Nuvolari Nuvolari is offline
Registered User Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 38
OBE, you're obviously a very good thinker, but how would you explain Mrs. Dermond's corpse being found without "glaring" signs of trauma yet the coroner determined cause of death was blunt force trauma? Did the sheriff say either had been hit with a crowbar or was that conjecture?
*******************************************
I had to copy and paste your post Nuvolari since the other thread is now closed. I didn't want you to think I was ignoring your questions.
First, thank you for the compliment. Maybe some of the thinking comes from discussing true crime for many many years now.
You have to remember when Sills first saw Shirley when she had been submerged in deep water for some time.... and found on the surface on the 11th day, iirc. ......he really wouldn't be able to get a good look at her head injuries due to the bloating and decomposition. The police aren't suppose to examine or touch the body in any manner and are to just carefully make sure the body is transported correctly to the MEs office.
It seems when found Shirley was in a poor state of decomp. The water would have long washed away any blood that may have been present when she was submerged into the deep water. Her hair would also cover any injuries she may have sustained to her head. The bloating/decomp could have closed some of the wounds if they were gaping at the time of death.
But it is a much different story once the body is on the MEs table where there are bright lights, xray machines, scans, microscopes etc. Once the ME had shaved Shirley head to observe the wound injuries to her scalp he would have pretty good idea that she had most likely died from bludgeoning to the head. He may have seen compress fractures to the skull and depressed bone fragments if say the bludgeoning weapon was a hammer. When a hammer is used to bludgeon someone to death it will leave circular depressions in the skull in the pattern of the end of the hammer used.
A hammer would be an easier pattern to identify than a long cylindrical weapon. That would also leave pattern marks on the scalp and skull but it would be more generic as far as what type of weapon was used. It could have been a tire-iron, crowbar or even a long led pipe, etc..
I don't know if a crowbar is what they are really looking for. The reporter seemed to have been told that by an LE source though or that was the impression I got when she reported it. But if they are looking for a long cylindrical weapon the ME probably saw long cylindrical fractures to her skull.
I imagine her brain was also examined and photographed to show the trauma it sustained.
I think Shirley, just like Russ, had no other injuries or trauma to the rest of their bodies.
I hope I have made sense when answering your questions.
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
If not I will try to clarify.
IMO