re: Brother of JonBenet Ramsey reaches settlement with CBS in a $750 Million lawsuit

Glad he won that case. Hope he gets every penny.

Just like when the local Utah press tried to claim that Elizabeth Smart was murdered (and sexually assaulted) by her father and uncle. It was an open-and-shut case as far as the idiot media was concerned.

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Dismissed and settled aren't the same thing, as far as I know.

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Courts always encourage the parties to reach a settlements vs taking the case to trial. When a case reaches settlement before trial, the court will always dismiss vs making the parties try the case and not settling. Otherwise this would violate the notions of judicial economy and public policy.

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Brother did it.. Not with intent , but he did it.

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I feel the same. Probably killed her by accident without the parents around, and like a typical kid who gets busted doing something wrong, wasn't completely forthcoming about what happened.

The kid was messed up though. Not only the golf club incident, but I believe he smeared feces in Jonbenet's room more than once. And she was regularly wetting her bed.

I think the parents hoped his behavior was just a phase he would grow out of, so they freaked when he actually killed her and tried to cover for him in order to cover for their own passivity.

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Is there any physical evidence?

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Yes. Most notably, she was killed with implements found inside the house.
Look into the ransom note. To me, this is the most damning part, although it is not a "piece of evidence", like a weapon.
What physical evidence that isn't there is no real sign of entry into the house. There was undisturbed snow on the ground leading up to the house.

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Were there any witnesses?

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Other than the Ramseys, no. Again, though, the fact that no one saw anything else ( it was very late however and on a generally quiet street) also leads to the whole murder/coverup taking place within the 7000 sf house.

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Has motive been established?

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For it being Burke, the only motive was that she may have taken his pineapple, or lord knows why a 9 year old would snap.
It has been suggested that Patsy may have accidentally killed her when she snapped at her for wetting her bed. Although, I don't think her bedroom showed any unusual disturbances, nor a wet bed.

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Do we know where a possible crime took place? When?

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In the house. A "ransom note" was allegedly left by a "foreign faction" demanding money exactly equivalent to John's recent year end bonus of $108,000. Instructions were given as to how to provide the money and further instructions were forthcoming, although no more instructions were ever received.
JonBenet was "found" in a back room cellar area of the house.
This occurred the night of Christmas, into the next early morning of Dec. 26, 1996.

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Do we even have a body?

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Yes, as mentioned before, her body was found by John in a back room cellar in their basement.

Its been how long by how? Probably feels untouchable

The DA has to present the evidence to a grand jury to get a murder indictment, there is nothing you, or CBS cane up with that really meets the standard of evidence. If I was a member of the grand jury no way would I vote to indict for murder if that's all the DA had.

Didn’t they state that the underwear was new and the trace DNA could have been from someon at the factory? I Renee weed that was brought up in a more recent documentary not sure if it was the CBS show being discussed.

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But multiple experts have weighed in and cleared the family in the past.

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The "cleared the family" is based on, as they call it: "touch DNA" on her new underwear that most likely came from a factory worker wear the underwear was made, or more plausible that the "touch DNA" came from mishandling, since it wasn't analyzed to years later.

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The very idea that a 9-year-old would even know how to make a strangulation device out of household materials is pretty laughable itself.

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It's laughable to implicate anyone outside the house considering the idiocy of the "ransom note".
It's clearly written in Patsy's handwriting.
It was written with stationery from the house. (How would a foreign faction kidnapper know where Patsy keeps her stationery and pens?)
It contained details EXACTLY of his bonus he just received.
It stated that they would call back between 8 and 10 with further instructions. The Ramseys never concerned themselves about this time. Why?

The fact about the garrote strangulation device was used is an after effect to cover up her real death by being hit in the head by an object. Do recall that it is important to know that Burke, as an 8 year old, hit her hard enough with a gold club that she had to have surgery the year before.

Let's not be naive here conjuring up other unlikely possibilities when the evidence is very clear as to who all were involved.

Since it was determined that she died from both asphyxiation and trauma to her head, it is difficult to determine if just one person committed the crime. What is most likely to have happened is that she was hit hard enough in the head to appear dead, then the strangulation was done to make it appear like this would be the reason she died.

The fact that they haven't been able to fully determine which of the 3 other Ramseys did what in causing her death, is a reason that the case never really got to trial.

It's an interesting case, to say the least.
If you're into true crime type stories, just start googling articles. Plenty out there.
I'd recommend starting with one that just presents the facts,not opinions.
That way you can start forming your own thoughts with just facts. There is plenty of crap out there opining from one way to the other.