Was really disappointed to hear about the news Shannan's death being ruled inconclusive. Nothing really surprises me anymore...I wonder if they tested the bone marrow for diatoms? Couldn't they at the very least determine how long the body was in the water at that location? That'd be a fairly important piece of evidence is it's possible. So two bones were missing from her neck, what do the rest of you think? Is it an indication that she was strangled and/or they missed them in the search? Or perhaps was taken elsewhere for awhile? Another detail--was her body wrapped in burlap or not? I seem to recall that it wasn't.
PS-I was writing while you posted Peter, very good questions on how the diatoms would enter the bone marrow. How would you distinguish between the two, indeed? Drowning or sitting in the same body of water? Very good question...
Thanks! But thinking twice of it, how would the bone come into the bone marrow of the victim anyway. Someone drowns, life ends in a few minutes. No way any biological process can bring diatoms into a bone, which is closed at this moment. The marrow is inside. My guess is, the doctor said two things, one about bone marrow and one about diatoms to a journalist and said journalist mixed it together, not bothering about understanding anything of it.
The process has to be )in my opinion):
- a person drowns
Which technically can happen in two ways, wet drowning and dry drowning. Wet drowning, of course, means, water or any other liquid, comes into the lung and interrupts the normal breathing. Which can take several minutes.
Dry drowning, as sometimes also seen in diving accidents, means, there is a cramp preventing the water from coming into the lungs. But the cramp of the bronchi also prevents air from coming in. So it's rather a kind of asphyxiation. Then, obviously, an ME wouldn't find water in the lungs at all.
- the person lies in the water
but since the person doesn't breath anymore, there is no way, additional diatoms come into the lungs. However, additional diatoms can be found all over the outside of the bidy.
- the water dries out
We talk here about a rather wet area, but latest in the relative hot summer months, the water is reduced to puddles. Means, all diatoms on the bodies outside, dry out and die. The diatoms inside won't make it also, but they will hang on a little longer.
- the person decomposes
After some times, all soft tissue is gone. That includes the lungs. Remains of the dried out diatoms in them will maybe, depending on the position of the body, settle down on bones either in the back, front, or side of the rib cage. Technically, they would follow the pull of the gravity and just fall down, what bones ever are under them. Since bones at this time may split open, I can't say, it's entirely impossible, if the body for example lays on the back, that some few dead diatoms also fall inside a split bone.
However, remember, the whole outside of the body was covered in the very same diatoms as those inside the lungs. They also dried out and dies. Now, with the tissue gone, they also settle down - on every bone, they fall on. So there si in my opinion, no reasonable way, to distinguish between a diatom inhaled during the process of drowning and one sticking to the skin of the chest since that event. And after those summer months, the diatoms are dead anyway and by that subject to decomposition as well.
- The water returns
The winter comes, not much snow there, more rain on the East Coast. Rain water of course, can also hold diatoms from other sources. Since the estimation in which body of water a person drowned, is basically mapping the mix of different types of diatoms (kind of a diatom mix finger print of a body of water), this will shift the picture when rain falls on the remains. It's like diatoms from maybe pretty far away visit and stay on the remains.
Then, in Spring, the area gets a little flooded. More rain, the puddles grow again. The remains get wet again, this time from a mix containing diatom population from the puddles around and more rainwater. Now "diatoms" is a generic term. Technically, depending on which body of water, it can be a dozen or more different family members. Since the first diatoms were inhaled by the victims, this community of diatoms has lost some members and won some new ones by the means of rain and flooding. So at this time, the diatom mix on the remains and in the nearby puddle will differ because the diatoms in the water are alive and become more, the balance will shift again over the next months due to Darwinistic processes. But all of that won't happen on the human remains nearby. Because the second layer of diatoms has settled down there and will die as soon as the water goes back in summer.
- the water goes away
Summer again ... remains fall dry, the next year of diatoms dies on all bones.
- Fall again
More rain, more diatoms from other sources
- Winter
LE finally finds the remains. In the meantime, two seasons worth of diatoms settled down on the body, the second years directly on the bones.
Lets face this, if I would be a juror and Dr. Baden would tell me, he determined in this case drowning, he would better deliver some good explaining how that is supposed to work before I buy into it. And keep in mind, I actually think, she drowned or died there due to the circumstances (I wouldn't exclude heart attack after drug abuse that night either).
Peter
