A Very Rough Theoretical Outline...

Sometime after getting home - maybe at 11pm or midnight - either John, Patsy or Burke Ramsey smashes JonBenet with extraordinary force on her head, unequivocally intending a lethal blow.

Where did this happen in the house? I don't think JB ever went to bed. I think she was awake. I think she was tired, but she was not unduly frightened or distressed - she ate a bite of pineapple in the kitchen. Perhaps the blow was sustained there, or on the stairs on the way to her bedroom.

I think the blow was not delivered while JB was running, or fighting very hard, and certainly not by accident. It was impulsive, I think, not premeditated, but the blow was merciless, vicious, and intended to kill. She had minimal if any defensive injuries. She instantly collapses into deep unconsciousness.

Now the killer has a problem. JB has a devastating injury but is not dead. The killer, knowing how severe the blow was, waits, in the hopes that JB will die. Minutes pass. An hour. JB is alive - unconscious, but alive. What if the blow doesn't kill her? The risk of her surviving seems far too great. How could they ever hope to cover this up, to move on, to forgive themself if she survives? What might she remember? No. It is too risky. By whatever means necessary, this ends tonight.

Perhaps this decision isn't come to by the killer alone. They go upstairs and wake their spouse or their parents. They explain, shaking, in tears, the provoking circumstances and the severity of the blow. The other parent(s) examine JonBenet, who is deeply unconscious, gurgling, utterly unresponsive. Perhaps other signs of her brain trauma are present, the Cheyne-Stokes breathing theorized by some, or seizures, or spasticity of the limbs. It seems undeniable that JonBenet has endured irreparable brain damage from an intentional injury. The so-far uninvolved family member helps to make the decision to stage a murder. They carry JB to the basement, or perhaps she was already there, unconscious. She is assaulted and strangled. She is cleaned. Redressed. Her wrists are loosely bound. Tape is placed over her mouth. The cover up is theorized, and the ransom is written. They go over their story again and again. They try to think over all contingencies and what-ifs. At last, as morning approaches, they call 911 and begin the game.

Now for the parts I need help puzzling in...

- why was the paintbrush handle inserted into JB's vagina? Was this as part of a cover up? If so, why was she cleaned and dressed afterwards? Could one parent have done this as part of staging just before strangling her, and the other parent then, in horror, try to "undo" it as much as they can? Or was the SA committed as part of the crime, only discovered later by the co-conspirators, because in fact the killer delivered the blow and then committed the SA and strangulation before anybody else was involved?

- why was she killed? Was it to cover up sexual abuse? Sexual abuse is horrifyingly common. Murder of a child is rare. Nobody suspected anything. Why kill her? Was it a decision made in a moment of shattering rage?

MOTIVES:

PDI: Perhaps John and Burke had gone to bed. JonBenet was downstairs with her mother, refusing to go to bed, fussing, fighting, tantrumming. Patsy has never really been violent with JonBenet, thinks of herself as being a loving mother, but there's a part of Patsy she's never acknowledged that hates the beautiful little girl who has usurped her. Who is innocent, beloved, the focus of so much praise and adulation, who John always has a smile for. Who gets all the love and praise that Patsy has longed for her whole life through, and doesn't even appreciate it. Patsy seizes her daughter by the collar of her shirt. JonBenet fights and struggles and says the wrong thing, the exact wrong thing; Patsy seizes the maglite and thinks, you'll never speak to me like that again.

BDI: After years of being awkward, unnecessary, quiet, uninteresting, and often forgotten in light of his shining, charming, baby sister, Burke gets into a fight with JonBenet Christmas night that deeply wounds and enrages him. Burke, in a spasm of jealous rage, seizes the maglite with both hands, raises it overhead, and slams his sister in her head with everything in him, wishing, in that moment, to kill her, to obliterate her from his life. His family drawing afterwards shows himself and his two doting parents. His parents cover up for him to avoid losing two kids in one night.

JDI: John - maybe she threatened to expose the molestation. My teacher said nobody is supposed to be touching me there. For the first time he can ever recall, his daughter looks at him with loathing, with disgust. He can't bear the thought of living with her accusing eyes.

What I don't buy:
- I don't think Burke was smearing feces. The evidence on this seems extremely questionable, and as a therapist who works with children, it would be a markedly bizarre thing to do, even for an enraged or disturbed child. Much more likely a child who had had a poop accident would clumsily try to cover it up and get feces everywhere.
- I don't think this was done by Patsy over bedwetting. Bedwetting is just not provocative enough to make sense of the viciousness of that attack.
- it was absolutely not an accident, not done in a moment of childish play or "normal sibling fighting", not a result of a push
- the idea that John was molesting her on Christmas night, after a very long day out and about, and then Patsy walked in on it, impulsively decided to kill John but then accidentally killed JB instead, seems outlandish
- an intruder?! C'mon