I saw this programme last night and had a look at the ransom note myself (and that's how I found this discussion). I've studied some psychology and have some experience with people with mental health issues and there were a few things about that note that struck with previous experience. 1. the long-winded story telling is so child like. It sounds like a socially and emotionally immature person telling their mum some elaborate lie to cover their back. Perhaps the authorities were not looking in a young enough age group (e.g under 18) Only a young person would think $118000 dollars is a lot of money to demand in a ransom, surely?! 2. There are quite a few phrases and paraphrases from movies (Speed, Dirty Harry), fbi files type shows etc which again makes me think of a younger person who has little life experience and had to draw on movies & tv to construct the note. 3. Some of the language used, the punctuation used and the deliberate attempts at mispelling suggest the person may be socially immature, but they are probably at quite a good academic level. 4. The changes in the handwriting and writing style somewhat indicated disjointed thoughts, but I don't think this person was in a panic. I think they felt angry and manic. I also think there was genuine venom aimed at John. 5. I think the sign off "Victory! S.B.T.C" strikes me as some kind of attempt at superiority, perhaps indicative of some manic thinking (delusions of grandeur)? 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. There are numerous words used that suggest someone with an IT background and as that was John's business ..I can't help but wonder if they looked closely enough at ex-trainees or employees there. Also the $118000 was the amount of a bonus awarded to John that other employees would know about. Overall, I do think the police's almighty cock-ups in this case have screwed the chances of ever catching this person. Unless their DNA ends up in the system, we will probably never know. Which is a horrible cloud for her surviving family members to live under.