Just wanted to jot down some of my opinions / potential theories i.e the remains.
The weight of her body being 71lbs. Either:
1. The body was dismembered, and they only obtained a head & torso as was reported, and these weighed a total of 71lbs,
2. They have her entire body, the dismemberment was false / accidental, but decomposition had taken its toll, causing her to weigh significantly lower
IF they only have her head & torso:
- This must include her arms / hands for them to have seen her tattoo. However, they only mentioned the “Shhh” tattoo. Possibilities:
1. They only have 1 arm or hand, hence not knowing of the David tattoo on her other hand
2. They knew of the David tattoo, but didn’t want to publicise this to draw more attention to the investigation / their relationship
Something weighing on my mind - what if toxicology comes back clear? What if there were no drugs or alcohol in her system, or at least not ENOUGH to be the cause of her death? Then what?
Is there a COD which cannot be determined by toxicology or an examination of her remains?
If the toxicology comes back clear:
1. Her remains are too decomposed to gauge a clear cause of death
2. They are missing parts of the body which could tell them this, for example her leg? Such as a gunshot wound to the leg let’s say?
3. Her COD is not able to be determined via an autopsy. What could this be other than an OD? How does somebody die with no outward signs?
This is all speculation and MOO. I apologise for the long comment but I can’t help but wonder.
For your first point, I would select option 2 as the null hypothesis. All human bodies lose moisture after death. We are largely composed of water. It was very warm in August and relatively dry, so she was desiccating. I tend to believe she may have been in there since early August or even late July - that part is just a hunch,
Right now, they have no CoD, so they can't have MoD either. This is indeed really concerning. There are four main MoD's:
1. Natural Causes
2. Accidents/Misadventure
3. Homicide
4. Suicide
1. Natural Causes
Obviously, if she had medical records from up to age 10, the ME would know whether she had a chronic illness. But people can develop rapid onset of fatal illnesses, even as children. However, this does not seem at all likely to me. If she was as badly decomposed as it appears she was, they would still have been able to test for various conditions (but there could be some they could not diagnose after death).
The problem is that if someone found Celeste dead after a sudden illness - why would they not call 911? Why would they hide her body? Makes no sense.
#2: Accidents/Misadventure.
The bones should show whether she had ever fallen and hit her head or been struck hard enough by a car to die from it. Apparently, neither of these situations was detected.
She could have gotten into the trunk and closed it, without her phone or a way to get out (this is likely what the Defense would claim if there is no clear CoD).
She could have not known how to swim or been intoxicated and fallen into the pool and drowned. Again, why would the people who found her put her into the trunk??? Makes no sense.
#3 Homicide
Some obvious signs of homicide would have been visible on the bones, even if the flesh was in an advanced state of decomp, such as:
Shootings, Knifings, Blunt Force Trauma to the head, and in many cases Strangulation.
Other forms of homicide would be very difficult to deduce, if there are only bones:
Suffocation, drowning, poisoning. Maybe you all can help me think of others for these various categories.
It's driving me crazy to think that they may never know the Cause of Death. What if the toxicology panel comes back clean? Or simply detects use of alcohol? Or cannabis? Unless there is some drug more capable of killing her (cocaine, meth, heroin, etc) the toxicology panel may not be conclusive either.
Hopefully, they will charge someone with putting the body in the trunk, when they figure out who that was. Could have been more than one person. Hopefully, someone will reveal all during future interrogations when the detectives have more facts.
#4. Suicide
Basically two kinds: ones where you can see bullets were used or the person jumped off something, and ones where it is harder to tell (including drug use).
I really appreciate you bringing the subject up while we are in this information lull. I am trying to stick to what reputable papers have reported based on police information. Let's just say that it seems clear she was not shot to death, nor knifed, nor strangled. There are no signs that she was pushed off something and broke her neck or was concussed. Those would all be easy to ascertain for MoD.
Again, I'd appreciate more speculation on what they might have found, and not found, upon autopsy.
ALL SPECULATION and JMO.
