UK Guy, great point. It could have been used cold too. You are in good company not believing these are burns. Dr. Werner Spitz, a "nationally known pathologist who has worked on major cases including the assassination of J.F. Kennedy" doesn't think they look like burns and at least three other pathologists agreed the
photo of the marks didn't look like stun gun marks. But Dr. Michael Doberson the forensic pathologist who was the coroner for neighboring Arapahoe County thinks they are stun gun marks and stun gun marks are electrical
burns.
I admit I am no expert, but I think they look like burns..."branding" type burns not an abrasion from a clothing SNAP. These marks are patterned...they show the shape of the weapon/object that made them. Without a
histological examination, we can not be sure what made those lesions. You can't tell from a photo and expert opinion can be WRONG.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1112740/
"Most general practitioners who excise skin biopsy specimens are not trained dermatologists, and
even the most “obvious” clinical lesion may not turn out to be what it was thought to be. This happens even to experienced specialist surgeons. A policy of selective histological referral when the doctor is not necessarily an expert dermatologist will certainly miss important diagnoses, but it also misses the basic point that these specimens are diagnostic and, once lost, can never be retrieved. It is also, I would argue, on dubious grounds legally if complications should develop."
Was the ME an expert dermatologist? How experienced was he with child abuse trauma death investigations? How experienced was he with burn trauma? His failure to use separate fingernail clippers is evidence he made at least one huge mistake while conducting this autopsy. After the fact, is he going to admit he should have looked at those lesions more carefully and he should have gotten tissue samples for a histological examination? Most "abrasions" aren't patterned and if they are they usually take the shape of the weapon or object that inflicted the injury. A patterned trauma injury needs to be examined very carefully and the crime scene searched for ANYTHING capable of making an injury with that pattern.
Sure, if IDI, he/she could have taken that weapon (not likely to be a curling iron) with them or if RDI they could have (probably did) get rid of that weapon/object as soon as they were able to do so. (Disposed of that night? Sister picked it up? Cleaned along with the flashlight and left in a bathroom?) Some think JB might have been strangled twice...could a curling iron cord have been used the first time? If the red cone-shaped mark WAS a burn from a curling iron then the ligature could have been staged specifically to throw investigators off. Imagine if that mark was on her neck but there were no signs of strangulation or ligature marks, what would people think when they saw that?
http://www.acandyrose.com/10042002-48hrs.htm
Erin Moriarty: (Voice Over) "The coroner for neighboring Arapahoe County, also believes the marks on JonBenet were left by a stun gun."
Dr. Michael Dobersen: "What we have to do is
match up the injuries with the weapon."
Lou Smit: "What you are seeing on the left, is you're seeing the actual injury on the back of JonBenet, the marks are similar in size and shape and color and they are a certain distant apart.. And the pig too, you see marks that were left on the skin of the pig."
Erin Moriarty: (Voice Over) "While there are some differences, both Dobersen and Smit believe the experiment confirms a stun gun was used."
Dr. Michael Dobersen: "
If it's not a stun gun I would like to know what it is."
Dr. Werner Spitz: "Are you telling me that this looks to you like the other one, the one that JonBenet has? They don't look like that to me at all.
A stun gun injury is an electrical burn, it's a burn essentially. And these don't look like burns."
Erin Moriarty: (Voice Over) "Instead, Spitz believes the large dark mark on JonBenet's face was left by a snap on a piece of clothing"
Dr. Werner Spitz: "You know like the snaps they have on blue jeans for instance. If you look at this one below the ear, this thing here. If you look at it closely with a magnify glass you will see within this brownish mark is a boat shaped structure which is missing with any of the other injuries."
Erin Moriarty: (Voice Over) "Unfortunately
with only photographs to go by no expert, not Dr. Spitz and not Dr. Dobersen can be one hundred percent sure."
How many pathologists do you suppose know curling irons can be safety-tip free, in a huge variety of diameters, and in shapes such as triangular and square? We don't know if PR even had a safety-tip free curling iron but perhaps photos and videos could be examined or witnesses (housekeepers? hairdressers? friends? BR? pageant moms?) interviewed.