Hi Sami, I have a question for you too! ;}
The photo of the skull you showed reveals the right side of the head, as I see it. I thought these wounds were made to the left side of her head.
Hi Scandi,
The photograph (link 2)that I added the fractures to shows the left side of the head from the inside of the skull......the skull is cut in half front to back.
To match the photograph up with the AR diagrams, the green fracture is from page 12's diagram and the blue fracture is from page 13.
The green fracture diagram was added so that people can get an idea of it's placement in regards to the base fracture when looked at from inside the skull.
The first link shows a view of bones looking down from the top of the skull.
The pink bone corresponds with the fractured area bone in the link 2 photograph. The green area represents the Parietal bone in link 2 and the purple area represents the Occipital bone in link 2.
Also, I see two major wounds there with cracks in the skull, however looking at the drawings of the ME there were 8 or 9 or so {I'd have to pull that up again to be exact} wounds to that left side of her head. Does that mean 2 of those many blows were hard enough to crack her bone?
yes....at least two BFI's minimum would have caused those fractures.
Also about it not being a weapon with a larger swing which would do too much bone damage. Would say a 12" long weapon create those blows on the back of her head and also the ones to the side of her head, and yet if swung with more force could also inflict the two cracked wounds in her skull?
In regards to the weapon, it is a combination of things in the use of the weapon that creates different wounds and some subsequent fractures.
A longer handled weapon tires the assailant out faster as more energy is used to swing that weapon. It is also more unpredictable where a long handled weapon will strike, especially if the victim is moving around a bit.
A shorter handled weapon is more controllable and able to concentrate on a particular area, even if the victim is moving a bit. Below is what I posted in ctv in regards to a claw hammer
The most damaging surfaces of a claw hammer are the ends. The 'ball' and the 'claw'. Both these ends are smaller surfaces and when striking a surface the 'force' is concentrated in whichever end is used for striking. 'Force' in regards to a hammer also depends on how the hammer is held. The further away that the grip is from the hammer's head, the more force it will give on impact.
The sides of the hammer as a striking area are longer, which means that the 'force' is spread out over a 'wider' area with the heaviest impact point being from where the handle is attached (centre) to the end of the 'ball', with the lightest impact point being the 'claw' end.
Couple that with blood on the handle and it probably slipping around abit in the perps hand, there will be different areas of the hammer head that makes contact with a victim and some loss of 'force' as the perp tries to keep the slippery object in his grasp. Once he thinks he can keep a hold of it,then he will renew his attack with more force. Either way the blows would be enough to keep his victim incapacitated.
The reason I ask that is someone, I think Charlie, brought up the idea of maybe more than one weapon, and am just curious how you see it.
In regards to physical weapons, I do think there was only one. To me it looks like it may have been a multi edged blunt weapon or a weapon with a large circular base of up to 6 to 8 inches in diameter width. Note that an object with a circular striking area will always leave impact point injuries smaller than the full diameter but the bruising will cover a larger area.
Line example.......
bruising impact point bruising
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But in technical terms of weapons used against Michelle, Charlie is already correct. Two weapons were in fact used. Hands and physical object
As always merci beaucoup