Why is it so hard to accept that Partridge was just the village idiot, nothing more, nothing less. 

His "clues" like those of other suspicious characters amounted to absolutely ziltch.

RJ wanted the option to pull a "clever" back-from-the-death stunt so he had him switch DNA info with a body that was stored in some freezer. Maybe that's what they meant about RJ liking "the cold."