Good afternoon everyone!
Now that we know the cause of death was manual strangulation, I wanted to add some additional information about what could happen next. Hang on, this is going to be a
long (but hopefully informative) post.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer or forensic pathologist, nor do I claim to know exactly how the autopsy was conducted in this case. These are my own opinions.
Determination of manual strangulation
Upon receiving the body of a victim who died by strangulation, it is up to the coroner to determine the method of strangulation used. Autopsies in all three forms of strangulation––ligature, manual, and hanging––commonly reveal hemorrhages in the soft tissue of the neck as well as fractures of the hyoid bone and/or the thyroid cartilage, all of which can be used to reconstruct the method used and the sequence of events which transpired (Gascho et al. 85). Petechial bleeding (i.e., subcutaneous bleeding in the eyelids) is also typical in all three types of strangulation (Deininger-Czermak et al. 99). Interestingly, the presence of lymph node hemorrhage is a distinct diagnostic sign indicating manual strangulation as the manner of death as it is not present in cases of hanging (Yen et al. 509).
Given that all three types of strangulation share so many commonalities, additional examination in the form of postmortem CT and MRI scans are frequently used to more accurately determine the manner of death, which is what happened in Gabby's case. In conjunction with the standard autopsy measures,
Gabby's autopsy consisted of a whole-body CT scan as well as examinations by both a forensic pathologist and forensic anthropologist. Postmortem CT scans are used to detect pathologies, injuries, fractures, and foreign bodies while postmortem MRI scans are employed to get a more detailed look at soft tissue lesions such as bruises (Gascho et al. 85). The fact that the Teton County Coroner undertook a postmortem CT rather than an MRI suggests to me that the autopsy revealed a fracture(s) in her neck which conclusively suggested manual strangulation, since MRIs are usually relied upon in suspicious cases (Deininger-Czermak et al. 102).
Possible physical evidence implicating Brian
Unfortunately, despite the up-close-and-personal nature of manual strangulation, evidence such as hand marks and fingerprints are difficult to match and are generally inconclusive in the absence of distinctive physical abnormalities (Kristensen, Lynnerup, & Sejrsen 383). Additionally, in 55.9% of fatal manual or ligature strangulation cases the associated violence is insufficient to produce forensic evidence aside from a mildly disturbed scene (Cartwright 297)
Although it is possible Brian's DNA was found on Gabby's neck, due to the fickle nature of DNA evidence and the conditions in which her body was left it is unlikely his DNA will be recovered. DNA transferred from the offender to the victim and vice versa can be recovered and amplified for at least 10 days after the contact, but conclusive identification is usually hindered by the presence of secondary/tertiary DNA profiles (Rutty 170). In addition to the offender's DNA being transferred to the victim's neck during manual strangulation, the offender's DNA and third party (or more) DNA from direct contact and/or contact with an object is also deposited, making it next to impossible to obtain conclusive results (Rutty 172). For example, one experimental study found that during a simulated assault, 23% of neck areas swabbed showed nondonor alleles and 5% showed six or more nondonor alleles (Graham and Rutty 1077).
If Brian strangled Gabby in the past, there is a possibility that her body "recorded" that history of domestic violence. Increased mobility of one side of the hyoid bone without associated hemorrhage visible to the naked eye points to a prior strangulation incident which can be confirmed by using microscopy to identify the healing fracture (Davison and Williams 310). The discovery of such a fracture would help establish a pattern of abusive behavior beyond the Moab traffic stop.
The legal case against Brian
Yesterday on this thread there was some debate over whether or not manual strangulation is prima facie evidence of premeditation, but unfortunately there isn't a clear-cut answer to this. As part of their murder statutes, 29 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government all employ a premeditation or deliberation formula (Ferzan 84).
In 1994, the Court of Appeal in San Francisco
held that while manual strangulation may demonstrate deliberation, "there is nothing about it that inherently demonstrates premeditation" and reduced the first-degree murder conviction of a man convicted of strangling his girlfriend. In another instance of a domestic violence-related fatal strangling of 32-year-old Pennsylvania woman, a
judge rejected the prosecution's plea for a first-degree murder
conviction and reduced it to third-degree despite noting that the strangulation pointed to premeditation.
On the other hand, courts have previously recognized that premeditation does not have a time constraint, and have held that even seemingly instantaneous decisions can be classified as premeditated. In the West Virginia case of
State v. Schrader, the victim was suddenly stabbed fifty-one times by the defendant following an argument in the gun shop over the authenticity of a German sword. The trial judge informed the jury that "to constitute a willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, it is not necessary that the intention to kill should exist for any set length of time prior to the actual killing" (Pauley 151-2). The defendant appealed his conviction on the grounds that his crime did not qualify as premeditated, but the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
affirmed the conviction on the grounds that "the mental process necessary to constitute 'willful, deliberate, and premeditated' murder can be accomplished. . . in the proverbial 'twinkling of an eye.'"
When it comes to federal law, serious theoretical differences exist within each circuit as to what is considered premeditation (Oberlander 1213). The Federal Sentencing Guidelines established with the passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 create a "base offense level" which serves as the applicable, legally-binding guideline for a particular offense that acts as the basis for subsequent calculations, but this does not come into play until sentencing (Anderson, Kling, and Stith 279). For a federal felony-murder conviction, codified in
18 U.S.C. § 1111, the government must prove the death of another person and a culpable mens rea ("malice aforethought") for the death were elements of the offense, something which could be difficult in Brian Laundrie's case barring additional evidence such as phone records (Noyes 536).
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