Evidence of....... Evidence suggestive of.....

That was my instinctive reaction, too.

I've always thought JonBenet was initially (and accidentally) somewhat "strangled" by the twisting of her shirt collar. This strangulation did not cause her death, but it was part of JBR's struggle with another person trying to gain control over her.

A right-handed person would have grabbed JonBenet's shirt collar on the left side of JBR's neck. If the grip on the collar was released, and JBR was pulling against it, or the grip was used to promote active force against JBR, the resulting head injury would be towards the RIGHT and REAR side of JonBenet's head ... which is exactly where the skull fracture is located. In other words, the injury is in the opposite direction of the hand grip, which is at the LEFT and FRONT of JonBenet's neck/head.

Of course, the knuckles marks aren't not meant to represent entire fingers. Half of a person's hand (even a small female hand) would not fit on JonBenet's neck ... but the knuckles themselves WOULD. The bruising is from the knuckles. In fact, if (as a right-hander) you grab someone's rounded shirt collar from the outside and twist it towards yourself (or to the left) tightly, your knuckles will end up at the exact angle displayed on JonBenet's neck.

I think the order of injury was accidental strangulation with the shirt collar to gain control, then accidental head injury. The ligature was applied to divert attention away from the head injury AND to help cover the emerging shirt collar/knuckle bruising on JonBenet's neck. It also helped foster the cover-up idea of a criminal intruder being to blame. It was supposed to help in all three areas, and be the focus for the reason of her death.

 

When I compare my fingers with the imprint, it's too small to match my fingers. That's on a computer which is showing the image of her head much larger than it would be in real life and I don't have big hands, so I'm not sure it is from hands (although it does look like that). I think some of the "intruder did it" people have tried to say that mark was from JB's hands and was proof that she tried to pull the string off. But, it looks like it's too small to be a full imprint of her hand.
Are there any pictures that clearly show the measuring tool so you can tell how big it is? It's possible that because of the parts that are in contact with the body, that a hand would cause a much smaller imprint than the actual size of the hand itself.

One of the article I found about head injuries indicated that a fall down stairs usually does not result in a severe injury, because it is usually a series of small falls that dissipate the force (hitting several steps) rather than one fall with a large amount of force.

 

Cherokee - the scenario where somebody's angry, grabs her by the collar, twisting, and bangs her into a bedpost or stair baluster totally works - it further explains the lower bruise-line, below where the garotte ended up. All those injuries in a split second. She would have lost consciousness immediately and not been able to be awakened.

 

I think so too.

 

Wow Cherokee great work improving those pictures and thereby proving Spitz theory to my opinion

 

Here's a thread with pictures of the bedpost
if it doesn't open to the right page, the bedpost pictures are on page 5 and 6.

 

Exactly Wombat.

Like I said, I know the bruise is too small for a full knuckle/finger print ... but it's not too small just for knuckles that are twisting INTO flesh. This was not a stationary imprint made on an unmoving body. JonBenet was probably moving and twisting around, and the knuckles would have been slipping and moving against her neck.

I know I have small hands, (I'm barely 5'4" tall), but my knuckles DO fit into the area of bruising. Of course, the areas defined by the lines I drew would not have made an EXACT imprint of the knuckles. There would have been blurring of the knuckle lines and pressure during the twisting and grip ... but I do think it's significant there are noticible curves in the bruise that could correlate to the knuckles of a small adult female hand.

 

Cherokee:

“I've always thought JonBenet was initially (and accidentally)
somewhat "strangled" by the twisting of her shirt collar. This
strangulation did not cause her death, but it was part of JBR's
struggle with another person trying to gain control over her.

Right.


“I think the order of injury was accidental strangulation with
the shirt collar to gain control, then accidental head injury.
The ligature was applied to divert attention away from the head
injury AND to help cover the emerging shirt collar/knuckle
bruising on JonBenet's neck. It also helped foster the cover-up
idea of a criminal intruder being to blame. It was supposed to
help in all three areas, and be the focus for the reason of her
death.â€

I don’t know that there was any concern about covering the
bruising on JonBenet’s neck. After all, if the staging were
successful, it would all be attributed to an intruder. I can’t
say exactly how all the bruising and abrasions were made, but
struggle prior to skull fracture is indicated. All in all, I’d
say your theory is in the ballpark with the main theme very
highly probable with the staging known for sure.

 

The problem with the knuckles and the bruise is that the bones are pretty far apart and the bruise would probably not be so close together, even with movement/struggling.
I apologize for the quality of the picture (it's hard to take a picture of your own right hand), but how about this part of the hand as a possibility:
The fingertips/first knuckle are smaller both in length and width, would tend to be pushed closer together by the action of twisting a shirt collar, so they would take even a smaller space. Also the shape would fit.
If the tips of the fingers were curved a little more toward the palm than the picture shows (which I could not do and take my own picture), there would not be any imprints/cuts from the fingernails.

 

An interesting experiment

Here's an interesting experiment with this photo for those with a paint program on their computer. After saving this photo to my computer, I opened the paint program I'm using (Paint Shop Pro 7) and altered this photo with the following steps:

After loading the picture into Paint Shop Pro, go to Effects > Artistic Effects > Chrome. Set Flaws = 4 and adjust Brightness for your monitor.

Some time ago, I posted the altered photo here a FFW. The following link shows the view provided by wombat as well as a side view of the red mark on JonBenet's neck, as altered by the steps above. http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=983

The altered photo does not appear to reveal the imprint of a knuckle.

-Catfish

 

The Chrome seemed to distort the picture (at least to me).
I have Photoshop and did something simpler to the original picture to make a negative. I just removed the color to make a black and white version and then iverted the colors to make a negative. Here's the result.

 

I don't think

that triangular mark is a bruise. It appears to be an abrasion. Something similar would happen if the rope were crossed over at that spot and the skin was abraded there. I have seen a picture with a similar abrasion caused by ligature strangulation. I really don't think knuckles would abrade the skin - rope or perhaps fabric would. imo

 

Texan it seems to be possible according to Forensic expert Dr. Spitz, who was involved in the murder investigation of JB, he came to the following conclusions, see Steve Thomas book page 254:

“First there had been a manual strangulation, by twisting the collar of the shirt, with the perpetrator’s knuckles causing the neck abrasion. That was consistent with a rage-type attack.
Then came the devastating blow to the head, followed by the garrotte strangulation.â€

 

By any chance, Texan,do you have a photo of this picture you have seen? I haven't seen any that can come up to par with this one. What are your thoughts on the freckle type of marks on her neck? I know other posters feel this was from Patsy's diamond cluster rings. I can see why they think this way.

 

I think

maybe you are talking about petechiae? Those are the little hemmorhage spots that Jams and her minions believe are scratches from JBR's own nails as she attempted to pull away the garrotte.

I wouldn't want to argue with Spitz - he is a Dr. and I am not. However: I have seen that previous photo and am looking for it. I'll post it if I can find it. You will instantly see a resemblance.
I found it :
http://www.geocities.com/area51/nebula/9337/cord.html

 

The shape looks similar, but the angle on the picture of the other person appears to be at a different angle - more close to parallel to the scarf. (Although it's hard to tell from the picture).

I was thinking if the hand was grabbing the collar like in the picture I took of my own hand and then the collar was twisted, there would be at least one layer or fabric (maybe 2) between the fingers and the child's skin. That could cause an abrasion from the fingers plus the cloth during a struggle. If you did that with a child's turtleneck, the upper part of the hand, including the ring(s), would still be exposed. I attached a new copy of my previous picture - flipped (because the "image" on the skin would be a mirror image) and at the angle it would be if I was grabbing a collar.

If she had fought to get the cord off her neck, I'd expect to find scratches, not petichiae, unless her fingernails were short to the quick (which I know they weren't since the autopsy records they were long enough to clip).

I wonder if there are any petichiae on the back of the neck? They might be connected to the pressure from the cord around the neck and from the process of tieing the cord around the neck. If the petichiae are also present on the back of the neck, I would think they are artifact from the cord.

 

Thank you, Texan. I have seen this site before ( one of Ruth's). I see what you mean.

 

Texan's putting it out! I can't believe how anyone can honestly say they were JB's scratches since there was no flesh under her nails.

 

The caption under that particular photo says: "Pinching of skin between two ligatures of a double noose." I know the book Ruth got this photo from as Ruth herself advised me to buy it, Spitz book. As already said by Ruth on her website the ligature shown is a scarf. The garrote used on JonBenét consisted of a thin single rope and could therefore have not made such a abrasion.

Attached at photo from the same book concerning a single ligature, in this case a thick twisted rope. No such abrasion is seen on this photo.

The double ligature used on the victim on Ruth’s pages, to my opinion, again confirms Spitz is on the right track with the double strangulation theory.

 

I wasn't trying to say

That the garrotte tied the way it was caused that abrasion. That abrasion could have been made if the rope was originally crossed in front at that point and the skin was rolled or dragged by the rope as it tightened or maybe she was strangled with her shirt first.
The picture does have similarities but it would only worrk if she were originally strangled differently than the way the "garrotte" ended up.
It seems to me that there is another line lower on her throat so something happened other than what someone wants it to appear.
I believe those small spots on her neck are described in the autopsy as petechiae also.