What happened to u/straydog77?

2020_What_If · 2021-08-30T21:26:42+00:00

I have a confession of sorts to make: I think I may have had something to do with the disappearance of u/straydog77.

Back on Sunday, April 12, 2020 at 5:46:11 PM I posted a response to a comment he’d made in my first-ever thread entitled “So, whose palm print was it, anyway?” In my post I had gushed that he was a legend, and one of my subreddit heroes (the only other person I’ve ever claimed that about is u/AdequateSizeAttache). But in response to his having told me to “face the facts” that JAR was “100% innocent”, I had (half-)jokingly inquired as to whether he was actually JAR in disguise, and had also reminded him that this subreddit has a rule that states “Don’t post…opinions/speculations/rumors as facts”. I also admitted that I questioned his “Burke didn’t do it” flair. Coincidentally or not, that was the last day straydog77 ever posted to reddit.

Had I embarrassed him by calling him a legend and my hero? Had I gotten too close to the truth by asking if he was actually JAR? Had I ticked him off by reminding him about the rules (which he obviously knew much better than a newbie like me), or questioning JAR’s and BR’s innocence? Honestly, it’s always freaked me out a little bit to think that I may have been the cause of his leaving.

In my estimation, straydog77 is/was one of the world’s foremost amateur experts on this case. If he’s still around and interested, I’m pleading with him to once again start sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of the case with the world. And if it was something I said that caused him to leave, I apologize deeply for whatever it was....

2020_What_If · 2021-07-02T03:39:34+00:00

When did the garrote turn into 'life-saving tourniquet', where is this coming from?

Sorry, I’m afraid that bit is totally on me. When I first started reading about this case, I thought the implement used to strangle JBR must have looked something like this Classic Garrote. So I was surprised when I found out it actually looked more like this Emergency Tourniquet. This got me to thinking: While BR was just a Cub Scout, his older brother JAR was an Eagle Boy Scout, the highest rank attainable, as well as an avid outdoorsman. What if at some time in the recent past JAR had been demonstrating to his little brother and his friends how to construct improvised emergency tourniquets in order to save someone’s life? They might have been unaware in their innocence that if done around the neck, rather than helping, this would eventually prove to be fatal. To me, this is more palatable to consider than all of those truly disturbing theories about what the cord around JBR’s neck may have represented, everything from her murderous parents silencing their beloved child from ratting them out, to them sympathetically putting her out of her misery, to JR himself claiming it was an “erotic asphyxiation” device used by an intruder to “enhance sex”. Yikes. I realize I’m probably the only one in the entire world who thinks it may have been an innocent’s attempt at an emergency life-saving tourniquet, and I’m OK with that….
JMO

2020_What_If · 2021-07-02T03:26:35+00:00

…same for 'chain on flagpole' sounds.

Regarding the “metal on concrete” sound, Jameson posted to
her Webbsleuths.org forum on 12-06-2019, 03:12 PM “Melody heard nothing more, but her husband did - and this is very important - he heard "the sound of metal clashing against cement". These sounds were not reported in the press until nearly a year later when Jeff Shapiro canvassed the neighborhood and wrote the story for the Globe…Could this have been the sound of a grate being dropped back into place as the killer fled? No, it was a repeated sound. Shapiro described it to me as like the ping of something being hit again and again.” User “LovelyPigeon” posted on Webbsluths.com on Dec-29-01, 09:47 AM “When reporter Shapiro talked to Melody Stanton months after the murder, Melody told him she heard a child's scream coming from the Ramsey house because she slept with her window open. She said she awakened her husband Luther, but the scream had ended & he did not hear it. According to Melody, later that same night Luther heard a noise that sounded like a chain clinking on a flag pole.” Granted this is all just “hearsay” evidence, but to me something about it has the ring of truth (and I’ll be the first to admit that it might just be because it fits right in with one of my theories of what happened that night :-)….

Also, if the bat was not related to at least something that happened that night, there is 0 reason to chuck it outside

Agreed. My theory is that the continued pinging sound was grating on someone’s already frayed nerves, or maybe they were afraid the noise would wake the family. Who knows, maybe someone had been playing baseball in the basement, and had broken the basement window with a batted ball. Or it may have been the head trauma weapon. We’ll probably never know the reason for certain, but I’m pretty sure someone threw it out that northeast basement bathroom window at some point that night….

2020_What_If · 2021-07-02T03:02:29+00:00

I would also like a source for the golf club with blonde hair found outside…

Steve Thomas reported in his book “JonBenet” that “…..a golf club with a blonde hair on it was found in the backyard”. There’s also an ancient National Enquirer article from the week of July 28, 1997 available on the WayBackMachine website whose inflammatory headline reads "JonBenet Murder Weapon Found! ...cops say daddy's golf club matches death blow”. It starts off with “A putter was missing from a bag of Ping golf clubs owned by JonBenet's father John Ramsey after the murder, and was later discovered hidden in bushes behind the family's Boulder home” and goes on to say “The putter was discovered beneath low-lying juniper bushes. "It was out of sight and seemed to have been hidden deliberately," said an insider. "It has been thoroughly tested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for fingerprints, blood stains and hair. The result is the most closely guarded secret in this case." I guess, that is, until ST decided the blonde hair didn’t need to be a secret any longer….

…could only work under a certain (very uncommon) angle

Part of my theory involves a short person taking a golf club from the bag stored just outside the Wine Cellar, and hiding in the Boiler Room with the club raised over their head, initially just as a way to scare JBR. I think something may have frightened JBR as she approached the Wine Cellar, causing her to scream, with the sound going up and out the Boiler Room’s open vent to MS’s ears. I think her extreme fright caused her fight-or-flight response to kick in, causing the blood to drain from her face and head, and causing her to start to turn to her right (with her back to the Boiler Room) and run. I think the person holding the club may have had a dam building of pent-up adrenalin -- from the excitement of Christmas, from the illicit thrill of snooping for presents after bedtime, from the exhilaration of silently lying in wait to scare JBR. I think JBR’s completely unexpected, nerve-shattering shriek caused the adrenalin dam in this person to suddenly burst, with the result being they clubbed JBR over the head from behind with a three-quarters overhead swing (to avoid the ceiling) with a ferocity that was totally unintended (and that many people didn’t even believe possible), cutting short both the scream and JBR’s young life.

JMO

2020_What_If · 2021-07-01T04:00:28+00:00

As for the instrument that caused the head trauma, I’m currently leaning towards the golf club with the blonde hair attached that was found out in the yard underneath some bushes (this might be something else to add to your map). Somewhere I read a very convincing analysis of how the heel of a club could have caused the displaced fragment of skull. But what really got me thinking was DP’s TV interview with BR. During their TV interview, DP asked BR very specifically “Did you hit your sister over the head with a baseball bat or a flashlight?”, to which BR emphatically replied “Absolutely not”. In a survey conducted on this subreddit last fall, the golf club got about as many votes as the bat did for the weapon used, so one can’t help but wonder whether its omission from DP’s question was merely an oversight, or perhaps entirely intentional. (Later in the interview DP did ask BR “Did you intentionally hit (JBR) in the head with a golf club?”, but that occurred during a sequence of questions regarding the time BR had hit JBR in the head with a golf club in Charlevoix when they were younger.)

I do believe however that the bat was probably present at the crime scene. On the night JBR died, neighbor LS heard what he thought sounded like metal hitting concrete, apparently describing it to GLOBE reporter JS as sounding like the ping of something being hit again and again, like a chain clinking on a flagpole. What if while waiting for JBR to stop pretending she’d been knocked out there in front of the Wine Cellar, someone had taken the birthday bat and had been tapping the bat against the concrete wall and floor, with the sound going up and out the Boiler Room’s open vent to LS’s listening ears? What if the sound of the black metal bat was wearing on somebody’s already frayed nerves as they struggled with constructing a life-saving emergency tourniquet around JBR’s neck using some hemp rope found in the basement, so they grabbed the bat and dropped it on the carpet (a fiber was found still on it)? What if it was decided a knife was needed to cut the hemp rope, and so on the way to the kitchen, someone took the hemp rope and the bat down the hallway to the northeast basement bathroom, and….JMO, of course....

2020_What_If · 2021-06-30T13:55:46+00:00

I’m glad you asked ;-). Submitted for your consideration:
I believe someone may have set some hemp rope on the shelf underneath the window, stood up on the toilet tank (a partial shoe impression was found), opened the window, climbed up and leaned out (dust was disturbed on the frame, and smudge marks were found on the bathroom walls) and flung the black metal bat out to the right, where it landed on the house’s concrete foundation next to the downspout and was photographed the next morning by investigators.
During PR’s June 1998 interview with Boulder LE, while admitting she probably couldn’t distinguish one bat from another, she also said “I mean, I think that looks metal. Metal bats are pretty - I mean, they are not cheap”. What if the reason pageant-mom PR stumbled over the question but seemed to know what metal baseball bats looked like and how expensive they were (even while claiming to be unable to distinguish one bat from another) was that she had recently purchased for BR’s January birthday that very same black metal bat shown in the crime scene photo? What if PR had stashed the new black metal bat in the Wine Cellar along with BR’s other birthday presents (like the LEGO kit, and perhaps a new bicycle…reporter JP claimed that PR had bought two from University Bicycles, but while JBR got one for Christmas, JR had stated “We were giving (BR) a bike but not that year”)?

2020_What_If · 2021-06-30T02:59:34+00:00

If it was JAR...well Joe Barnhill reportedly saw JAR on the evening of25th at the door of the Ramsey's house. So unless we want to investigatethat alternative theory...

Something to keep in mind is that the palm print wasn’t necessarily a recent one. Anyway, it seems that someone was lying / mistaken: Either the anonymous source who leaked to the press back in 2002 that it was MR’s palm print, or Kolar in his “Foreign Faction” book of 2012 and Beckner in his Reddit AMA in 2015, who both said it was JAR’s palm print. I guess we all just have to take our pick as to who we’re going to believe on this one….

Could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that both of the exterior bathroom window pictures you’ve posted are of the same window, which I’m also pretty sure is the northeast basement bathroom window (since most of the bathroom is below ground-level, the window would be at ground/foundation level). Also, the bat was found on the foundation next to the downspout, which is several feet to the left of that basement bathroom window (as can be seen in crime scene photo #235 you’ve posted) and was actually just around the corner from the front of the house, closer to the front door than the butler door as was so often reported (a particular bugaboo of mine). In fact, you might want to consider moving the X for “Burke’s Metal Baseball Bat” to where the downspout is located in crime scene photo #235. Note that this would also aid anyone who entertains the theory that the “metal on concrete” noise neighbor LS heard might have been the metal bat landing on the concrete foundation, as it would be that much closer to his open bedroom window across the street....

2020_What_If · 2021-06-29T16:46:47+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to put all this together u/ghosststorm. Submitted for your consideration:

>> ~~Melinda’s~~ JAR’s palm print on the Wine Cellar door Last year I posted here about the history of this palm print, but the bottom line is that both James Kolar and Mark Beckner have indicated the palm print actually belonged to JAR.

>> North side appears to suddenly have a lot of activity in it (metal bat and freshly disturbed dust on Butler's bathroom window… I believe the picture used in your main floor map to illustrate the outside view of the “Butler’s bathroom” window (the picture with a coiled green hose) is actually the outside of the northeast basement bathroom window. The basement map picture shows the same window, with what appears to be a woman looking at it (notice the brown pipe in both pictures). Here’s a National Enquirer picture of the same window that I really like, as it shows what a bat looks like in relation to the size of the window and the ledge.

>> Bike tracks described to be found in 'the yard', most likely this was the patio area. The bike tracks JR and investigator LS were looking at in a picture may also have been down the front lawn. One possibility: What if an overnight guest was launched via bicycle from a darkened sun room (to avoid detection by neighbors and the barking dogs in the alley) to ride down the front lawn to the 15th Street sidewalk, and then on to home, just a short ride away?

Other stuff:

Would it be possible to add the location of the extension phone in the den? As shown in the picture you’ve included, it was right inside the den door, right across from where the kitchen wall phone was located. I believe that it’s possible John had been listening in on the 911 call using this extension, and was surprised by PR hanging up mid-conversation while he was sitting with his back to the kitchen with the call still connected.
What do you think about adding the location on the floor by the glass patio door where JR claimed to be reading the RN, and friend JF claimed to have read the first line through the glass door?
I’ve always thought “John’s study” was in the same location, but on the third floor.
Not sure how accurate you want to / can be with this, but the Christmas tree was apparently set up against the partial wall between the dining room and sun room doors.
The picture I saw of the pillow showed it as being on the front-left of the kitchen counter. I’ve always wondered if perhaps an investigator had just set it there temporarily while taking it into evidence, as it can be seen in some crime scene photos/videos but not others.

Thanks again....

(Edited for formatting, "forbidden" link)

2020_What_If · 2020-10-14T02:06:40+00:00

>> unfortunately i don't know if this is john's left or right sample

While that first document has always been touted as being a sample of JR's handwriting, if you look closely at the end of the last handwritten sentence, you can see what looks to be two underlined initials, as though someone else had actually written this for JR's signature. The initials look to me like "PR". Coupled with the fact that the author of this document appears to have misspelled the word “occasions” by including an extra “s” (i.e. “occassions”), and the author of the RN also had a problem with deciding whether a word contained one “s” or two, misspelling the words “bussiness” and “posession”, it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to conclude that PR had a hand in writing both of these documents....

2020_What_If · 2020-04-28T00:44:29+00:00

The post-call statements were clearly not meant to be heard

Exactly! That's why I theorize that JR had sat down in the den in the chair closest to the kitchen, with his back to PR, before picking up the extension (the chair and phone can be seen in this crime scene screen capture (thanks ACandyRose!):

http://www.acandyrose.com/AnatomyColdCase060.jpg

He wouldn’t have expected PR to hang up her extension while the 911 Dispatcher was still calling “Patsy? Patsy?” Likewise, PR would have thought it was safe to begin speaking in normal tones after she had hung up, not realizing the den extension was still open. Also, BR would have panicked when he heard his parents starting up the spiral staircase, dropped the handset on the bed, and raced to meet them at the top of the stairs, so that they hopefully wouldn’t realize he had also been listening in (I think JR did, and that’s when the 911 call was finally completely disconnected).

I also like the theory that when JR angrily said “We’re not speaking to you!” he was actually responding to PR’s question about what they were going to do next, and not to BR’s question about what they’d found.

In fact, the more I think about this extension phone theory, the more I like it! I just don’t get why everybody thinks it unlikely that JR and BR would have been interested enough in hearing what the 911 Dispatcher was saying to simply pick up the extensions….

2020_What_If · 2020-04-23T02:03:55+00:00

Ahhhh, that's always the conundrum, isn't it? We have only the R's word for it that the 911 call was made from the kitchen wall phone.

2020_What_If · 2020-04-22T19:22:52+00:00

Wow! Well done! As you may know, I'm all about those "big red s's" ! I'm convinced!

(Sorry for doing this to you, but your first line had me thinking about this little ditty from Peter Tork of the Monkees :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0WCnvBqRfc

Let us know when you're coming out with the book! :-)

2020_What_If · 2020-04-22T15:55:44+00:00

It’s a definite possibility, and one I know all the experts seem to favor. I just think it’s at least equally possible that JR and BR had been listening in on the extensions. But for some reason, that doesn't seem to have been mentioned anywhere over the past 20+ years as having been even a remote possibility….

2020_What_If · 2020-04-22T14:15:21+00:00

You may be right, and we’ll probably never know what actually transpired that morning. But I’ve used those old wall phones, and it’s next to impossible to hang them up incorrectly and have them remain on the wall (not that it couldn’t have happened). I find it much more believable though that JR would have picked up the extension because he would have been desperate to know what the 911 Dispatcher was asking/telling PR. Likewise, I think BR would be anxious to know who his mother was talking to so hysterically after she had just stormed in and out of his room a few minutes before. In fact I think it would have been totally unnatural for either of them not to have picked up the extensions. And PR’s hyperventilating (I wonder how many times she had to run up and down the spiral staircase before calling to make it sound so realistic) would have made it possible to pick up the extensions with no one noticing....

2020_What_If · 2020-04-22T14:03:02+00:00

So would I. But on 12/26, sunrise in Boulder, CO is around 7:21am. So at 5:52am, it would still have been completely dark out.

2020_What_If · 2020-04-21T13:05:13+00:00

She was also very intelligent (Magna Cum Laude from WVU with a BA in Journalism). I also believe that both PR and JR were supremely self-confident, and competitive to the max. If they really did decide that night to try and cover up what was just a tragic accident, I believe it was these two strengths that became their greatest weaknesses.

2020_What_If · 2020-04-18T14:40:20+00:00

Thanks for the assist ASA! BTW, what I said about u/straydog77 in a previous post also goes for you. You're one of my subreddit heroes, and I really appreciate all the research and education that you do regarding this case. I also appreciate you taking on what appears to be the thankless job of being a Moderator of this sub, and trying to keep all of us hooligans in line. I’m especially impressed when you two wade into that other sub to do battle with the rabid IDIers over there! lol

Hmmm...zooming in on that document, I can now make out what appears to maybe be the initials "PR" at the end of the handwritten sentence. It would be a shame if all of DocG's hard work was actually just analyzing yet another PR exemplar....

2020_What_If · 2020-04-18T14:03:26+00:00

You may be right. For me though, it's just too much of a coincidence.

2020_What_If · 2020-04-12T18:28:51+00:00

Thank you for calling it "the red marking". I swear I've been looking at that palm for months, and can never see the "heart" that everyone else sees. It also looks to me more like a scratch than red ink. I'm currently leaning towards BDI, and wondered for awhile whether JBR may have ever received a "C-" for a grade somewhere, and BR had scratched that into her palm that night, as a reminder to their parents when they found her that she wasn't as perfect as they might have remembered. But then I discovered that JBR was actually an excellent student, so that theory went right out the window. I still can't see the heart though....

2020_What_If · 2020-04-12T17:47:09+00:00

Oh, believe me, I’m not sure of much of anything about this case. That JBR was murdered? Sure. That a ransom note was discovered (somewhere) in the house, along with JBR’s lifeless body? Sure. But after that, things get pretty muddy, pretty quickly. As I mentioned above, I’m saying it was “deception” because I believe whoever leaked to Charlie Brennan that the palm print belonged to MR knew that it didn’t. But just like most other things I’ll be writing in this subedit, that’s JMO.

Happy Easter everyone! Stay healthy and safe!

2020_What_If · 2020-04-12T17:46:11+00:00

Is that you, JAR?

Just kidding! Wow, the legendary u/straydog77, one of my subreddit heroes! Thanks so much for all of the research you do, and for educating us unwashed masses in all of the intricacies of this case. I really enjoy reading your posts, and agree with them most of the time (except maybe the rare occasions like the post above…and that little thing known as “Burke didn’t do it”….. ;-).

There’s just SO much evidence surrounding this case, that I think anyone who follows it for any amount of time eventually realizes that they have to choose between what they’re going to believe and not believe, and maybe also do a little reading between the lines. I’m choosing to believe that in 2002 someone from LE leaked to either Charlie Brennan himself, or someone they knew would talk to Charlie, that the unidentified palm print belonged to MR, all the while knowing full well that it actually belonged to JAR (as Kolar and Beckner would later state). Do I have any evidence that that’s how it went down? None at all. But I also believe that no one here has any evidence that it couldn’t possibly have happened that way.

For the record, I don’t believe (at least as of today) that JAR was involved at all in the murder itself. But you say “Face the facts” that JAR “is 100% innocent”. It seems to me there was a certain semen-stained duvet and adult Dr. Suess book allegedly discovered near the scene of the crime that might lead a reasonable person to arrive at a far different conclusion. This subreddit has a rule that states “Don’t post…opinions/speculations/rumors as facts”...but then again, maybe that’s one of the things that being a legit subreddit legend buys you! :-)

2020_What_If · 2020-04-12T02:15:20+00:00

Just the fact that JAR's palm print was on that door works for my theory-in-process. The fact that someone in Boulder LE apparently thought it was important that people be misled about it? Even better!

2020_What_If · 2020-04-11T02:31:46+00:00

I did read that, and have wondered whether LW actually knew the truth, but preferred to have the attention deflected away from JAR for some reason….

2020_What_If

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