Interesting article found on Rocky Mountain News (2000) about Patsy wanting to reach out to two mothers whose children were killed by another child.
I found this using the way back machine because the link I saw on websleuths no longer worked.
Reading the whole article isn't necessary, but if you want to see what point I'm making here start reading where it says "Reaching out to others". I find it interesting that both cases mentioned were young children murdered by other children. The second case mentioned Patsy actually visited the home of a mother whose son's death was a result of being STRUCK ON THE HEAD by another child.
I could go on a long ramble further speculating on this, but I just wanted to make this interesting tidbit of an article known to this subreddit community. Some of the most (in my opinion) telling information I've found has been from reading extremely old posts and letting them lead me to useful information.
I could see this information given by Patsy being a weird form of "dupers delight". In my mind it's possible that she felt overly confident about how much she'd gotten away with that she felt compelled to push the envelope in hopes of receiving more of a "high" in lack of a better term, from getting away with her deceit. I genuinely believe Patsy embraced the acting aspect of this scheme.
Whether or not Burke did this, I do feel the need to say that I do not blame him considering he was a child. Even if Burke intentionally killed his sister, I do not believe he is some kind of evil "creature". I believe if he was the one who ultimately ended his sister's life, his parents are still the ones to blame due to them robbing him of any rehabilitation that could've led him to some semblance of a normal life. If they instead chose to coach him to lie and repress any trauma that he surely would've had, then they are the guilty ones. Just gotta throw that disclaimer out there because if Burke or any other family reads these posts I want them to know that I am not trying to contribute to any hate thrown Burke's way and I don't think any of us should condone that.
Edited for clarity because I left out the word "article" in a sentence, whoops.