And, IMO, here's some evidence of staging (which Dr. Cyril Wecht picked up on):
Note my previous posts about the *exceeding* rarity of cricoid fracture in suicidal hangings. A study on that exact subject, encompassing thousands of cases of hanging, found the percentage to be 0.003 of cases -- that's 3
thousandths of ONE percent of suicidal hangings have a cricoid fracture.
Now look at this diagram, based on the autopsy report's description of Rebecca's throat injuries:
See where the rope mark is? You can see why the hyoid bone *might* get fractured -- it's way up there, close to where the rope was.
But look down, far from the major ligature mark, to where the cricoid is, just above that little hollow at the base of the throat. NOwhere *near* the rope. NOwhere the rope would crush, in a hanging death.
That fracture is seen *almost* (think
99.997 % of cricoid fractures)
exclusively in homicidal strangulation. This FACT is published over and over in forensics manuals, studies and other scholarly texts. And looking at this diagram, it is easy to see WHY.
Now, this might make more sense of the other markings, so far completely unexplained, on Rebecca's throat. Those "thin red marks", perpendicular to the rope ligature (which makes them, where they are, horizontal to the rope burn-- AND much closer to that cricoid fracture).
Looking now at this LE presentation about criminal assault by strangling -- albeit, aimed at informing living victims:
https://www.azmag.gov/Documents/Recognizing Signs of Strangulation and Suffocation.pdf
In 42% of strangulations, says these police statistics, there's NO VISIBLE sign of strangulation.
In 22% of cases, the visible evidence is "too small to photograph".
So, in a whopping
64% of criminal strangulation cases, there's NO overt and obvious outward sign of the crime having been committed. You'd need an autopsy to prove it happened.
Like Rebecca's autopsy, where it can be SEEN that her injuries point to strangulation. No matter what all else is going on around it, there we have hard
proof of staging.
eta-- cred for the pic goes to cynic, ofc