Thanks, that's pretty close to the dimensions that I used but I didn't have nylon cord.
Since you think this was staging, how about a link to a post where you describe how you think she was actually strangled.
Johnjay:
I saved answering your post until I had time to give it the answer it deserves. Ill give you a link at the bottom to a post where I laid out how I think the major injuries occurred. But first, let me tell you what I feel are the important points that are sometimes either misinterpreted or given too little significance.
Youve probably heard several insiders say something that is contradicted by what we can see in photographic evidence. Arndt, Smit, Wecht, and I-dont-remember-who-all-else have said something about the cord having been wrapped around her neck twice or that she was strangled twice. But the autopsy photo shows the cord only wrapped once and tied very tightly at the back of her neck. That twice wrapped idea comes from the final resting place of the cord in the area that formed a furrow and the white line that is visible several inches below it. That white line is common enough in some strangulations that there even exists a term for it -- albeit somewhat obscure. Its called an
argent line. It forms during a strangulation when a cord or rope is used on a victim until they have died and the blanching phase has set in. The reason for this is that without blood circulation, any skin surface with pressure on it having the blood in the outer capillary bed pressed out doesnt have fresh blood return after the pressure is removed. If investigators see this on a corpse, even though the ligature has been removed and hidden or taken away from the scene, they know that the victim died from strangulation.
But the ligature on JonBenets neck had the ligature remaining and it was in a different location from where it originally strangled her. Additionally there were petechial hemorrhages (noted by the ME and visible in photos) between the two locations. These are the same petechiae that some point to as evidence of fingernail marks where they are grouped together. But the grouping patterns (agmination) do not resemble
known fingernail marks that are obvious in available photos. An explanation for all these things can be found in the book
Pathology of Neck Injury, by Peter Vanezis. In it is the following passage:
"It is not unusual in homicidal ligature strangulation to find that there is more than one ligature mark, each of varying intensity and crossing each other, in parallel or at an angle to each other. Together with such an appearance, one quite commonly sees abrasions caused by movement of a ligature across the neck."
Does this not describe exactly what is seen on JonBenets neck? This accounts for the areas of petechial hemorrhage and abrasion encompassing an area measuring approximately 3x2 inches mentioned in the AR.
But the white argent line doesnt show up in the photo of the back of her neck. It is very prominent in the front and it goes in an upward angle toward the back. It could be that the reason it doesnt show up in the back is because it converges with and disappears into the ligature furrow, or it could be because the cord was pulled away from her neck in the back when she died. If the latter is the reason, it would be the well-known inverted V typically found in suspensions. The upward angle itself is also typical in suspensions. I believe this white line is from the initial strangulation and is what killed her. It indicates that the cord was around her neck in that position for a period of time after death during the blanching phase of postmortem changes. But it wasnt there long enough for a furrow to have been formed which occurs over a period of hours after death while the pressure of the cord compresses the underlying flesh and swelling occurs around it.
Another thing I feel is important that people tend to overlook is the fraying at some of the cord ends. That type of nylon cord frays when it is cut while under tension. The more tension there is, the more fraying occurs. Look at the end of the short end of the cord around her neck and compare it to the cord ends of the section that tied her wrists together. Especially considering that the wrist cord didnt really restrict movement of her arms and only serves (along with the tape over her lips) to make it appear she had been restrained and silenced by an intruder, do you think both pieces of cord might have been only one section originally and was cut while it was being pulled?
These and other things we know about are explained by what I believe happened. I havent seen or heard anything that would contradict any of it. If youve bothered reading this lengthy post and still care to see how I think it happened, read the sequence of events that I believe happened in the following post. If you care to read more, there are links at the bottom to further reading on the subject which much of this is based on.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?226503-Explain-BDI-to-me&p=9981961#post9981961
(Good and decent people are confounded by what appears to them to be pure evil, and when confronted with it their best defense is to deny its existence -- especially when it seems to exist in the home of other good and decent people.)
