The Complaint: 3

Still waiting for more action on the lawsuit front. So far no word from CBS as to how they plan to respond. If I see something new, I'll add more commentary here.


P.S.: Just now I read a very thoughtful and convincing comment, placed under an older thread where it may well be missed by most reading here. (NB: always try to post your comments in the most recent thread where everyone can easily find them.) I decided to post it here for all to see, along with a (somewhat revised) version of my response.

AnonymousJanuary 14, 2017 at 11:44 AM

It's your habit of seeing it from one perspective that makes it hard for you to accept other possibilities.

The note works just as well after chickening out (from dumping the body) as it does for the original plan. It works precisely because it doesn't make any sense in a conventional way.

The only thing "incriminating" about the note would be the handwriting. And your work on that topic has shown strongly that we can't really say who wrote it, based on handwriting.

All that's left, with regard to the note, is logic. There's conventional logic then there is something we might call Mega-logic, or overall logic. What was needed wasn't a logical reason for a kidnapper to leave such a note, as well as leaving the body behind. What was needed was the creation of confusion, the inability to pin it on one or the other, or make sense of why they'd do it that way if they were both in on it. This is the overall logic.

After chickening out, they were going to end up with the body being found in the basement. One or both may have realized that the note, written for plan A still works for plan B, because, as you point out, why would PR call 911 with the body in the basement if she did it? PR is off the hook.

JR is off the hook too. Why would he allow PR to find the RN? If he were acting alone he'd have maintained control of the situation. He'd have found the note and he'd have made it very clear that they were not to call 911. It's far less likely PR would have called if JR had found the note and took command of the situation. While it's possible PR foiled JR's plan, it's equally possible they realized the note still works to create uncertainty as to who did what. In that case there is no harm in PR calling 911.

Some call, to someone, had to be made and not too long after 6am. They could have cancelled their flight for any reason, or no reason, but if they hadn't called the pilot he'd have called them.
At some point, early that morning, they were going to have to wake up and find the note, and with the flight scheduled when it was, they didn't have much leeway. The 911 call needn't have been placed, just the call to the pilot, but that would establish that they were up and that they must have found the note. Since they chickened out about dumping the body, there was no reason to delay the inevitable.

The IDI case isn't as weak as you believe. It's not hard to believe someone came in w/o leaving a trace of themselves. With PR supporting the broken window story, there's an obvious point of entry. The legions of IDI theorists out there makes it clear that it's not completely implausible to many people.

The body may have been placed in the store room precisely because it would be harder to see. A casual inspection of the basement would not find her. Indeed the police and FW both failed to find the body. The R's have a plausible reason for not finding her. And why would they even bother searching since the note makes it clear she's been abducted?

What "The Ramseys" needed isn't complete absence of any evidence linking them to the crime; that would be nearly impossible. What they needed was reasonable case for IDI, and a state of confusion as to why certain things would have been done if PR acted alone, as opposed to JR acting alone, as opposed to PR and JR working in concert. That's the Mega-logic that they may well have used to their advantage.

Of course your theory is possible too. I'm not arguing that you are wrong, just that you may not be right. 

My response:

DocGJanuary 14, 2017 at 1:02 PM

I appreciate the critical thinking that went into this post, and sure, as you suggest, all sorts of alternatives are possible. However: I do think it best to seriously consider the simplest explanation first, before we go off on all sorts of tangents to consider more complex alternatives. John is abusing his daughter, and concerned that she might expose him, decides to kill her -- and writes a phony ransom note to stage a kidnapping, planning to use the warnings in the note as an excuse to not call the police. Naturally, he says nothing to his wife about what he's done. He assumes the warnings will dissuade her from calling the police until he's been able to remove the body from the house. She calls 911 anyhow, the body is found, and as a result both he and his wife become the chief suspects in their daughter's death.

For me -- and believe me I've studied this case from every conceivable perspective -- this is not only the simplest scenario, but the ONLY scenario that explains literally every mystery associated with this case. Other scenarios might seem possible, but when you consider all the evidence then sooner or later they veer off into the bizarre, too unlikely to be believed.

My theory explains the contents of the note, Patsy's early 911 call, the conflicting reports as to whose idea that was, the body hidden in the basement, John's finding the basement window open and then closing it without telling anyone, John's unbelievable story about breaking that window earlier, and then being unable to recall whether it had ever been repaired, the handwriting evidence (which as I've demonstrated looks a lot more like his than hers), the refusal of "the Ramseys" to cooperate with the police for months, and finally, it relieves us of the need to explain why one spouse would want to help the other cover for his or her actions in taking the life of an especially beloved and cherished daughter. And if one prefers to believe they'd be willing to cover for their son if he did it,  then one must still explain why they would do it by staging in such an extreme and brutal manner, involving vaginal penetration, strangulation with a "garotte," the hiding of the body in a cold and filthy basement room (for no reason), and the writing of the longest ransom note in history. And then calling the police on themselves in such a manner as to cast doubt on the document they worked so hard on, and hand the police a piece of valuable evidence as to the identity of the person who wrote it.

If you can come up with a believable scenario that takes all the above into account, I'd be more than happy to post it.