Victim's blood on defendant's clothing - impact spatter or not?

Let us imagine a court scene.  An alleged murderer is on trial.  The prosecution barrister is arguing that the victim's bloodstains on the defendant's clothes are present because  the defendant subjected the victim to a severe beating.  What can the defendant's barrister come up with to counter this assertion?

 

Clearly, the defence barrister wants an innocent explanation for the bloodstains.  For example, the defendant's clothes became bloodstained while he was trying to put the victim into the recovery position.

 

He may be in luck.  An alternative explanation for the amount and distribution of the blood spatter on the defendant's clothing is that the blood originated from the victim's respiratory system i.e. from breathing, coughing or sneezing through a bloody nose or mouth.  

Experiments have shown that an injured victim can produce 'blood aerosols', even if he or she is breathing shallowly through a single nostril or through narrowed jaws, teeth and lips.

The patterns of blood spatter produced by respired 'blood aerosols' can be confused with impact spattered blood.

Here is a very short video showing impact spatter.

Respired blood spatter evidence was pivotal in the eventual acquittal of Sion Jenkins, who spent six years in prison for the murder of his foster daughter, Billie-Jo.

On 15th February 1997, Billie-Jo, 13, was alone at home painting patio doors while Jenkins and his two daughters went shopping.  They lived in Hastings, E. Sussex, in the south of England.

When they returned from their shopping trip, they found Billie-Jo lying in a pool of blood in the back garden.  She had been attacked with an iron tent peg. 

Sion Jenkins became a suspect after 158 microscopic blood spots were found on his clothing.  He was subsequently charged with Billie-Jo's murder.

At his trial in 1998, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jenkins has always maintained his innocence.  His first appeal against conviction, in 1999, was a failure but his second was successful.  In August 2004, his conviction was quashed on the grounds that the verdict was unsafe.  He was ordered to be re-tried.

In fact, Jenkins had two re-trials.  The jury were unable to reach a verdict in either re-trial.  After the second re-trial in 2006, Jenkins was officially declared 'not guilty' of Billie-Jo's murder

It was at the re-trials that the respired blood spatter evidence was presented.  Here is a link to an article explaining this evidence.

Blood Spatter Evidence in Sion Jenkins Case

The case remains unresolved.





Killing off your Characters with Chest Injuries

As a crime writer, you know that finding ways to kill off your characters is part and parcel of the plot creation process.  So to help you out, here is a list of chest injuries. 

Although serious, all of these injuries are survivable with timely medical intervention.

So, you can choose whether to keep your readers in suspense while your character's life hangs by a thread; or, maybe, prevent the ambulance from reaching him or her in time.   Whichever way you want to write it, I hope you'll find this list useful for your storylines.

WARNING:  If you are squeamish, you may want to give the videos a miss.

 

Chest Injuries that can kill quickly

 

Windpipe Blockage

If a person's windpipe becomes blocked, oxygen cannot reach their lungs and without treatment, death is rapid.

Windpipe blockage is commonly caused by a person accidentally 'inhaling' a piece of meat.  This results in the so-called 'café coronary', because the symptoms mimic a heart attack.

Another cause of windpipe blockage is an allergic reaction, which causes swelling of the lips, mouth and throat, subsequently preventing air from reaching the lungs.

If a person receives severe blows to the face, their tongue may fall back and block the flow of air to the windpipe.
 

Pneumothorax

Pneumothorax is another name for a collapsed lung.  There are two main types of pneumothorax.

1. Tension Pneumothorax

The lung collapses owing to a stab or bullet wound or even by being penetrated by the end of a broken rib.  As a consequence,  there is a progressive build-up of air in the pleural space, because air leaves the damaged lung but cannot return. (The pleural space is the space between the pleural membranes that surround the lungs and the chest cavity).

The build-up of air causes the heart and the great blood vessels to be pushed to the opposite side of the chest. 

The heart is unable to pump properly so oxygen cannot get to the body's vital organs.  The victim may suffer cardiac arrest because of circulatory instability.

2. Open Pneumothorax

An open pneumothorax  is basically a hole in the chest caused by a stab wound or a bullet.  It is called the 'sucking chest wound'. 

Every time the victim breathes in, air enters the chest cavity through the hole instead of via the windpipe (trachea).  This leads to the victim being unable to ventilate his or her lungs properly and poor oxygenation to the vital organs.

 

Massive Haemothorax

A haemothorax is a condition where blood from torn vessels leaks into the chest cavity.  It can be caused by both blunt and penetrating trauma.  A massive haemothorax is defined as the victim having in excess of 1500ml of blood in the chest cavity.

Clearly, the victim will have difficulty breathing and will be suffering from blood loss, which may lead to shock.

 

Cardiac Tamponade

Cardiac tamponade is where the pericardial sac of the heart is filled with blood owing to blunt force trauma, or a penetrating wound (stab, gunshot) to the anterior chest.

In an uninjured  person, the pericardial sac (or pericardium) is the bag of tissue that surrounds the heart.  The pericardial sac has inner and outer walls which are filled with fluid.  This fluid acts as a lubricant for normal heart movement within the chest.

With an untreated cardiac tamponade, the pericardial sac expands, owing to the extra fluid i.e. the blood, and the heart is squeezed.  It cannot perform as efficiently, so the victim's blood pressure will drop.  The large vessels that carry blood to and from the heart will become obstructed.  The victim will die from cardiac arrest brought about by obstructive shock.

 

Flail Chest

This is a blunt force chest injury.  It is caused when a rib is broken in two places leaving a 'floating' piece of chest wall in between.  In a severe assault, more than one rib would be broken in this way.

This injury results in what is known as 'paradoxical breathing' and the injured chest wall 'flails'.  This is what happens.

On inhalation, the injured chest wall collapses in, whereas the uninjured wall moves out.

On exhalation, the injured chest wall moves out, whereas the uninjured wall moves in.

For the victim, this means that their breathing is uneconomical and the transport of oxygen around the body is hampered.  Furthermore, the underlying lung tissue is likely to be bruised, which also hinders oxygenation.

 

 

Chest Injuries that can take longer to kill

 

Heart Bruise

Here, a patch of cardiac muscle becomes injured as a result of direct blunt force trauma.  The tissue in the region of the impact dies. 

If the affected area is large, then the victim will suffer what is known as 'cardiogenic shock'.  This means that the heart is so damaged that it is unable to pump as much blood as the body needs. 

The condition has a 50 - 75% death rate, even when treated as a medical emergency.
 

Lung Bruise

Lung bruising is also caused by direct blunt force trauma.  Blood and fluid collect within the alveoli (air sacs) of the lungs and prevent oxygen from reaching the blood stream.

If severe, such an injury may not heal for many weeks - if the victim receives medical attention in time.  There is also the possibility that the bruised lung tissue may become hard and, therefore, permanently damaged. 
 

Torn Aorta

The aorta is the largest artery in the body.  It rises from the left ventricle of the heart, forms an arch and then extends down to the abdomen where it divides into two smaller arteries.  The aorta carries oxygenated blood away from the heart.

The aorta may become lacerated as a result of a car accident.  At worst, death will be instantaneous, as the chest cavity fills with blood when the aorta is ripped open.  At best, the tear in the aorta may be small and can be repaired by surgery - assuming a correct diagnosis is made at the hospital.  The victim may be suffering from shock as the result of blood leakage from the tear.

 

Torn Diaphragm

The diaphragm is the sheet of muscle that separates the chest from the abdominal contents.  Injures to the diaphragm can be caused by blunt trauma or penetration.

With blunt trauma, the diaphragm effectively bursts, whereas a penetrating wound may cause small holes in the diaphragm.

Here is a video showing surgery to repair a torn diaphragm.  The injury was sustained as a result of a car accident.

He was a very lucky man, as I'm sure you'll agree.
 



Death by Drowning - Murder, Suicide, Accident or Impossible to Tell?

The mechanism of death by drowning is complex.  Although drowning can be defined as 'suffocation owing to immersion of the nostrils and mouth in a liquid', a drowning person doesn't become asphyxiated simply by suffocation.

 

  
 

 

'Wet' Drowning

 

A conscious person immediately begins to struggle when he or she gets into difficulties in the water.  Every time the person comes to the surface they will try and take a breath and hold their breath when they become submerged again.  Inevitably, they will inhale some water and begin to cough vigorously.  Breathing becomes more difficult and snatched breaths become shorter and shorter.

 

Eventually exhaustion sets in; the person is unable to struggle any more and begins to drown.

 

The drowning person will no longer be able to hold their breath. They will inhale water until they lose consciousness and die.  Death may take 4 - 5 minutes in fresh water and 8 - 12 minutes in sea water.

 

'Dry' or 'Atypical' Drowning

 

People may also die as a result of sudden and unexpected immersion in cold water. 

 

This 'atypical' or 'dry'  drowning' is caused by cardiac arrest owing to 'vagal inhibition'.  This means that the vagal nerve, which lowers the heart rate in a healthy person, is, essentially, overstimulated so that the heart stops beating.  The person suffers almost immediate loss of consciousness and death follows soon afterwards. 

 

The Forensic Pathologist's Problem

 

Drowning cannot be proved by autopsy.  The pathologist has to take into account all the circumstances surrounding the death.  He or she has to prove that the victim was alive when they entered the water and exclude natural, traumatic and toxicological causes of death, before beginning to consider the possibility that the victim drowned. 

 

Here is a link to an article which explains in detail how a pathologist should investigate a possible drowning.

 

The Diagnostics of Drowning

 

So if establishing the fact of drowning is so difficult, can the pathologist determine whether the death was murder, suicide or simply an accident?

Accidental Drowning

The majority of drownings are accidental.  Alcohol intoxication is often a factor - falling into a swimming pool at a party or a solo midnight swim after a few drinks at a holiday beach bar, for example.

In non-alcohol-related accidental drownings, a small child may drown in a shallow garden pond while being left unsupervised or a dare-devil teenager may hit his head while jumping off rocks into the sea and doesn't re-surface alive.

In the absence of any other evidence to contradict a verdict of accidental death by drowning, the pathologist will be able to form his or her opinion accordingly.

Suicidal Drowning

Suicide by drowning is uncommon and difficult to prove without corroborative evidence, such as a suicide note (which must be verified as genuine by a forensic document examiner). 

It is also important to establish whether the victim had a significant history of mental illness.

If a person does decide to take their own life by drowning, the bathtub is the place of choice.  The victim may also have taken an overdose of medication or drunk a lot of alcohol beforehand.

Suicide victims in the bathtub are invariably clothed. 

The pathologist must establish that the nose and mouth of the victim were under water.  When the body is discovered by, for example, the victim's partner, he or she may empty the bathtub or move the body to get the airways clear of the water. 

Consequently, the pathologist cannot be absoutely certain of the original position of the body or the depth of water in the bathtub.

As with all potential findings of drowning, the pathologist must carefully correlate the circumstances preceding the death and the circumstances of the recovery of the victim from the water with the autopsy findings and laboratory analysis.  Only then can the pathologist form an opinion as to the likely case of death.

Homicidal Drowning

Homicidal drowning is actually very rare.  But with all victims that have apparently drowned, the pathologist must establish whether the person was dead or alive before they entered the water.

In other words, did somebody kill the victim first and then fake suicide or an accident or did the person hit their head or suffer a seizure, for example, before entering the water and drowning?

If the victim has injuries to the body, were they inflicted before or after drowning?  Was the cause of death the result of the injuries or the result of drowning?

It is not always possible for a pathologist to form a definite opinion about the cause of death in these instances.

Homicide may be suspected where an adult victim is found drowned in shallow water or when the victim is found naked in the bathtub in a staged 'suicide'.

If a healthy person is pushed into the water and drowns, there will be no evidence of homicide. 

An Unsolved Drowning Mystery:

This blog has barely scratched the surface of this complex topic, but I hope you will find something here to help you with your storylines.

I'm going to finish with a well-known, unsolved drowning mystery, which, perhaps highlights the difficulties that I have alluded to in my blog. 

Hollywood film star Natalie Wood drowned near Santa Catalina Island, California, in 1981.  She had been spending the weekend on a boat with her husband, Robert Wagner, and their friend, Christopher Walken.

At the time, her death was declared an accident by 'drowning and hypothermia'.

In November 2011, the case was re-opened, owing to 'new evidence' having been produced.  As a result of this new investigation, Natalie Wood's cause of death has been re-classified as 'drowning and undetermined factors'

Here is the boat's captain, Dennis Davern's version of events.

Just a cursory online search reveals numerous rumours and gossip surrounding Natalie Wood's death.  Maybe we will never know the truth.  However, the investigation remains open.