I hate talking about her like this but how soon after clinical death does the bladder release? I'm not a medical person but my mom is. I suppose I could ask her.
I do know that shortly after death, all muscles in the body start to relax. I'm wondering if she were redressed and then the bladder emptied not right away but soon thereafter.
http://lithium.imascientist.org.au/2012/05/24/do-you-lose-control-of-you-bladder-when-you-die/
The thing here that is hard to really understand though is they said she was brain dead before the ligature was applied. If she was fully brain dead, then her bladder may have released prior to the strangulation. (possibility)
But what we do know is she was on her tummy when her bladder released due to the area that was stained with urine.
I can tell you this. As a nursing home nurse, it was common if a patient was dying, that simply turning them to change their depends, would cause them to take their last breath. But that is usually from a terminal or natural death. The lungs fill with fluid and basically you drown. It always seemed if they were rolled to their right side, they would pass away. I believe it was from the fluid shift from the lungs and the pressure of the heavy lungs on the heart. I had this happen multiple times during hospice care for patients.
I can't help but wonder from a medical standpoint, if she was having seizures or death rattles from her lungs filling with fluid in those last moments. I do not think her death was at all peaceful. I wonder sometimes if John's utterance of her looking peaceful when he found her stemmed from him possibly ending her suffering and giving her peace.
So regardless of when her bladder released, we do know from the evidence that she was on her tummy when it did release.
I think the only reason they wiped her down was to rid the body of blood evidence not necessarily urine stains.
Bladder release does vary depending on the manner of death and if the bladder had urine in it. Usually I found in natural deaths the patient had long stopped drinking fluids and therefore had no urine output.
With a sudden unnatural death, I would lean towards if death happened immediately vs. over a small amount of time. like 45- 2 hours in her case. It could be possible it was leaking out steadily after the head injury and not all at once. But she would still need to be on her tummy during this time for the pattern of urine on her panties and long johns.