More from Brennan's 07.16.97, RMN article quoted above:
Dr. Ronald Wright, director of the forensic pathology department at the University of Miami School of Medicine, reviewed JonBenet's autopsy report Tuesday at the request of the Rocky Mountain News.
''She's been sexually assaulted,'' said Wright, who served as the medical examiner in Broward County, Fla., 13 years.
"She's had vaginal penetration.''
Wright -- who has done consulting for the FBI and worked on the Elvis Presley autopsy -- joined a growing chorus of out-of-town experts who see sexual assault as part of the unsolved Christmas night murder.
The experts reviewed the autopsy report released Monday by a judge's order.
...
"Somebody's injured her vagina,'' said Wright. "And she's tied up. Doesn't that make it involuntary sexual battery?''
Wright said the presence of a small amount of food in JonBenet's small intestine -- possibly pineapple fragments -- indicates she died well after her final meal, most likely late at night or early in the morning.
...
He said 20 to 60 minutes elapsed between the skull fracture and the strangulation.
The reason he's so sure, said Wright, is that details revealed about the brain injury, "the swelling, the bleeding here and there, they take a while to happen.''
(A side note: Hypoxia, a result of asphyxiation, contributes to cerebral edema.)
And that wouldn't have happened, he said, if she was already dead.
The argument is NOT that the victim had expired before the head blow was inflicted. The argument is that the perpetrator subjected JonBenét to partial (-OR- extended, repeated, attempted, etc.) strangulation prior to the final & complete strangulation which ultimately killed her and, in fact, did occur after the head blow.
"I think, probably, the head injury came first, because the strangulation resulted in petechial (pinpoint) hemorrhages'' in areas such as the eyelids, Kirschner said.
"I think she died when she was strangled. The cerebral hemorrhaging and bruising of the brain did occur first. But she was still alive when strangled.
..."a little longer", "a little more"? Okay. No argument here.
I do not have Lee's book, so I am unsure how he came to this conclusion. If you can share an excerpt, I would like to read more of his analysis, and (of course) I would be grateful.
The autopsy report describes the areas of brain hemorrhage as displaying no evidence of organization and lacking the presence of inflammatory infiltrate. So, when Lee describes "the head wound" as being "fully developed", to what specific injury is he referring and what evidence does he cite in determining this conclusion?
Thomas, Kolar, and Schiller have written about WS's analysis.
On p. 65-66 of FF: WRKJB, Kolar attributes the following sequence of injuries to the analysis Spitz shared with the BPD:
1. Bruising & abrasions on the front and sides of the throat from initial constriction.
2. Fingernail gouges/abrasions on the throat; defensive wounds.
3. Skull fracture, from blow to the head with the Maglite or similar object.
4. Vaginal abrasions, bleeding, & (acute) inflammation/vascular congestion from insertion of the paintbrush.
5. Final ligature strangulation from tightening of 'the garrote'.