In-Depth Discussion of Kolar's Book "Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet?"

JonBenet had to be hit with a force large enough to cause failure of the bone structure due to punching shear. Force equal mass times acceleration (thank you, Isaac Newton), so the object delivering the force had to either be travelling fast enough, or be heavy enough, to cause this failure. Bumping into a counter or falling on the floor wouldn't have done it - those actions could have caused a concussion, but not that depressed skull fracture with the long crack emanating from it.

I don't think there were heavy weights around the house; so it's more likely that something travelling fast did the deed, something that could be raised high enough and swung fast enough to cause the speed required to create the failure of the skull bone. Golf club, flashlight, possibly but less likely a shower head.

Since 1996 the biomedical engineering field has greatly expanded. Someone could analyze the failure pattern on her skull and figure out how it failed, and figure out the ranges of object weight and object speed could have caused the failure. If the skull is available (is it available?) it could be but under a scanning electron microscope to see microfractures, and estimate the direction of the applied force as well.

Way out of scope for this case, however. All this goes in the dish holding Dr. Henry Lee's "rice already cooked."

 

If the crime had happened today, someone would be in jail, I feel sure. Well, unless it really was Burke, in which case, he would be removed from the home for treatment. John and Patsy would probably plead and get probation. Then again, it was BOULDER CO. Never mind.

 

What about JonBenét being thrown with full force by Patsy Ramsey in a rage against a bathtub, sink or toilet? Wombat? She was just a little six year old!

Detective Steve Thomas also thought this was a possibility! (?).

 

I don't think the JonBenet's bathroom was big enough for Patsy to throw her with the momentum (mass times velocity) to cause this injury. Patsy was no bruiser. And since she was a little six year old, IMO her body alone didn't have enough mass to develop the force required to smash the hole in her skull, unless she was swung around somehow.

 

You got that right. Also if it had happened in an urban area with cops who would have slapped them into separate squad cars for a nice morning drive, and district attorneys who knew how to charge crimes. Didn't they even watch Law & Order?

 

No, it's not available because the Ramseys buried JonBenet as fast as they could and have refused to authorize her exhumation under the excuse of "she is at rest." It kind of goes against their stated Christian beliefs that JonBenet is no longer in the shell of a human body and in heaven, doesn't it? If exhumation would help solve JonBenet's murder and lead to punishment of her killer, you'd think the Ramseys would jump at the chance.

Oh wait.

They don't want that, do they, for obvious reasons.

 

Obviously, the physics of the skull fracture is key to understanding how JonBenet's head injury occurred. Mass times acceleration equals the force needed to punch a hole in JBR's skull and crack it all the way to her forehead. JonBenet weight 46 lbs. at the time of her death. If we could determine the amount of acceleration needed from her weight and the forced required to produce a head injury like the one JBR incurred, then it would help us know how big of a space, how big of a weapon and how big of an assailant was involved, right?

Maybe we could find examples of similar head injuries with known weapons and amount of force that would help us determine an approximate number to include in our equation ... or am I out in left field with all the other English and History majors?

 

JR's wool shirt fibers were only found inside JB's panty crotch, and not on her vaginal area as far as I know. The dark fibers found on JB's vaginal area and upper thighs were said to be dark (blue?) cotton, not wool.
There was a navy terrycloth bathrobe belonging to JR that was found in a den. There may also have been dark terry towels in the home. I do not recall seeing whether the robe or any towels were tested to match those fibers and I have never seen it said that the fibers found in the "wiped-down" area matched JR's wool shirt.

 

I would think if Patsy was in a rage, JonBenét would have been thrown with force, for sure!

 

IMO, wombat, I believe the right kind of fall could knock out a piece of skull. It would need to be a fall with a whipping type of action like where JBR is resisting being pulled and the attacker loses grip and she whips back hitting her head against a blunt object.

But, I no longer hold this possibility out as much as I used to because I have a different perspective on where the skull depression was located. I used to think it was just a little above the right ear but I now understand it to be closer to the crown of the head. I think it would be harder for a whipping type of fall to strike the head in this area.

A golf club or baseball bat would be the item most likely to cause this skull depression because of the leverage afforded by this long instrument. One can generate a great deal of force by the long handle.

I'm not even sure a flashlight would do it unless it was wielded by one strong human being and, if it were, surely it would have broken the glass lens.

 

Exactly.

 

DeeDee, this is what I believed, but Dear BobC challenges that, saying that the cops might have just used that up to hardball-interview JR:

I looked through Thomas's book and Kolar's book and it's not mentioned. Since Kolar goes into depth on Patsy's jacket fibers scattered throughout the crime scene, tangled up in the garrotte, etc, but nothing about John's shirt fibers. So now I think that either BobC has something here, or the shirt fiber evidence is under the grand jury double-secret publicity ban.

I am interested in the opinions here that the cover-up was first staged by someone gentle and caring, and then finished by someone cold and callous. That makes things clearer to me than ever.

In the meantime, the gentle one went downstairs to write a novel, touch up her make-up, and make some phone calls to throw together a little impromptu breadfast gathering. You know, some neighbor couples, a dude you want to implicate, and the cops. In photo 7 on page 49 of Kolar's book it looks like someone had made a plate of bagels while they were waiting for the kidnap call, right next to the flashlight.

 

I have never seen anything about JR's fibers being anywhere they shouldn't have been except for the exchange in the police interview. AND I recall that Ramsey got furious when that was said--coming out of Ice Man mode. I think he was angry because he took great care to ensure that no trace evidence from him was on that body.

Notice JR was taking a shower when naive Patsy was still in the get-up from the night before.

 

He probably did take a shower, AFTER all was finished and BEFORE the 911 call was made. No way did he "bound" down the stairs and crouch on his hands and knees on the floor in his underwear!!!! Why in the world did Patsy make up THAT scenario, I wonder???

 

What if JR really tried to frame Patsy and that is why her fibers are all over the crime scene?

 

Heymom

I'm not sure how long you've been on the forums for this case, but a few of us noticed that any time we discussed something that came out in the press as not making sense in the Ramsey's stories, suddenly the Ramseys changed their story on the matter.

Case in point: Early on it came out that there were no finger prints on the ransom note. Right away, I and others said wait a minute--if John and Patsy read the ransom note, why would their fingerprints NOT be on it? Naturally if you find a ransom note in your home, most sane people would pick it up and read it--and leave finger prints on the note.

Next thing you know, the Ramseys were suddenly talking this garbage about how they read the frikkin' note on all fours. That was their explanation for their prints not being where they should have been.

 

I've been a member here since 2006 (although I'm not sure that is accurate, it seems like longer), so relatively late in the game. I followed the case for a while, but then got caught up in raising my own kids. My older son was 5 when JonBenet was murdered, so I was quite horrified and felt a connection to her. I knew her parents were lying the minute I saw them on TV. I had no idea why they were lying but I knew they did know who did this to their little girl. But I trusted the legal system to do its job and I assumed that the truth would surface before long.

Boy was I wrong.

So you are saying, that someone or some people who read this forum, take the information they see to the Ramseys?

Then there must be some trepidation in the Ramsey camp now that Chief Kolar's book has been published and the people who were convinced that PDI, are now leaning toward BDI.

 

Bob,

I remember reading Patsy Ramsey handed the ransom note to John, and he then spread it on the floor which was absolutely ridiculous. Why not a table where one could sit and read it, instead of down on his hunkers reading it on the floor. Their fingerprints had to be on those three pages somewhere (?). I've never understood this Bob! Plus, he had to know is wife was the author and the one act play was concocted for her to call 911 and he knew about it, of course, but their mini play had to be acted out. And so on and so forth and the Ramseys lived happily together for a short length of time. The End

 

Only Patsy's prints were found on the note. Im sure the "JR kneeling in his undies looking at the note spread out on the floor" was pure fiction.

In Kolar's book, he specifically stated that all forensic specialists agreed that JB was hit WITH something as opposed to being slammed into or falling on something. I agree, and frankly am always surprised that there is so much resistance to this. There were several potential bludgeons in the home too, the flashlight, several baseball bats, and several golf clubs.
That hole and massive fracture did not come from a fall or being slammed into something. Slamming could cause a fracture, to be sure, but not THAT kind of fracture.

 

That makes sense.

Maybe the resistance is because it's easier to think the head blow was an accident - a fight or scuffle that got out of control - rather than the alternative - that a family member (Burke IMO) deliberately attacked this little girl with a weapon.

For myself, I was trying to exhaust all "accident" scenarios before being convinced that BR killed JBR on purpose. Yeah, maybe it was an "unintentional" rage reaction, but to go to the trouble of picking up a heavy weapon and going after her... doesn't seem very "unintentional" to me.