I'm always amazed, also, when intruders are so bold they walk right into a house and steal or kill a child. But, as much as I wouldn't do that, it doesn't stop folks like Shasta Groene's kidnapper, Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper, Polly Klaas' kidnapper, Jessica Lunsford's killer, Danielle Van Dam's killer, I'm getting tired of typing so I'll stop with the inexhaustable list of girls boldly kidnapped by men who just walked in and took what they wanted although many were present in the home, and unaware that it was happening.
Yes, what this killer of JB did is more - to stay in the home so long. But look at the bizarre brutality of the crime? What kind of guy would DO that? One who does that, is who. A guy who is very very into sado masochism. You don't just pick that stuff up overnight or without lots of prior evidence of having SM bondage leanings.
So to suspect that her parents whacked her over the head (or Burke, which is more unbelievable) and then to cover the crime of whacking her over the head they sexually assault her while she's alive and use a Marquis de Sade knot in the garrote used to strangle her, and then stick her in a kind of secret room in the house and call the cops. Call the cops while she is STILL IN THE HOUSE? I mean, what kind of stupid home owner/killer would do that? A stupid one, is who. The Ramseys would know, for sure, that once they reported this precious child missing they would no longer have any way to get her remains out of the house undiscovered.
And in the meanwhile, the mom handwrites the 2.5 page ransom note, leaving MORE than enough evidence of her involvement. How stupid would she be to do that? Patsy was not a stupid woman. It's as hard to fake literacy as it is to fake illiteracy, and the ransom note was not written in her handwriting or with her grasp of the language.
So you're left with a very bold, sadistic killer who got pleasure out of doing this in their very home. Anything else doesn't make sense.