WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES OF JONBENET AT MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE.
The garotte, the cord, and the paintbrush.
The garotte. Is it a complicated knot that makes the garotte or is it a simple knot that anyone can do.
The cord. Where did it come from? Where did the rest of the cord go? Was there more cord?
The paint brush handle. It was broken to make the garotte. It came from Patsy's paint tote.
Was the garrote, the ligatures around JonBenet wrists, all part of staging? Was this staging done by someone trying to think like a criminal?
There are two great places to look into the garrote. One place is our own thread started in 2006 on Websleuths.
CLICK here to read the thread
As always acandyrose.com has extensive coverage of the garotte, paintbrush, and cord.
CLICK HERE
There is so much to discuss here. Let's put all of these things to rest in this thread by explaining each piece of evidence.
Below are some pictures of the garotte and the crime scene. WARNING GRAPHIC pictures of JonBenet at the medical examiner's office.
Dear God, that last picture will be with me until the day I die. Which reminds me: John said on Dr. Phil today that JonBenet looked "peaceful." It reminded me of what Patsy said about her at the funeral, about how perfect she looked. Which suggests two things to me: one, it was staged, because people who die violent deaths usually look like people who die violent deaths; two, that the garrote was chosen so it wouldn't distort her face too much (perhaps not taking decomp into consideration).
Now, as to the questions:
1)
The garotte. Is it a complicated knot that makes the garotte or is it a simple knot that anyone can do.
Both Michael Kane and Jim Kolar (I think) have quoted a knot expert (John Van Tassel I think his name was) as saying that these were simple knots.
The cord. Where did it come from? Where did the rest of the cord go? Was there more cord?
My opinion only, but I lean strongly toward the cord coming from something that was already in the house, like a painting sling. They teach you how to make those in art classes, and Patsy took painting lessons. As to the other two questions, I think I can respond to both at once: I don't think there was any more cord and they used what they had.
The paint brush handle. It was broken to make the garotte. It came from Patsy's paint tote.
Yes. What I'd like to know is whether or not it was already broken. Forensic techs can usually tell if something was broken recently or not due to wear on the edges. So, it's likely that the bristle part had been broken before and the stick was still used as a paint-stirrer. But that doesn't account for the tip. If the tip was used to penetrate JonBenet, and was broken off later, where did it go? So that leaves us two possiblities: she wasn't penetrated with it, or it was disposed of. And it would not be difficult to dispose of it. Burn it, chop it up and flush it, etc.
Was the garrote, the ligatures around JonBenet wrists, all part of staging? Was this staging done by someone trying to think like a criminal?
I vote yes to both. There's no way that the wrist ties would have actually worked as shown. Only a dead person couldn't get out. Maybe they just didn't know what kind of knot to use. And the garrote would have been very inefficient as seen because the person would have to choke up their grip. Why put a handle on it in the first place?
Or how about this? Everyone let me know what you think about this idea: JonBenet would have had to have been flipped back and forth to do all of what was done. The person who did all of this would have to hold her vaginal lips apart with one hand while whatever object was inserted, requiring both hands. And JB would have to be on her back, because the injury inside her was down and to the left (if you're facing her), the way a right-handed person would do it. Then, they'd have to turn her onto her face, tie the garrote onto her (because her hair was in it), tie a handle onto the other end and pull it tight. That completely torpedoes the intruder theory (at least the Smit theory) because in order to do all of that on a live, fighting girl, they'd have to restrain her, tie the garrote onto her and pull it tight while molesting her, all the while having bisected her body so her upper half was face-down while her lower half was face-up. They'd need about four arms and be able to put the laws of anatomy in a half-nelson to do all of this. And I'm pretty sure there were no Hindu gods or Greek mythological monsters bopping around Boulder in December of '96!
Any thoughts on anything I've put forth?