Captain, I appreciate your thoughtful response.
In my mind you are severely over-interpreting the autopsy report. Let's consider the main point of your argument:
Despite what some on here would have you believe. It is impossible for an object to transverse the Anterior Fossa, in the manner this bullet did, without hitting the Frontal Lobe. He did not specify this because it isn't necessary. Basic anatomy should lead someone reading his report to the very same conclusion.
Ok, let's look at some anatomy. In fact, between the skull and brain are membranes and fluid-filled spaces that take up volume (dura mater, blood-filled dural space, pia mater, and subarachnoid space). To illustrate, I attach three anatomy diagrams below. As you can see, there IS space where the bullet could have perforated the anterior fossa without hitting the brain.
Having said that, Horn's report provides inadequate detail to indicate that the penetration was sufficiently posterior to have penetrated the brain. In fact, everything Horn says in his report indicates that the brain was NOT penetrated. There are two statements in his autopsy report that directly speak to this:
The wound track perforates the anterior frontal skull ... and traverses the right anterior fossa, without gross evidence of significant intracranial hemorrhage or apparent cerebral injury.
And:
The 1525-gram brain is covered by thin, clear, delicate leptomeninges. The dura mater and falx cerebri are intact.... Multiple serial sections of autolyzed brain do not reveal the presence of grossly apparent trauma, foreign bodies, or previously existing natural disease.
How do you penetrate the brain without penetrating the dura mater?
In light of the above information, it makes no sense that Horn would have assumed that anyone with any basic knowledge of anatomy reading the report would automatically know that the brain was penetrated. Horn is a Medical Examiner, and it is his job to identify injuries that could have significance in a murder trial. Any reasonable person would say that a bullet through the brain would be significant information to clearly bring forward in an autopsy report because the report could factor heavily in a criminal proceeding.
Yet Horn is silent on this in his report. Why? Because there was simply no evidence that the brain was penetrated.
Dave
His report was not as detailed as I expected to see, but it is accurate and gets its point across. He did not write it for the layman. It is written for those in the medical field that understand the anatomy he is discussing. I'm not surprised that it is hard for some to make the conclusion that the bullet had to pass through the Dura Mater and the brain. He never comes right out and says it until he is asked in court. He does give you all of the data points to make the connection if you understand what he is saying or willing to put the extra effort in to some anatomy study on the side.
I'll will tryi to link a couple of pictures that should help, but I may screw this up. They come Frank Netters's website. He did anatomical drawing/paintings/slides that are considered to be the most accurate. They are also rather easy to see and understand.
<a href="http://www.netterimages.com/image/2005.htm"><img src="http://www.netterimages.com/images/vpv/000/000/002/2005-0550x0475.jpg" alt="Illustration of Normal Brain Anatomy as Demonstrated by Computerized Tomography (CT Scanning) from the Netter Collection" height="150" width="150" /></a> On the right, is a CT Scan of a normal brain. The bright white, glowing edge is the skull. There is not as much room between the brain and the edge of the skull. On the left, is Netter's drawing of the skull and the brain at the same level as the scan. Again, not much room between the two structures.
<a href="http://www.netterimages.com/image/2005.htm"><img src="http://www.netterimages.com/images/vpv/000/000/002/2005-0550x0475.jpg" alt="Illustration of Normal Brain Anatomy as Demonstrated by Computerized Tomography (CT Scanning) from the Netter Collection" height="150" width="150" /></a> This image is sagittal plane view of the right hemisphere of the brain and its relation to the skull. The bullet entered the Frontal Bone 3 inches from the crown or the highest point of his skull. It was also 1.5 inches from midline, so it was just outside the middle of his eyebrow, and roughly 1.5 inches above the eyebrow. So where the bullet entered is not viewable to us in the picture. If you feel around along the outside edge of your eyebrow you will find a ridge. The bullet entered within about 0.5 inch of this ridge and 1.5 inches above the brow ridge. Underneath the orange Frontal Lobe, you will see a thin bone with pink nasal tissue under the bone. That is the Ethmoid Bone and represents the midline of the skull, and specifically the inferior aspect of the Cranial Vault. It is through this bone that the bullet re-enters the facial skeleton. The Frontal Bone is considere part of the face, so in order to re-enter the facial skeleton, it had to exit the facial skeleton. All that area from the back side of the Frontal bone to just about where the orange and green meet at the top is the R Anterior Fossa. This Fossa is lined by all three layers you describe. Now when you are sitting and looking at these pictures keep in mind that the bullet is coming toward you and toward the Ethmoid Bone.
Now let's discuss his report appearing to state that the brain was not damaged. Since the Dura Mater lines the entire inside of the skull, once something passes through the anterior skull and transverses the r Anterior Fossa it had to pass through the Dura Mater. It has already went completely through the bone and entered into a different anatomical structure, in this case the R Anterior Fossa, which happens to be stuffed full of the R Anterior Lobe. How does something passe through the skull into a different structure and not pass through the Dura Mater which is glued to the inside of the skull. He does not come right out and say it, but he gave you all the clues to figure it out. The lack of intracranial bleeding is the reason some believe the gunshot was last, after he was essentially dead. Postmortem wounds don't bleed, so if there is no blood in the skull from the gunshot, then it came after he was dead. He does state that there does not appear to be any cerebral damage, but the add-on to that sentence gives the reason that he could not determine the amount of damage to the Cerebrum. The brain was decaying and liquifying, so the path of the bullet could not be accurately determined.
The second sentence is an easy explanation. You did the same thing Molly did. You left off the first sentence of the Internal Examination of the Nervous System. He talk about reflecting the scalp "in the usual fashion revealing the previously describe injuries". This sentence removes the injured area from the discussion of the rest of the nervous system. I know Molly threw out several other sections, but he says the same thing in each one where there were previous injuries described.
Now if you will go to the
ME Report: Discuss it here thread the first post by StephanieHartPI, you will see that she transcribed a good portion of the ME testimony. In line 14-16, he clearly states that the bullet did pass through the brain.
I don't know how else to explain this. I agree that he did not say it outright in his report, but the information to figure it out is right there in the report. In court, he was adamant that the bullet did pass through the brain.
I apologize if the pictures did not link correctly, I can't tell if they did until after I hit the reply button.
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