South Africa - Susan Rohde, 47, murdered, Stellenbosch, 24 July 2016

[tmar]

There is one aspect of his testimony that does feel very real, and that is his complete lack of love for Susan. It fits with his version too, so he has no reason to lie about it, but the danger is it also fits with the State's case.

His testimony about the last time he saw Susan alive, standing at the foot of the bed after him saying he was 'done' and before he says he went back to sleep, and not being able to remember Susan's words sounds like a lie. I think if you had woken up an hour later and then discovered your wife had committed suicide you would force yourself to remember at that point what they had said only an hour ago. It was their last words, so there would be a point to backtrack over what they said and if there was any indication they were going to go and do that. This is something that feels very off and adds more weight to it being a lie.

I don't think Perumal is going to save JR's bacon. There is no explaining the broken ribs with the ingested blood in her intestine, less than an hour before her death. JR has restricted her time of death with those texts from Susan sent after 7am.

Rohde probably sent those last texts.
Wouldn't it be great if the last fingerprints on phones, could be determined.
Perhaps this could happen in the future with further expertise.

 

[JudgeJudi]

 

[JudgeJudi]

Reggie Perumal, the Defence's pathologist is on the stand today. He says he has done many suicide cases by hanging.

Perumal talked with State pathologist Dr Khan over the phone. "It's always best to do autopsy jointly".

Khan could not come to JHB for second autopsy so that is why Perumal phoned him for info.

Khan told him by phone that he had been to scene of death and one finding was fracture of hyoid bone. Also bruises.

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[JudgeJudi]

Khan told Perumal he did preliminary drug screening on Susan's urine and it was negative.

Perumal proceeded to do his own autopsy. Histology cal finding was "non-specific multi-organ failure".

With hyoid bone, Perumal noticed a spot of bleeding on inside. "Hyoid bone was intact. No fractures or loose joints".

Perumal: I took hyoid bone to a firm to be x-rayed and found it was entirely intact without fractures.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal: I had to get financial authorisation to do a CT scan on the bone.

Perumal says CT scan is superior and confirmed no fractures of hyoid but also "excluded joint pathology".

Perumal concludes that apart from a bit of bleeding, there was absolutely nothing wrong with hyoid bone.

Perumal explains he kept a sample of blood from thigh veins and looked for alcohol and anxiolytic drug presence.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal says alcohol result was 0.03g/100ml. Khan found 0.05. Difference could be because of time between autopsies.

Perumal says different findings in blood alcohol results could also be because of different lab standards. He doubts it.

Van Der Spuy asks if Perumal knows what Urbanol and Stillnox are. He says Urbanol is a benzodiazepine.

Perumal: Report says these drugs were not detected in Susan. Can't say what their half-life is.

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[JudgeJudi]

Van der Spuy is now looking at a album of photographs that Perumal took at the second autopsy.

Perumal was asked to prepare a brief report summing up all his investigations and findings. This report is handed up to court.

Perumal: "I neglected to go into lots of detail in terms of the areas of testimony of Drs Khan and Abraham".

Van der Spuy points out that Dr Khan criticised Perumal's autopsy and what he failed to look for. Other criticism was that he could not be trusted because he was paid by defence.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal says he has done "many, many" autopsies and has 29 years experience. On criticism, he repeats quote: "I may not agree with you but I will defend to the death my right to disagree with you".

Perumal: I will respect any colleague who holds a view different from me and their right to do it but I would appreciate if a colleague used science and logic as basis to criticise me and not take it on a personal level.

Perumal: "With my experience in giving evidence, I have worked with very senior people. This is the first time I have encountered such comments". He says he will not respond to the comments.

Perumal looks to judge and says: "It is generally, nationally and internationally, accepted that this is a report on a post-mortem exam and it should detail the factual observations". Says practitioners should refrain from putting in too much opinion.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal: "We need lots of information before we make an opinion. Often you will be proven wrong when more information becomes available".

Perumal is asked if he was ever asked to do a crime scene investigation and he nods. He says it is most common to visit scene after doing autopsy.

Perumal "wants to put things into perspective"". He says when called to a scene before autopsy, a forensic pathologist has to ask "what is my purpose?" Teaching is to do and say as little as possible. "Primary purpose is to determine the time of death".

Perumal says he refrains from giving comment on cause or mechanism of death "because that is not my job at the scene". Says there will be errors because of rushing.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal says he can give far more information after he has done an autopsy. He now refers to Oscar Pistorius case as an example.

Perumal on working on Oscar Pistorius case: We were not given access to scene for 5 days. When I went the house, I could immediately tell there was a spent projectile in the toilet bowl which police had not picked up because I understood body and autopsy.

Perumal, dressed in a dark pinstripe suit, rests his hand on the witness box. He loses his voice every now and then but speaks calmly and slowly.

Van Der Spuy goes through Perumal's observations of identifiable features. These include Susan's scars, weight, height.

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[JudgeJudi]

As Perumal speaks about Susan's body, Rohde puts his hand to his eyes.

Perumal speaks about the dissection of the neck and lifting hair up to look at the back. Says there was an abrasion 5mm wide.

Perumal shows judge a photograph of ligature imprint with blanched areas and some reddening above and below.

Perumal: "You can see there is some friction area, some area that is red and felt a little bit leathery". Says ligature imprint has a "different nature".

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal: The most common ligature is a rough rope or a rope with a rough surface. The skin gets an abrasion, which removes top layer of skin and exposes underlying tissue. This tissue becomes dry and gets leathery appearance.

Perumal now talks about hanging. "In the process of hanging, with the structures in the neck, the main insult is deprivation of oxygen to the brain. There are various ways, mechanisms that happens."

Perumal: To predict which mechanism is used in hanging is not easy. Our pathophysiology info comes from mainly from rats and dogs because that research is not ethical on humans.

Perumal says there is a working group on human asphyxia which analysed a series of videos. "There is a rapid loss of consciousness, as early as 8 seconds. At 10 sec, there are convulsions".

Team News24 (@TeamNews24) | Twitter

 

[LouP1209]

Good morning all,

Thanks as always for the updates JJ,

I'm listening on and off while working - dipped in and heard about a shot gun wound and then world war 2 - thought I'd fell in to a parallel universe!!

 

[JudgeJudi]

Perumal: After convulsions, the body is flaccid. Depending on the environment, with the convulsive movements, the person can strike something and get an injury on the limbs.

Perumal says there will be a fair amount of traction of tissue in the neck, above and below the ligature.

Perumal: That would explain how somebody would have hung themselves in a certain position... but in the end the body would take a different posture at the end when a person dies.

Perumal says it is his opinion that the most likely point of suspension, where the knot was, was at the right ear. He says textbooks dictate most common position is right or left ear.

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15 minute adjournment

 

[JudgeJudi]

We are back after tea. Perumal is still talking about the skin around the neck area.

Perumal: The most probable point of suspension is related to the right ear. Ligature comes down, almost transverse on the left side, deepest with leathery parchment appearance on left side, then goes around to rear of neck and appears to rise up to right ear.

Perumal: The most common hanging item is rough rope and then electric cord. Cord doesn’t leave as much friction because the outer covering is smooth. There was no attempt by someone to grab at the ligature as an afterthought.

Perumal: There would be some degree of distortion in terms of incisions at first autopsy and subsequent reconstruction.

Defence asks Perumal to indicate on a female mannequin where the ligature was.

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Very interesting testimony.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Perumal takes Khoki and indicates where on the neck ligature marks were.



Perumal: I couldn't identify any definitive anti-mortem bruises in the subcutaneous tissue at the time I did the autopsy.

 

[patCee]

Can't wait to hear Perumal's findings re Kahn's explanation for Susan's broken ribs and the internal bleeding from these occurring prior to death.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Perumal: "We have learnt from doing autopsies that especially in region of neck, we have to be very careful about making findings. Once you start cutting tissue, it looks like everything is injured". Says that is why he couldn't make definitive findings there.

Perumal makes mention of confusion around death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, which was initially thought to be a murder but later emerged to be due to natural causes.

Perumal: I didn't put any emphasis on the thyroid cartilages. Says Dr Khan is lying when he says he didn't tell him over the phone that he had found a fracture of the hyoid bone.

Judge Salie-Hlophe asks if defence is done with the mannequin because it is obstructing her view. The mannequin is put face down on the floor in front of hotel bathroom door.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal lists some abrasions on top of some of Susan's toes & abrasion, bruise just below her left eyebrow. Also a bruise below & behind her right ear, small abrasions on knuckle, bruise on left wrist. Healing bruises on right upper thigh, left upper leg.

Susan's nails and fingernails were painted grey and intact.

Perumal says he wrote a chapter in a book about violence against women and children. Says it is necessary for practitioners to do facial flap dissection because some injuries are invisible from outside. Also can't see hidden areas of lips and cheeks.

Perumal says he did the facial flap dissection on Susan. Only took one photo because "it is very unpleasant to look at". He says he doesn't want public to see this photo.

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[JudgeJudi]

Perumal uses his hand on neck to show where underlying bruises would be found if someone strangled with a hand. "If you are using interrogation procedure, using inner lining of tyre tube, you can still see bruises related to the face".

Perumal says he found no evidence of smothering. Stresses that there "is an enormous onus" to do a facial flap dissection where a woman has died, especially where there are fresh and healing injuries. It wasn't done at first post-mortem.

Perumal says there were no skull fractures and no pathology in the brain. "I found bruises on the tongue." He would have expected a practitioner to cut through tongue tissue. Bruises likely to be associated with biting on tongue during convulsions.

Perumal: There were fractures of ribs 2-5, on the left side and anterioral but no associated hemorrhaging. Fracture of sternum and on ribs on right side with some associated hemorrhaging.

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