Lights on the spiral staircase

[Why_Nut]

We do not decorate with these small sorts of lights during the holidays, so I have no direct experience and therefore come to ask of your own experiences.

A tiny snippet of video from a 48 Hours program of 1999 was broadcast showing a portion of the intact crime scene, which is to say, when investigators had not yet torn the house apart and gathered up all the evidence they wanted. What can be seen in the video is that in addition to the garland, pieces of which Arndt believed were found in JonBenet's hair, the spiral staircase was decorated with those familiar tiny Christmas lights so commonly used.

What I want to ask is, do they get warm or hot at all? It struck me that, if they were capable of generating anything other than cold light, some amount of poking into JonBenet's skin along her back and face (on the same side of her body, note) might have caused a bit of damage which would then decay faster after death than surrounding skin (a fact documented in the standard foresic investigation book MEDICOLEGAL INVESTIGATION OF DEATH), and perhaps we have our explanation for the "stun gun" marks right in front of us.

[Watching You]

I use little lights like that. They don't get very warm, not warm enough to leave a mark on you. With artificial trees and such, manufacturers have had to cool the lights down some, I think.

[koldkase]

I wouldn't swear to it in a court of law, because I haven't used these type of lights myself in years, but if memory serves, no, they don't get hot. If they did, they'd be quite hazardous to have in the home. Also, if that's an indoor/outdoor artificial garland, it wouldn't have lights that heat up because they'd crack and become a fire/electrical hazard in cold rain. Even if it's a garland made from real evergreen, that would be an even worse fire hazard with string lights that heat. Also, lots of people let these burn all day and some at night. The producers would have to account for even accidentally leaving them on all night. So no, I don't think they would have gotten hot at all.

I have often thought that it's as likely that the piece of garland in JonBenet's hair came from the cellar floor as from the spiral stair, since that is where lots of the Christmas deco was stored, wasn't it?

I think it's very likely that LE knows or has a good idea what made those marks. That's the kind of thing forensic experts see on bodies all the time, and they usually have a good idea what makes such marks, just like they know what colors and variations in bruising indicate: how old they are, if they're peri mortem or post mortem, etc.

[zoomama]

I sure like your thinking! That is a very good idea but unfortunately those little lights don't get past the barely warm stage. but I sure do like how you are thinking, thinking, thinking. Go get'em!

[Jayelles]

They don't get warm. We have several similar garlands on the starcase and mantlepieces and I tend to leave the staircase one on all the time (so it's on for about 3 weeks!) No heat. The adaptor feels warm to the touch though.

[Elle_1]

Christmas trees have been the cause of quite a few fires in the news, and the advice which goes out to the parents at Christmas time in our local paper is unplug your Christmas tree and lights inside the house.

Sounds like good advice to me.

[heymom]

We have a show here called, "MythBusters," and last night, the two "busters" tried to set a natural Christmas tree on fire with just lights. They put 2500 lights on a completely dry tree and still couldn't get it to ignite, they finally needed a spark to set it off (but then it REALLY caught fire and burned quickly). The tree with 2500 lights was completely unrealistic - there's no way to put that many lights on a tree unless you set up a separate power system.

What they decided is that no, you can't set fire to your Christmas tree just using regular Christmas lights. However, you CAN cause a fire if there is a short of any kind, so it's really important NOT to overload the lights, not to use frayed cords or extension cords that are old or undependable.

And the little lights might get a tiny bit warm, but not enough to cause any burns or marks of any kind.

[Jayelles]

Our house has an overly sensitive electrical trip system. It trips if a bulb blows! Over the years it has driven me mad at times, but my husband keeps reminding me that it's better this way.

[heymom]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

Our house has an overly sensitive electrical trip system. It trips if a bulb blows! Over the years it has driven me mad at times, but my husband keeps reminding me that it's better this way.

Yes, the circuit breakers can save your life!! Your husband is very right about that. A nuisance, but the safer sort of nuisance.

[Paradox]

If you take a close look at the picture you will see that the garland is wrapped around a series of stun guns and they are going off giving the appearance of little Christmas lights. But you have to look close.

[Why_Nut]

Originally Posted by Jayelles

They don't get warm. We have several similar garlands on the starcase and mantlepieces and I tend to leave the staircase one on all the time (so it's on for about 3 weeks!) No heat. The adaptor feels warm to the touch though.

Eh, it was an idea, and fortunately ideas are cheap and cost little to explore.

A thing I have learned, though, is that the new lights people use these days are probably LED lights, which do operate at cooler temperatures, but the lights in 1996, as seen in the screen shot, are more likely old-style incandescents, which did have some problems with running warm. I've found old newspaper articles warning people that even though they were small and looked harmless, put them on a timer so they would not stay on too long.

Now, the other intriguing aspect of the clip was in wondering just what the deal with it was. This was obviously taken very close to the time of the crime. Was it actually from the video mentioned in the various Ramsey interviews, the one that investigators took to document the house as a supplement to the still photos? If it was, who leaked it and why have we not seen more from it? The curious thing is that I have seen one other use of the same snippet, many years ago, again for just a second or two, on Court TV as part of one of their multi-talking-head shows, it might have even been the famous Burke-is-or-is-not-a-suspect program.

(One final digression: some day, it would be really neat to have back the full Ramsey home tour video from 1994. Peter Boyles used to host it as a RealMedia streaming format on his radio site back in the day, and as a piece shown during an old MSNBC program showed, it is possible that by looking at details from it, aspects of potential evidence might be possible to extract from it. I found a rope much like the one found in John Andrew's room being used as a table decoration for the 1994 video, and for all we know, other items of interest might be visible if you know what to look for.)

[Why_Nut]

Originally Posted by Paradox

If you take a close look at the picture you will see that the garland is wrapped around a series of stun guns and they are going off giving the appearance of little Christmas lights. But you have to look close.

Patsy spent almost $150 on stuff at McGuckin's in a one-week period in early December, you can buy a lot of tiny stun guns for that much.