Of course Ive read this before but today it's caused a double take. Im not clear on where all that blood came from: When a woman loses her virginity, yes there is blood but not enough to flow out of the vagina, onto the pubic area, and then down the thighs! Ditto for flow at the start of menstruation, especially when she is lying prone, either on her back or on her stomach.
I am presuming that JBR was prone when the assault and the bleeding from it occured, as this (to me) is the overwelming probability. I know there's been speculation that JB -- or her body -- was posed in a sitting position for a time. There's also been discussion that she'd been hung from her wrists (god I hate writing that) but I reject that idea since there's zip evidence to back it up.
Whatever position she was in, I dont see how there was so much blood that it flowed out of her vagina, to her thighs, so much so that it required wiping. If there were cuts to the vaginal wall (or anywhere else for that matter) I might reconsider, but Ive seen nothing about this in any report. Has anyone?
Renah, Im really glad you mentioned this. It triggered a memory of something else Id read. While JB had shown prior abuse, and there isnt anything that Ive read which states how often or how much prior, its safe to assume someone in her circle had violated the child previously. In Kolars book, when he is listing the coroners finding, Kolar lists the paintbrush insertion as one of the latter injuries, since it did not bleed much, so they felt it happened close to death, while she was unconscious, though before she was strangled.
What your question evoked, and I hated reading this let alone bringing it over, but I think it may be a key piece to contribute to understanding, was an excerpt on ACR. Its from the Bonita Papers by Dr. John McCann, a national leader and expert on child sexual abuse. His opinion was that a generalized increase in redness of the tissues of the vestibule was apparent, and small red flecks of blood were visible around the perineum and the external surface of the genitalia. It was also his opinion that the injury appeared to have been caused by a relatively small, very firm object which, due to the area of bruising, had made very forceful contact not only with the hymen, but also with the tissues surrounding the hymen. McCann believed that the object was forcefully jabbed in not just shoved in. Although the bruised area would indicate something about the size of a finger nail, he did not believe it was a finger, because of the well demarcated edges of the bruise indicating an object much firmer than a finger.
McCann was not able to see any fresh tears of the hymen which he thought might be due to the lack of detail in the photographs. It was unclear where the blood on the perineum originated, since there were no lacerations visible in these photos. McCann also noted that in children of this age group the labia, or vaginal lips, remain closed until literally manually separated. In order for there to be an injury to the hymen without injuring the labia, the labia would have to be manually separated before the object was inserted. The examination also indicated that the assault was done while the child was still alive because of the redness in the surrounding tissue and blood in the area.
The blood was wiped up. We dont really know how much blood. But it leads to another question, was it wiped up after someone discovered her, then jabbed her with the paintbrush to disguise an assault. Or was it wiped up by one person who struck her in a blind rage, so angry they then jabbed a paintbrush in her. That kind of rage, IMO, only fits the scene of PR finding JR and JB together in a compromised situation. To give ST and his theory credit, it could also have been an over the top response to toilet issues.
Or the person responsible for the attack assaulted her with the paintbrush while she was awake and she screamed in pain, at which point she was struck. This would fit more the BDI scenario. Someone else rushes to discover her and wipes up the blood, leading an investigator to assume the paintbrush happened near her death because of the absence of blood, which of course had been wiped up. Now I need a brain transplant trying to understand this All JMHO.