If there was any re-staging, it had to have been done very close to the original staging. Livor mortis begins within about 20 minutes of death, and if the body is moved, a second livor pattern of "marbling" will form, and be superimposed over the first pattern, with the first pattern remaining visible also. This would happen each time the body is moved and left in a different position for at least 20 minutes. During this time, the livor patterns can be "blanched" (that means if you press a finger into the red area, a white spot will emerge. You can see the evidence of this blanching when you view autopsy photos showing her bare back (the photo that shows the 2 circular "abrasions") and you will see a few white "stripes" that indicate where the elastic waistbands of her panties and long johns were, as well as striping from where the fabric of her shirt had wrinkled under her, pressing in to her back. This is the reason we know there was never any cord wrapped tightly around her wrists. There were no marks there.
JBR had only one pattern of marbling in her livor mortis. If she was moved, it was after the livor became "fixed" or non-blanching, which takes a few hours. By the time livor becomes fixed, rigor mortis would have begun, making movement of her limbs impossible without "breaking rigor". This is very hard to do, and requires that the muscle fibers be actually torn. The coroner would have certainly seen this. After rigor is broken, it will not re-form. And we do know from the autopsy that JBR was in full rigor when she was autopsied. We also know from LA's description of her when she was brought up from the basement (about 18-20 hours before she was autopsied) that she was in full rigor by then as well.
Bottom line- it is unlikely that there was a second staging, unless it happened right after the first. No matter where she was killed, she had to have been carried to that wineceller, wiped and redressed all within 20-30 minutes of death. We do know that fibers from the carpet just outside the wineceller were found on the body. The garrote was made right there in the basement. And we know she was alive when she was strangled. So she died after she was already in the basement.
The events of that night happened very close together.
10pm- return home
10-pm-1am eat pineapple, head bash, immediate unconsciousness- the large red mark on her neck (from her shirt collar?) emerges, making it evident that someone has tried to choke her. As she lapses probably into a coma, the decision is made to stage a strangulation/kidnapping, because it is apparent that the head injury is so severe that there is no turning back- she will not survive anyway.
At some point she is seen to be bleeding from the vagina.
She is wiped, redressed, and carried to the wineceller (not necessarily in that order). She is garroted, and placed in the wineceller after she is thought to be dead. A post-mortem urine release may occur at this point, or during the strangulation, with the urine wetting her clothing, and possible being absorbed by the carpet (which is what I believe).
All this happened between 10pm and 1am.
She could have been wrapped in the blanket after the onset of rigor, IF she had been lifted carefully and the blanket placed under her, but this would take two people, as if she was not kept horizontal while moved, a second livor pattern would have formed. For this reason, I do not think she was re-staged. I think the blanket was put in place on the wineceller floor first, then she was placed on the blanket, and it was pulled around her. She wasn't just covered up with it. She was lying on top of it, with the ends pulled up around her.
From 1am to the 911 call, the Rs likely spent making phone calls on the cellphone, whose records from December had disappeared, writing the RN, and formulating their scheme.
DeeDee249,
Livor mortis begins within about 20 minutes of death, and if the body is moved, a second livor pattern of "marbling" will form, and be superimposed over the first pattern, with the first pattern remaining visible also.
Once cardiac activity ceases the
onset of Livor Mortis is
immediate, its
manifestation is variable and open to interpretation, but 2-4 hours is accepted opinion. However stasis can occur to some extent in
shock e.g. whacked on the head, and some degree can be present even while the person is technically
alive.
I accept what you suggest, that if JonBenet had been moved then superficially there should be some signs of this, e.g. a livor-pattern, that the onset of Livor Mortis could have occured whilst JonBenet was still alive underlines this.
However JonBenet was killed, I do not think that her killer decided in a 20-minute timeframe to stage a wine-cellar homicide. So one of the following or both must follow:
1. JonBenet was asphyxiated but not killed.
2. JonBenet was killed down in the basement.
Now possibility 1. could encompass the head injury, and this will leave a variable window of opportunity to move her body, as long as there is cardiac activity, however small?
And possibility 2. seems certain given the Liver Mortis and other forensic evidence.
So if you think JonBenet was killed as a result of some toileting incident e.g.
rashomon who cites panic, confusion and andrenalin as contributing post-mortem factors. Yet in the PDI here we have Patsy within 20-minutes has JonBenet cleaned up, moved down to the basement then garroted to death? Psychological theories or assumptions regarding a suspects state of mind in the absence of physical evidence is simply speculation, nobody can look back into the past and read someones mind. The physical evidence presented here suggests that a psychopath *advertiser censored* sexual predator did it, reminiscent of Lou Smit's IDI, yet we know the crime-scene was staged!
So when do we think JonBenet was killed? Many think this occured occured somewhere upstairs following a head injury, that there was minimal brain swelling supports their case. Here is Michael M. Baden's, M.D. opinion when asked this question:
Dr. Michael Baden is the former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and is presently the chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police.
Does swelling of the brain due to trauma indicate that the victim was alive after the blow?
Yes. The brain reacts to injury by swelling, whether the injury is a blow to the head or the cutting off of oxygen to the brain, asphyxia, which can be caused by strangulation, drowning, a choke hold, or improper anesthesia during an operation. Swelling stops at the time of death when there is no further pumping of blood by the heart.
The assumption that she died upstairs as the result of a head injury, e.g.
assumption 1., appears at odds with the forensic evidence e.g. her vaginal injury, the garrote bruising and associated petechia and potentially her post-mortem urine-release? Consider all these people who opine that the lower abrasions on JonBenet's neck are the result of the garrote being placed here then moved up, but the lack of brain swelling tells us that due to cardiac activity ceasing there should be no manifest bruising?
So a better assumption might be is that she was whacked on the head down in the basement probably with the intent of creating signs of a serious visible cause of death, despite cracking JonBenet's skull nearly in half, this never happened, even the Coroner did not know until he did his internal examination. So the garrote could have been added either pre-planned or as a substitute for the lack of a visible serious head injury?
Bottom line- it is unlikely that there was a second staging, unless it happened right after the first.
Some aspects could have been staged after she was moved to the basement and garroted e.g. wrist-restraints, tape on the mouth, hair-ties,
wiped with a cloth, vaginal trauma, the latter to offer a rationale for prior bleeding?
A lot of the above draws on assumptions from the PDI, particularly the movement of the body, but what if JonBenet had been in the basement immediately prior to her death, engaged in some activity, potentially abusive, then this may offer an explantion why sexual assault was faked but then covered up?
