otg
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About the above bolded... I have several times in the past disparaged Dr. Meyer over the fact that he had (by his own notes) spent something like a half hour outside the Ramsey hellhole before going in, and then only ten minutes examining JonBenet's body before leaving. While there is still much I think he should have done that he didn't, and other things that he obviously botched, I need to take back any comments I may have made in the past about him spending more time outside "shooting the breeze" with officers than he did with a homicide victim. Meyer was not allowed inside the house because he was told he couldn't examine the body until a search warrant was signed by a judge (this from the DA's office). This is what Dr. Frederick Zugibe had to say about that in his book Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner:
I couldn't agree more with everything you said, BOESP. As we go on, we still continue to learn more and find things we may have missed before (or forgotten, in my case).
About the above bolded... I have several times in the past disparaged Dr. Meyer over the fact that he had (by his own notes) spent something like a half hour outside the Ramsey hellhole before going in, and then only ten minutes examining JonBenet's body before leaving. While there is still much I think he should have done that he didn't, and other things that he obviously botched, I need to take back any comments I may have made in the past about him spending more time outside "shooting the breeze" with officers than he did with a homicide victim. Meyer was not allowed inside the house because he was told he couldn't examine the body until a search warrant was signed by a judge (this from the DA's office). This is what Dr. Frederick Zugibe had to say about that in his book Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner:
Coroners and medical examiners have the legal authority to enter a crime scene at any time without a warrant, and that, in fact, it is the essence of their job to take over the body and the scene as quickly as possible, and to oversee the investigation until the corpse is removed from the premises. To bar a coroner from a murder site is not only an outlandish breach of protocol, it is illegal.
But after Dr. Meyer left the scene, another medical examiner continued to process the body and the crime scene. Even then, many of the things that should have been done were not -- most importantly, measurements which would have narrowed down the TOD much better (internal body temp, vitreous humor sample, times taken, state of rigor and phase). From the Bonita Papers:
Boulder County Coroner, Dr. John Meyer, was the first to enter the residence after the search warrant was signed by Judge Diane MacDonald in the early evening hours of December 26. Dr. Meyer placed protective booties over his shoes and surgical gloves on his hands to prevent any further contamination of the crime scene. The only investigative duties of Dr. Meyer was to pronounce the death of the Little Miss Colorado and examine the remains to aid in solving this crime. Dr. Meyer observed ligature marks on her neck and petechial hemorrhages to her eyes both signs of death by strangulation. The coroner then left as Patricia Dunn, the Medical Examiner, would continue with the on scene examination of the body.
