Wish I had responded to that back then. Not sure why I didn't. Oxy's a helluva drug..
You do make a good point on the immaturity of the note. For that brief moment when they hit the pause button on their obsession of the Ramseys they gave a look(not close enough) to a couple of teen boys in that neighborhood. I don't remember all the details. I do know that the crime scene is too complex and staged for that type which leads me back to the ransom note being a red herring.
The 'movie phrases' dots were connected immediately. All the pop culture references in the note were from movies that had been shown on cable TV in the weeks leading up to the murder. Hell, Speed would have been fresh in anyone's mind at that point.
Young person thinking 118k a lot of money? Doesn't matter. The clue is that was John's bonus.
Excellent point on the intentional misspellings, punctuation,etc. Once again I have two words....red herring.
"Disjointed thoughts"...unfortunately this did the Ramseys no favors. Two adults living in the house and the note MIGHT have been written by two people? Coincidence? Not sure but I still got a herring that's flaming red.
"I think the sign off "Victory! S.B.T.C" ".............is the guts of the herring. It means NOTHING.
" I can't help but wonder if the intention of the ransom note was truly meant to be a ransom note for her body, but that somehow their plan fell through when they were not able to take her body from the scene? Or perhaps when the person could not take her alive from the scene (not strong enough?) they decided to kill her in the home."
Now you're getting somewhere. I don't believe that but at least you're thinking. At least you think more than BPD ever did. Although I wish you'd come back so I could hear your theory on why ANYONE would murder a child, write a ransom note, then want to take the body so they can get a pile of money but they're too weak to carry the body. Sounds like a David Lynch- Coen Brothers- Takeshi Miike mind fuck. Here's the thing .....there was not and never was going to be a kidnapping. I will never understand the fixation on this damn note. One thing, we can never know the exact moment the note was written. We just cant. It cant be carbon dated. What we do know is that Jonbenet was already dead the moment the note was placed on the stairs. What purpose does the note serve at that juncture? It buys time. Had the killer known it would buy eternity they'd have dropped dead on the spot from laughter. That note was meant to buy several hours tops. How could it buy any more? Her body is downstairs! The killer didn't know it would take the cops 8 HOURS after being in the home to finally suggest someone have a peak in the basement.
On the subject of that basement, creepy as hell. That one pic years ago where the crime techs are photographing the home and they take a pic of that cellar door not knowing she is lying behind it dead is chilling. Why was Barney Fife put in charge of processing the scene?
".I can't help but wonder if they looked closely enough at ex-trainees or employees there".....they looked briefly. A few disgruntled workers but nothing panned out. Surprised?
One other thing...don't forget John Ramsey's words minutes after finding her body: "This is an inside job!" The comment and how so many family members/friends were gathered around caused the detective in the room to consider drawing her gun and counting her bullets. True story. Bat shit crazy.
One of the most interesting clues(shocker: cops don't care) is how John's best friend Fleet White had checked the basement earlier that day and swears he saw nothing in there. Like 5 or 6 hours later when the cops suggest the family "take another look around" John goes to the basement and finds her. This will never be explained.