From the "Premeditated?" thread, page 9, 01-31-2014:
otg - In the attached photo of the lower back, posters were interested in the dark mark as possibly stun gun remnants, and also in the blue line remnants of livor mortis. But look at those white lines on the back of the waist - they are remarkably different than the pressure marks made when the body was left lying in/on cloth as seen on the upper back. The white lines at the waist look like cord or rope marks, cords around her waist at death but then removed, so as you say, no furrow developed. Would these also be referred to as "argent lines"? I found this post very intriguing, by MurruiFlower #143 from page 10 of this thread:
EDIT to add: Thinking more, it occurred to me that these white lines at the waist could be from the elastic waistbands of the size-12 panties and longjohns. But there are 3 lines not 2, there is a crisscross and perhaps small furrow as shown in the lower righthand bottom area, whatever was there was left long enough after death to blanche but not long enough to furrow, the panties especially and perhaps the longjohns were too large, and at least the lower body was redressed after death. ?
A lot to consider,
Sandy, and I certainly dont have all the answers. Ill try to give you my thoughts and what I know without too much rambling.
When referring to the blanching found on a corpse, there are three colors to consider:
- the pale color of the blanched area,
- the natural color of the unblanched skin,
- the deeper, darker color of areas affected by blood settlement over a longer period of time (livor mortis).
Blanching is caused by pressure in the affected area restricting capillary blood flow, whether it is accentuated by natural color or by livor. If it is livor, it indicates the pressure remained for a period of time that extends through that length of time. If the blanching occurs before livor sets in (on either side of the livor/pallor pattern), it may eventually disappear because of the blood settlement.
Ive only seen the term argent line used in reference to a ligature -- usually on a victims neck, but no reason (I know of) it couldnt also be used to describe the same thing on any other area of the body (wrist, arm, leg, or even the torso). Simply stated:
I dont know. It is something a coroner, medical examiner, or even a knowledgeable investigator should recognize when a ligature has been removed from a corpse before a furrow can form.
The photo you referenced has a lot of information in it that we dont know enough about. Even with more information available to them than we have, experts disagree about the cause of the two marks that Lou Smit declared (erroneously, I think) the result of a stun gun. He also theorized the blue line was from the blue spark between the two prongs
floorlaugh
. I dont think I really need to point out the folly in that -- the blue lines on her back are blood veins close to the surface. (If you look closely youll see others pointed out by the red arrows in your photo.)
I had considered in the past that at least one of the blanched lines (most likely the highest) might be from a natural crease at her waist if her body had been tilted or turned. But the problem with that (which I couldnt resolve) is that she would have to be tilted to the left enough to cause the crease. She wasnt. Ive considered that the lines might be from either her panties or her long johns (or both since there are three lines). But I dont think (since we found out about the size of the Bloomies) the panties would be tight enough to cause the restriction. It could have been from the extra thickness of a waistband seam or even a fold in the blanket she was lying on, either of which might simply having the pressure applied to it from the weight of her body. But then, the area that these lines are found is in an area of the waist that would be less likely to be flat against the floor than either side of it (shoulders and butt).
Back to the long johns... I also thought the two top lines might be from the waistband of her long johns since they appear to be parallel. But now that the photo of them has been released, we know the type of waistband they had. It is ~1 wide elastic which should apply even pressure across the width rather than some other type that would cause two distinctly separate lines.
One thing I do get from the photo is that the color of the skin is too deep to be her natural color, and it goes all the way to the far left side of her torso. This tells me that even though her head was turned to the right (as evidenced by the livor pattern), her torso was flat.
All this speculation is simply because the ME didnt tell us what he was able to see. When her clothes were removed for autopsy, he would know if the lines were caused by any of her clothes. If that was not the cause, he should have tried to determine the source. He didnt even go to the WC to look at where her body was found to look at what was on the floor underneath her. He didnt even go down there to measure the ambient temperature for estimating TOD. There was a lot he should have done that he didn't -- and even more that he
might have done that is simply not recorded in the AR.
