Hi UK,
Im not certain if absolutely everything at an autopsy is documented with photographs, although, obviously, all marks, injuries, or anything deemed to be important forensically would be. Its also possible that such a picture was not available because of the way Meyer conducted the autopsy.
A read through of this description from PMPT seems to indicate that maybe Meyer may have conducted an examination of a fully clothed JonBenet, followed by an examination of an unclothed JonBenet. The description seems to support the possibility that he may have looked beneath the long johns to check for matching stains but perhaps did not remove them entirely. This all assumes that what follows is an accurate depiction of what Meyer did.
Shortly after 8:15 A.M. on December 27, Dr. John Meyer entered the autopsy room at Boulder Community Hospital, accompanied by his medical investigators, Tom Faure and Patricia Dunn. Dunn had been at the Ramsey house the previous day and was Meyers primary investigator on the case. For the autopsy, Detectives Linda Arndt and Tom Trujillo were on hand for the Boulder police; senior trial deputies Trip DeMuth and John Pickering were there for the DAs office.
Attendants unsealed a heavy white plastic bag, revealing JonBenéts body wrapped in a sterile white sheet. The child was placed on the steel autopsy table, whose slightly inclined subtray permitted fluids to drain into a sink-type apparatus. The sheet was removed and set aside as part of the evidence.
Meyer knew that in nine out of ten cases of a childs suspicious death, the perpetrator or an accomplice says that a bike fell on the victim or the child slipped in the bathtubsome accident is concocted to explain the victims injuries. Meyer also knew, however, that good forensic pathology usually reveals the real cause of death.
JonBenéts body was just as Meyer had observed it twelve hours earlier in the Ramsey living room. Every stitch of her clothing, plus the ligatures on her right wrist and around her neck, remained in place. Paper bags had been sealed around her hands and feet to preserve any possible trace evidence.
Patricia Dunn took color slides for the coroners office, while Detective Trujillo shot photos for the police department. Dunn shot 113 frames, documenting each stage of the procedure. Meyer dictated his observations into a tape recorder.
The decedent is clothed in a long-sleeved white knit collarless shirt, the mid-anterior chest area of which contains an embroidered silver star decorated with silver sequins, Meyer began. Tied loosely around the right wrist, overlying the sleeve of the shirt, is a white cord.
On the childs right sleeve, the coroner saw a brownish-tan stain about 2½ by 1½ inches in area, which seemed consistent with mucus from her mouth or nose.
There are long white underwear with an elastic waistband containing a red-and-blue stripe. Meyer also noted urine stains on the underwear, in the crotch area, and at the front.
Beneath the long underwear are white panties with printed rosebuds and the word Wednesday on the elastic waistband. The panties were also stained with urine. At the crotch, the coroner spotted several red spots that were each up to ½ inch in diameter.
Meyer then recorded the injuries that were visible with the body clothed. Beneath her right ear, at the point where the jawbone forms roughly a right angle, was a rust-colored abrasion about 3/8 by ¼ inch. There was pinpoint hemorrhaging on the upper and lower eyelids.
Meyer described the cord around the childs neck: Wrapped around the neck with a double knot in the midline of the posterior neck is a length of white cord similar to that described as being tied around the right wrist. He cut through the cord on the right side of her neck and slipped it off.
A single black mark is placed on the left side of the cut and a double black ink mark on the right side of the cut. Meyer stated these specifics in case it would be necessary to reconstruct the cord as evidence. He knew the police would want the knot left intact, to study the technique used to secure the ligature.
There were two tails of cord trailing from the knot. One was 4 inches long and frayed. The other was 17 inches long and had multiple loops secured around a wooden stick that was about 4½ inches long.
This wooden stick, Meyer said, is irregularly broken at both ends, and there are several colors of paint and apparent glistening varnish on the surface. Printed in gold letters on one end of the wood [stick] is the word Korea.
Fine blond hair, Meyer noted, was tangled in the knot of the cord around the childs neck as well as in the knot of the cord tied around the stick.
The white cord is flattened and measures approximately ¼ inch in width. It appears to be made of a white synthetic material. Also secured around the neck is a gold chain with a single charm in the form of a cross.
Meyer then recorded a series of observations about a groove left in JonBenéts neck by the cord. In front, it was just below the prominence of her larynx. The coroner noted that the groove circled her neck almost completely horizontally, deviating only slightly upward near the back. At some points, the furrow was close to half an inch wide, and hemorrhaging and abrasions could be seen both above and below it. The groove included a roughly triangular abrasion, about the size of a 25-cent piece on the left side of the neck, that Meyer had seen when he first viewed the body at the Ramseys house.
Continuing with the external examination, Meyer noticedand Detective Arndt also observeda number of dark fibers and hairs on the outside of JonBenéts nightshirt. Using forceps, Meyer lifted these for later microscopic analysis. Everyone in the room could also see strands of a green substance tangled in the childs hair. Arndt believed shed seen the same thing the day before; it was probably some of the holiday garland decorating the spiral staircase that led downstairs from JonBenéts bedroom.
Meyer then removed her clothes and set the garments aside to be placed into evidence.
The unembalmed, well-developed, and well-nourished Caucasian female body measures 47 inches in length and weighs an estimated 45 pounds, Meyer dictated. The scalp is covered by long blond hair, which is fixed in two ponytails, one on top of the head secured by a cloth hair tie and blue elastic band and one in the lower back of the head secured by a blue elastic band. No scalp trauma is identified.
Meyer began an internal examination of the body.
Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Lawrence Schiller, pages 38 - 43