So, Rebecca died from asphyxiation by hanging, right? What about the rigor in her legs holding them in a bent position. Can some of you with medical knowledge chime in again? I'm trying to work out scenarios where it is possible that her legs formed rigor in that position and the lividity was on her back (IIRC).
Is it possible she was hanged but then soon after placed in some different position where rigor and lividity set, then she was moved before she was found and/or before 911 was called? I know early on we had long conversations about her possibly being hog tied also or tied to a chair.
Was Wecht's conclusion basically that she died by hanging, but was not dropped from the balcony?
I'm a verified health care professional, so I'll chime in on this. I have more than a passing familiarity with neck structures, as I'm an anesthetist.
The pattern of tearing in Rebecca's sternocleidomastoid and infrahyoid ("strap") muscles would not occur with a simple constriction asphyxiation. It is difficult to tear these muscles in such a fashion. Her left SCM was torn nearly in half. That is very severe damage. IMO, almost certainly from her weight, torque, and forces she experienced as she violently fell from the neck. IMO, lifting a body from below would not cause that pattern of severe tearing in those muscles, in particular, in the infrahyoid muscles (which are deeper within the anterior neck structures).
As far as rigor and lividity, from the position broadcast of her body on the spreckles lawn, she was tilted to the side, not flat supine. When you tilt someone to the side who has wrists bound behind them, and ankles bound. the knees would tend to bend. Or if the legs were not purposefully straightened out, and she was lowered to weight on her feet, then torso lowered, her legs would not be fully extended. Either of these positions can cause bent knees, imo.
If she died around 3 am, which is Dr. Lucas' best estimate (and I agree with), then rigor would be just setting in around 7 am, and livor would still be moveable/ shiftable, producing the posterior back livor. Should she have also had booting in her feet? Seems reasonable to me, but I'll leave that interpretation up to forensic experts.
It's a pity and a professional shame that it took 12+ hours for the ME to arrive at the scene. Disgraceful, IMO. The window for determining algor mortis was lost by then. (Along with other observations that would have further narrowed time of death.)
One of the things about this case, and others (such as Dawna Natzke's case) is that there appears to be no procedure within law enforcement investigations for quality assurance. Within the medical profession, outside reviews of deaths occur regularly,and internal reviews of all sorts of mishaps occur daily. Sometimes insurance policies for hopsitals have a condition that outside reviews have to be accomplished in certain circumstances. Fires, for instance-- any hospital fire has to have a myriad of outside reviews, and inspection agencies reports. Airline mishaps have multiple outside agencies investigate what happened-- and not just crash situations. Outside review by impartial investigators in many industries is standard practice.
I have always been somewhat dumbfounded that law enforcement investigations do not have this process as part of their standard operating procedure, when there are significant questions about how a case investigation has unfolded. Take, for example, the George Zimmerman case-- if there had been a system to review the Sanford police department investigation, the situation may have unfolded quite differently than it did.
It seems to be, imo, institutionalized arrogance that says that if an investigation was done, the conclusions "must" be correct. Or we cherry pick "which" parts, or which investigations are correct, and which aren't, to suit our own opinions and objectives. That is a system construct that lends itself to bureaucracy and influence peddling at every level.
LE investigations are sacred cows that we as mere civilians can never question without significant push pack from entrenched bureaucracies. It is a grave threat and an insult to these institutions to suggest that they submit themselves for review of their work and investigations. That is partly why it is so difficult to petition these agencies for another review and investigation.
But it would take decades to effect changes and oversight, either through the statutory process, or at a national level. So it is what it is! Like our broken CPS systems-- this one is not an easy or quick fix. We have to find a way to work within the broken aspects of the system we have, not the one we wish we had!
Added thought:
The description of SCM and infrahyoid hemorrhages on the autopsy report, IMO, indicates a beating heart at the time of the neck muscle tearing. I ran that by some colleagues a long time ago last year when I wrote Rebecca's autopsy review for The Hinky Meter. I believe her heart was beating when the tearing occurred. She could have been conscious, or unconscious, or semiconscious, from for example, one or more blows to the head. I do not believe she was dead when she went over the balcony.
