one can easily associate with PR. And its influence is undeniable. To this day, even people who think RDI accept the note-on-stairs as real, though for all we know the note never left the counter top or table where it was written until PR or JR moved it to the hall floor.

• PR described having to step over the note to the stair step below so she could turn around and read the note. She said she screamed for JR, bounded up the stairs to look in JBR's room, met JR just outside the room, and went back down the stairs while he went to check on BR. When detectives tried to replicate PR's maneuver, they had to give up because it couldn't be done without risk of serious injury. How credible is it, then, that PR stepped over the note, not once but twice while descending the stairs and once while bounding up to JBR's room, which is what her story would have entailed? This raises the question of whether PR invented the scenario for effect, without trying it out, and that's why she didn't realize that stepping over the note wasn't actually possible.

• According to the narrative, both PR and JR handled the note, but neither of them left fingerprints on it.

• The narrative for the minutes between the finding of the note and the 911 call is very clear and concise; the parents' statements agree; and it never changed. This places it in sharp contrast to other parts of the story they told police that morning in response to questions they might not have anticipated as well. Some points remained fixed - JBR fell asleep in the car and remained asleep, JR and BR spent about 20 min. or so assembling one of his Christmas toys before BR went to bed. But other points - what time they arrived home, how exactly JBR was put to bed, e.g. - were more vague, diverged, or changed by the time of the police interviews four months later.

• In one of PR's police interviews, she retold the events of the morning of the 26th saying she took the spiral stairs down to the kitchen "to make coffee or whatever." The nonchalant wording leapt out to police as being disturbingly incongruent with the events she was relating. Again, this raises the question of whether the "morning of" narrative was true. Did PR sound indifferent to the story she was telling because it was invented and had already served its purpose/was no longer important to her, and because her feelings were attached to a true story she wasn't telling?

 

[887sMtreme]

It’s rare that I questio

Since we don’t have films of this it’s hard to say. To me it sounds like she is reading from the note. JR was right there listening and he could have shown her the SBTC moniker.

We just don’t have all the parameters here.

IMHOO

If she was reading from the note, surely she would have encountered the warnings about alerting the police (“she dies”). The only two explanations I have for why she disregarded those dire warnings are 1) she knew they were bogus because she (possibly with John’s help) made them up; or, 2) she actually hadn’t read through the whole note and never saw them. I lean toward the former. If the latter is true, though, surely John would have read them by the time Patsy was on the phone with 911 and would have interrupted to give this vital info to the 911 operator.

 

[snarast]

It’s rare that I questio

If she was reading from the note, surely she would have encountered the warnings about alerting the police (“she dies”). The only two explanations I have for why she disregarded those dire warnings are 1) she knew they were bogus because she (possibly with John’s help) made them up; or, 2) she actually hadn’t read through the whole note and never saw them. I lean toward the former. If the latter is true, though, surely John would have read them by the time Patsy was on the phone with 911 and would have interrupted to give this vital info to the 911 operator.

As a person who prefers reading the intro and the end of any publication first, her behavior makes sense to me.

 

[Cryptic]

DIY exorcisms, speaking in tongues, snake handling, etc. that's more the evangelicals and charismatics. right? but some of the things PR said and did sound more like the latter to me. was she raised as a pentecostalist, or something?

Yes, exorcisms and especially the DIY type would be the domain of evangelical and charismatic churches, not main stream protestants.

As @Meara mentioned, Patsy became more religious following her personal struggles with cancer. Furthermore, she came from a state (West Virginia) where such churches are part of the landscape- especially in the southern reaches of West Virginia. As a result, Patsy could well of developed a latent interest in exorcism and healing.

Getting speculative because I have never been a member of an evangelical church.....

I can see large evangelical churches (Southern Baptist type) performing selective exorcisms. My suspicion, however, is that they would have a quasi Catholic type vetting process before doing one ie Psychological possibilities, possibility of willful behavior, need for spiritual and secular counceling first, a senior minister must affirm the need etc etc.

DIY or "fast and furious" type exorcisms could well be the sole domain of small, fundamentalist evangelical / charismatic churches. This leads to two potential problems:

A. There would not be a lot of these churches in the ubber secular Boulder area.
B. They could be pretty shy and not inclined to perform such exorcisms for non members. No secrecy, just wary of investigative reporters, Child Services type people, prospective authors looking for book material, the casually curious with no interest in the religion etc.

So.... even if Patsy was inclined towards a fast exorcism, knew the cultural background etc, it might of been hard to find a church willing to do one for some one who would either by a non member, or a very casual member at best.

 

[Lebowski]

i guess what i was picturing was PR and/or JR attempting it themselves. that wouldn't require any church to sign on, just someone with the curious combination of being confident in their ability and right to step up into the role, yet being a very strong believer in a set body of beliefs that (i think?) says you can't just do that.

 

[CloudedTruth]

It’s rare that I questio

If she was reading from the note, surely she would have encountered the warnings about alerting the police (“she dies”). The only two explanations I have for why she disregarded those dire warnings are 1) she knew they were bogus because she (possibly with John’s help) made them up; or, 2) she actually hadn’t read through the whole note and never saw them. I lean toward the former. If the latter is true, though, surely John would have read them by the time Patsy was on the phone with 911 and would have interrupted to give this vital info to the 911 operator.

Yes. One would think that would be an extremely important part of the note / threat to convey. That discretion was needed in order to try to ensure the safety of the kidnapped child.

Further to this point, not only was none of that important information relayed, PR then proceeded to call the friends and get them to come over in addition to LE, ensuring a created scene that could not be ignored by anyone watching.