Why Was Jonbenet Wearing The Wrong Sized Panties When She Was Found?

Some basic info first. Jonbenet wore what's known as "Day of the Week Panties"...meaning a day of the week I suppose was printed on each panty.
She also wore a size 6. So, on Christmas day she was wearing a size 6 Wednesday pair.

When her body was found, she was wearing size 12 panties...they also were a Wednesday pair.

Both the size 6 panties and the size 12 panties belonged to the house. One story I had heard was that Patsy originally bought the size 12 ones for her niece, but Jonbenet wanted them for herself so much that Patsy decided to just keep them.
I can't be certain that story is accurate...or what the thought was there...if it was like, waiting for Jonbenet to reach the proper age before she was supposed to use them.

Anyways, the size 12 panties were located in Jonbenet's bedroom somewhere...while her size 6's were located in her bathroom.
Naturally I can't imagine Jonbenet actually wearing the size 12 ones...I severely doubt they would have even stayed on her waist.

So...on the 25th Jonbenet wore her size 6's, but when her body was found, she was wearing size 12's. I do not know if the size 6's she wore that day were recovered, or if they are missing.

If an intruder had come into the home and committed the crime...it may make sense that he may have taken her size 6's as a trophy (and in case her panties had DNA evidence on them)...however, why would he actually go back up through the house and get another, albeit the wrong size, to put on her? As well, why would an intruder take such care to make sure the panties he dressed her with was also a Wednesday pair? Wouldn't the intruder have noticed the panties were way too big for her?
Why was he even bothering with this time wasting act?

I do believe the size 12's were also taken right out of their packaging...I assume they had been unopened beforehand....though I might be wrong there.

It's another one of those rather odd things about this case...especially if relating it to a IDI theory.

Having only followed this case in the newspaper at the time, I have since read so much great information at "Forums For Justice". There is a ton of information about the panties (even some photo examples of the size 12 panties v the size 6 ones) at that site. It's all very interesting.


The one thing that has been discussed at length is that in Patsy's interview, it is suggested that when the police took the contents of JBR's "panty drawer", no other size 12 panties were found. (That begs the question...what happened to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday's size 12 panties??)

Off topic, but does anyone remember when the days of the week panties did NOT include the "Sunday" pair? Why was that??:waitasec:

One possible explanation is that JR dressed her. He may have known of the day of the week businesss, but not been aquainted with panty sizes (how many fathers buy panties for their daughters?) He may simply have put the wrong size on her, and in a tense situation, he didn't think much of how they fit.

Men's underwear fits much looser than women's, generally. (especially true of boxer shorts) Many men simply would have no idea what size panties their wife/daughter wear. I have no idea what size my wife wears.
It is a dead body being dressed, so there is no issue of them falling down. It just might not have been that obvious to a male that they were the wrong size.

Another possibility is that an intruder put the wrong size on, for much the same reason. However, he'd have had to notice that they said "wednesday" and got the correct pair on her. Or he might have grabbed what was at hand and they just happened to be "wednesday".

There is no evidence that JonBenet was wearing size six Wednesday panties Christmas day. We do know that she soiled her play pants that day...but we do not know if her soiled panties were ever confiscated.

The size 12 days of the week panties were not kept in JonBenets panty drawer in her bathroom. Where were they kept? Ramsey investigators confiscated the remaining size 12 panties....which I believe the BPD was negligent in retrieving them.

Chrishope said:

One possible explanation is that JR dressed her. He may have known of the day of the week businesss, but not been aquainted with panty sizes (how many fathers buy panties for their daughters?) He may simply have put the wrong size on her, and in a tense situation, he didn't think much of how they fit.

Men's underwear fits much looser than women's, generally. (especially true of boxer shorts) Many men simply would have no idea what size panties their wife/daughter wear. I have no idea what size my wife wears.
It is a dead body being dressed, so there is no issue of them falling down. It just might not have been that obvious to a male that they were the wrong size.

Another possibility is that an intruder put the wrong size on, for much the same reason. However, he'd have had to notice that they said "wednesday" and got the correct pair on her. Or he might have grabbed what was at hand and they just happened to be "wednesday".

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What would an intruder have done with the rest of the size 12 panties? (For that matter, why would the family dispose of them, either??) It is all perplexing. (Especially when you see the model that Jayelles made, same size as JBR, wearing the size 12 panties.)

Anita Richman said:

What would an intruder have done with the rest of the size 12 panties?

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Personally, I don't think an intruder would have done anything with the other size 12s. I don't know what became of them.

Toltec said:

We do know that she soiled her play pants that day....

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Toltec, are we really sure she soiled her playpants on th 25th. The playpants were found soiled on the bathroom floor on the 26th but JB could actually redressed before going tobed on the 25th(ready to go on the 26th without redressing) and then soiled her playpants in sleep or just just after getting them on.


When her body was found, she was wearing size 12 panties

IMO, the stager did this to make LE think that somebody else(molesting/kidnapping intruder) other than the parents had redressed her. But why would a real intruder redress her? He would just leave, woudn't he.

SleuthingSleuth said:

As well, why would an intruder take such care to make sure the panties he dressed her with was also a Wednesday pair?

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Patsy may have kept the underwear in the drawer in the order they should be worn, making it easier to find the right pair every morning. But why she may have done that with underwear that JonBenet was too small to wear yet is another question. Does anyone know if Patsy was unusually particular about things like cleaning and housekeeping? Was she, as they say, 'anal'?

There are a couple of threads on the underwear, referred to as "Bloomies" (they were purchased at Bloomingdale's)
Link: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41606&highlight=bloomies

and:http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41768&highlight=bloomies

Maybe when jonbenet soiled her pants her mom said, go upstairs and go put on another pair of undies. Jonbenet did but was taught to put on the right pair Wednesday for the day of the week. She already soiled the wednesday pair so she decided to rip open the other pack that was being saved for the niece and put on the big wednesday pair.

Could someone have purchased the underwear for JBR not knowing her size...someone like....JMK, for example? He had three sons, so he might not have known how to size and fit a little girl...maybe he bought them b/c it excited him to buy intimate articles for JBR, kind of like a man might go into Vicky's Secret and buy lingerie for a girlfriend...and then after he was done doing what he wanted to do to her :::shuddering::::, he put them on her and took the rest of the panties out of the house with him?

I seem to remember that Patsy said she'd bought that pack of panties as a gift for someone else, but tore open the package and used one because they were handy.

wenchie said:

I seem to remember that Patsy said she'd bought that pack of panties as a gift for someone else, but tore open the package and used one because they were handy.

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What a weird gift!! That's the kind of thing a Grandma would give a grandchild or a parent would just purchase for their child if they were needed, but not a gift another relative or a friend would give all the time, I wouldn't think.

I'm trying to research it right now, but not getting the info.

It was in one of the books, though - and it didn't make any sense.

My guess is JBR soiled her underwear and went upstairs to change. If she was already wearing 'Wednesday' she might not have had another to put on in her size. If she was taught to always wear the proper day then the only option would be to put on the size 12.

I did find this:


"The same tabloid claims JonBenet was wearing size-12 underwear when her body was found, in spite of the fact she normally wore a much-smaller size 6. The report said the little girl was wearing size-6 "day-of-the-week panties" labeled for Wednesday when she was put to bed. The unopened package of size-12 day-of-the-week panties was reportedly in a drawer and had been purchased to give to another child. The Star said police believe the larger panties could have been hastily opened by Patsy in order to make sure the "Wednesday" label was showing."

........but Patsy herself said something about Jonbenet wetting the bed, and Patsy tearing open the new pack of panties to change her.

Accordng to Jayelles the packet itself was not so easily opened. Not something JBR could do herself and perhaps not done without some scissors or a knife, there was a nylon cord on the packet that needed to be cut.

Also I don't think anyone is really sure she went to bed in the size 6 wednesday pair.

I think that Patsy came up with the story about the panties being a gift later, after she was questioned about why Jonbenet was wearing such large panties.

Who would keep a gift intended for someone else in a drawer in a child's bedroom?

I opine that the large panties were some kind of "punishment" - for when Jonbenet wet her pants and had to wear pull-ups. The large size may have been so that they could be worn over the pullups, or over a diaper.

Patsy needed to downplay the bed-wetting problem, though - so, out came the "gift" story.

Let's say that JB did need to change her undies for some reason. I would presume that she would have more than 7 pairs, esp since she did have a bladder problem. If Patsy was real big on the M-S issue- there would be several M-S sets or there would be a mix of M-S and others. Why would PR get hung up on matching days? Who would know what panties she had worn that night except her mother? And who would know whether or not her undies were changed after she got home? So if the theory is that PR or JR did it, why bother? It is an unecessay detail that would be easier to explain if it wasn't mentioned, so why not just grab any undies out of the drawer.
Why would PR buy them? I don't know about you all, but I have done it. Several times. Pick up a pak from a size x rack get home and wrong size. And since I am not good at returning things, I have stuck them in a drawer or given them away still in the pak. Another possibility is that maybe JB esp liked the cousin, and asked for Mom to get the undies that matched hers to give to cousin so they could match.
Why would an intruder take the undies? If it had a cord around it, it may have been necessary to take off gloves to open it. Take the pak because of fingerprints.