Autopsy

[jilly]

external cause = someone else did it (i.e. not self-inflicted)

I'm thinking that is a way of saying the death was definitely not natural and the cause was the application of some force to her body under a violent circumstance. These things to me are hard to determine from these reports as there will be an analysis of the bone in an effort to determine the angle of the pressure and the force. All the report says is that it happened. The notes will tell if they believe it was a frontal assault or if it was applied from behind - too many things unknown.

Thanks to both of you! I got it!

RC I don't know about you, but I feel a lot more confident with this AR than I did with Michelle's. No mention of Dr Clarke anywhere either! Looks like Butts approved it or whatever.

 

[Anderson]

I am wondering if the way she was found (without shoes and socks, etc.) led LE to be so suspicious of Brad that that was the impetus for them to give custody to the Rentzs. Could they see the obvious lie he told that she went jogging?

Yes, and LE had already noticed that her keys and cell phone were left behind on that first day, when Brad had an unexpected visit from them. . . . So when she is found in that state, their suspicions must have been deeply aroused.

Like everyone else, I am wondering what happened to the shoes and socks. It seems likely that there never were any on her feet that fateful morning. Poor Nancy.

 

[jilly]

7/15 at night crime scene tape went up and 7/16 all day search I think.

Thanks SG!

 

[jmflu]

JMO - on the 14th, Chief Bazemore was saying this was not a random crime - LE already knew something. Finding the body and what was present and what was not, as well as the ruling of homicide - definitely shows Nancy never left the house under her own power to go running. The absence of clothing says she didn't go running, the single stud earring says she wasn't snatched for a robbery, and the lack of a sexual assault indicates there was no intent on the part of the killer to do so. Could be all of these things were relayed to Judge Sasser.

Can the defense come up with something crazy like, instead of going jogging, maybe she went to her secret lover's home, and perhaps she was getting undressed and they got in an arguement and was killed then?

Oh, well, maybe not, since she would have taken her keys with her, right?

 

[raisincharlie]

Thanks to both of you! I got it!

RC I don't know about you, but I feel a lot more confident with this AR than I did with Michelle's. No mention of Dr Clarke anywhere either! Looks like Butts approved it or whatever.

Yes - no Dr. Clarke - that's a good thing !

Despite no observable evidence of a sexual assault, the ME did go ahead and conduct the routine tests to prove it. I saw Clarke's name on another recently poste autopsy however - the Wynn case. He's still around.

 

[raisincharlie]

Can the defense come up with something crazy like, instead of going jogging, maybe she went to her secret lover's home, and perhaps she was getting undressed and they got in an arguement and was killed then?

I'm sure they will try something crazy but K & B has to know by now that Brad's cooperation has been, shall we say slanted ? But as you say - all her normal stuff was a t home - stuff normally with her.

 

[SleuthyGal]

I am wondering if the way she was found (without shoes and socks, etc.) led LE to be so suspicious of Brad that that was the impetus for them to give custody to the Rentzs. Could they see the obvious lie he told that she went jogging?

Different jurisdiction/judge handles custody orders; LE makes no determination regarding custody.

 

[SleuthyGal]

Where are her running shoes?

did they get dumped? left in the house?

 

[jmflu]

Different jurisdiction/judge handles custody orders; LE makes no determination regarding custody.

Ok, so could LE have advised said judge and said judge ruled because of that?

 

[jumpstreet]

Can the defense come up with something crazy like, instead of going jogging, maybe she went to her secret lover's home, and perhaps she was getting undressed and they got in an arguement and was killed then?

Based on what we currently know (still not much) the defense could easily describe such a scenario. It's of course our old friend Theory B (someone she knew, besides BC did it), and it certainly hasn't been categorically eliminated by todays information. [ Certainly Theory C is pretty much off the table, and for the most part was prior to today anyway. ].

Lots of "Theory B" variants could be described by the defense I'm sure. The one you outline is an example. Another example I posted a few weeks ago: She's downstairs, someone she "knows" arrives at the house (an (ahem) "unexpected" visitor). She hurriedly gets in the car with them (they aren't supposed to be at the house...), doesn't grab the usual things, and they drive off, they talk, things degenerate, the visitor then tries to stage her like she was found.

The lack of (known) warrants for any other person/premises really seems to remove support for Theory B at this point (though if LE has "nothing" to go on, they have no basis for a warrant either).

Full clarification: I'm not saying Theory B is what happened, I'm just saying, based on information we learned about today (and the other (little) information we know), it still seems to be 'on the table' at least to some extent, and certainly from a defense attorney's perspective.

 

[jmflu]

Where are her running shoes?

did they get dumped? left in the house?

Did SW say the described shoes were taken at all?

 

[jmflu]

Another example I posted a few weeks ago: She's downstairs, someone she knows arrives at the house (an (ahem) "unexpected" visitor). She gets in the car with them, and they drive off, they talk, things degenerate.

Wouldn't explain why no shoes or socks, though...

 

[momto3kids]

Where are her running shoes?

did they get dumped? left in the house?

Having 2.5 hours before he returned home for the LE he could have gone to Fayetteville and back..A local dump or even LTF.
We sure know he didnt go to JJ or Western Wake looking for her.

 

[Anderson]

Where are her running shoes?

did they get dumped? left in the house?

Could that be why shoes were listed as items that were taken from the house in the search warrant?

 

[SleuthyGal]

Ok, so could LE have advised said judge and said judge ruled because of that?

I don't think so. The Rentz family, with their lawyer, took this to family court on an 'emergency' basis. There would have to be more than 'we think he did it cause it looks hinky to LE and to us too' to pull custody away from the father.

 

[raisincharlie]

Where are her running shoes?

did they get dumped? left in the house?

Since the running shoes confiscated under the search warrant weren't identified as men's or women's shoes - it could be that the blue and gray tennis shoes were Nancy's.

 

[SleuthyGal]

Could that be why shoes were listed as items that were taken from the house in the search warrant?

Yes more than one pair of shoes were seized (3 pairs in fact). However, the 'blue/gray running shoes' were not otherwise identified by size so we don't know who those belong to. The other 2 pairs were Rainbow flipflops and a pair of pumps.

 

[jmflu]

'blue/gray running shoes' might have been BC's, found with mud on them!

 

[SleuthyGal]

Based on what we currently know (still not much) the defense could easily describe such a scenario. It's of course our old friend Theory B (someone she knew, besides BC did it), and it certainly hasn't been categorically eliminated by todays information.

So Nancy left her home wearing only a jogging bra, no shorts, no socks, no shoes? Or she had them on but whoever she left with killed her for some reason and decided to remove her shorts, shoes, socks, and one earring, not rob her or commit a sexual assault, and take these clothes and dump them somewhere away from the body? For what reason?

 

[SleuthyGal]

Having 2.5 hours before he returned home for the LE he could have gone to Fayetteville and back..A local dump or even LTF.
We sure know he didnt go to JJ or Western Wake looking for her.

He could have gone a lot of places indeed. Her body sure wasn't 'staged' very well, having been dumped sans shorts, socks or shoes.