Even with all we know, I’m not sure we can reasonably come to any better timeframe than what we have. It seems BPD can’t -- and they have more information than we do. We’re just left with trying to make sense of what information has been leaked out (and some of that may be completely wrong). If you recall, you and I discussed this timeframe shortly after it came out (
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...ames-Kolar-on-Tricia-s-True-Crime-Radio/page2). One of the things that Kolar mentioned in
Tricia’s August 4, 2013, webcast was that the 45 to 120 minute timeframe was based partly on the pineapple digestion.
I’ve always had doubts about the validity of that timeframe, but that was when we all understood Kolar’s book to mean that it was based on Dr. Rorke’s estimate alone. Here is what he wrote in his book:
Dr. Lucy Rorke, a neuro-pathologist with the Philadelphia Children's Hospital, helped explain the timing of some of the injuries sustained by JonBenet. She told investigators that the blow to the skull had immediately begun to hemorrhage, and it was not likely that she would have regained consciousness after receiving this injury. The blow to the head, if left untreated, would have been fatal.
The presence of cerebral edema, swelling of the brain, suggested that JonBenet had survived for some period of time after receiving the blow to her head. Blood from the injury slowly began to fill the cavity of the skull and began to build up pressure on her brain. As pressure increased, swelling was causing the medulla of the brain to push through the foramen magnum, the narrow opening at the base of the skull.
Dr. Rorke estimated that it would have taken an hour or so for the cerebral edema to develop, but that this swelling had not yet caused JonBenet's death. "Necrosis," neurological changes to the brain cells, indicated a period of survival after the blow that could have ranged from between forty-five (45) minutes and two (2) hours.
As pressure in her skull increased, JonBenet was beginning to experience the effects of “brain death.” Her neurological and biological systems were beginning to shut down, and she may have been exhibition signs of cheyne-stokes breathing. These are short, gasping breaths that may be present as the body struggles to satisfy its need for oxygen in the final stages of death.
The medical experts were in agreement: the blow to JonBenet’s skull had taken place some period of time prior to her death by strangulation. The bruising beneath the garrote and the petechial hemorrhaging in her face and eyes were conclusive evidence that she was still alive when the tightening of the ligature ended her life.
The medical consultants considered the timing of the tracking of the pineapple that had moved through JonBenet’s digestive track (sic). It was generally agreed that the timing of the ingestion of this fruit could have coincided with the time frame regarding her head injury. It was estimated that it would have taken between two to five hours for the pineapple to move through her system. It appeared to investigators that she had eaten the pineapple not long before receiving the blow to her head.
I remembered Kolar saying on the radio that part of that estimate was based the pineapple digestion. But I went back and listened again to his statement. Here is what Kolar said (without the "uh"s) on
Tricia’s webcast (8-4-2013, beginning at about 13 minutes) when she asked about the time between ingestion of pineapple and actual death:
From the reports that I reviewed, they were looking at somewhere between a 45 minute to perhaps an hour-and-a-half, upwards of possibly 2 hours. And that was based on what their thinking was the time of ingestion of the pineapple coupled with the traveling through her digestive tract as well as the amount of blood and swelling of the brain after the blow to the head.
Those are the time frames that I put in my book that were provided by some of the medical experts that were interviewed and consulted with by the BPD.
So now I’m beginning to wonder exactly where the 45 to 120 minute timeframe came from. Was that Rorke’s opinion based
solely on the condition of JonBenet’s brain, was that an interpretation by investigators based on
more than one source and passed on to Kolar, was that Kolar’s interpretation based on what
he read in BPD reports, or was the extended timeframe not at all about JonBenet’s individual circumstances but instead about
TBIs in general (as some are suggesting)? I don’t know the answer; but I have even more doubts now about this timeframe than I did to start with (and I haven’t even gotten to the problems with “
necrosis”
.