If A Body Can Be Exhumed After 30 Years, For 2nd Autopsy?

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An excellent question-perhaps that is one of the reasons detectives asked to speak with the brother? It is much easier if family agrees-then it does not have to be predicated on new evidence or there is no need to impeach the original autopsy. The cost is pretty substantial as well...typically around 10K-15K so it has to be worthwhile.
 
I read somewhere (maybe on here?) that JR was fighting it. Like believe, I think it's just easier if the family agrees. Otherwise, you have to have new evidence, court orders and a lot of other red tape that would take forever.
 
Ideally this would have been done back in the late '90s. I have always felt it was a possible indicator of guilt that the R's refused this years ago. I am a mother, and if my daughter were murdered, I would move heaven and earth to find her killer(s) and see them face justice for their crimes. I would not balk at an exhumation unless I had something to hide. I have always believed that the body is but a vessel for the human spirit anyway.
 
Eller has been disparaged for "keeping the body hostage" after the murder. From my research, it looks like the Ramsey's planned the memorial and funeral and then demanded the body be released in time for all of this. Shouldn't you wait for the police/coroner to finish with the body before you buried her? This reeks of guilt as well. They are trying to hide something.
 
SheBoss said:
Eller has been disparaged for "keeping the body hostage" after the murder. From my research, it looks like the Ramsey's planned the memorial and funeral and then demanded the body be released in time for all of this. Shouldn't you wait for the police/coroner to finish with the body before you buried her? This reeks of guilt as well. They are trying to hide something.
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You'd beg for them to do tons of tests which might reveal lots of things about who killed her and how.
 
madeleine said:
You'd beg for them to do tons of tests which might reveal lots of things about who killed her and how.
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I will have to disagree. I couldn't stand the thought of my child laying in a cold morgue drawer. I'd want to put her to rest too. I also would not want my child exhumed for any reason.

and I am a RDI
 
A warrant would be needed for exhumation if the parent refuses. A lot of things have to be taken into account as far as whether the exhumation would be useful at this point. It has been 14 years, and the climate in Atlanta, Georgia is hot and humid. If her coffin was not in a waterproof vault, the grave WILL be submerged in water from time to time. Water hastens saponification of adipose tissue, and whatever needs to be determined about her body is with regard to the soft tissue. And there is probably not much soft tissue intact at this point. Nature has provided a very efficient way of disposing of the dead. Insects that feed on corpses can devour a body in a very short amount of time if access exists. Embalming doesn't stop decomposition, it slows it only for a while. JB's internal organs, examined at autopsy, were left in the body, and that hastens decomposition as well. The vaginal tissue and the alleged "stun gun" marks are almost certainly gone.
 
passionflower said:
I read that Father JR said 'NO"!
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Yes, he wanted her to rest in peace. Or more likely...didn't want anything incriminating him or Patsy to be found. Better to just let her stay in the ground...it's easier to get away with murder that way. Oh..I guess I need to add IMO.
 
JR did not say no to an autopsy---he said he couldn't be the one to make the decision. It was in the hands of the police, and they could have pursued it in court, but didn't. If Steve Thomas is to be believed, he said in his book they almost proceeded with the legal action for a second autopsy, but decided it against it do to potential negative publicity.

An exhumation soon after burial may have conclusively proved the stun gun marks---not unlike the Boggs case--also in Colorado. I can't see any reason to exhume her body now---there is nothing to gain from it.
 
BARBARA WALTERS Why wasn't the body exhumed?

JOHN RAMSEY (PAUSE) Don't know why the Police didn't consider that. Uh we were asked… when this theory first surfaced about a Stun gun that if the body were exhumed… it could be proved conclusively but it had to be done fairly quickly. This was… within months of when we'd just buried JonBenet. And I, as her father, could not bring myself to do that. I had laid my child to rest. She was at peace. And that was a that decision I couldn't make.

BARBARA WALTERS Even though it might have cleared you?

JOHN RAMSEY It wasn't… that was not the priority. The priority was my child was at rest.


http://thewebsafe.tripod.com/03172000ramseyonbarbarawalters.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Video/playerIndex?id=2325363
 
I like to think I would have pursued all avenues. And I am a loving parent as well-but I would want to know what happened. It is a world of difference for police to have to pursue a warrant for a second autopsy, especially when the parent(s) are completely unwilling. You would have to have new evidence or believe the initial autopsy was impeachable for some reason...it is a pretty high standard IIRC.

I think it is fair to say, using the BW interview as a threshold, that JR was not going to let it happen regardless of what might have been found. His motivation may have been the one he stated. Or not.
 
Hmm I thought the soul was at rest and the body just the vessel. My hubby and I have this argument about our final arrangements. He wants a burial and I want to be cremated and ashes scattered in Colorado, (no where near Boulder). He actually believes he won't go to heaven unless he is buried. I asked him about the saints who were burned at the stake-they were not buried and the bible speaks about the saints in heaven. He just associates fire and cremation with hell not heaven. It isn't logical but to him it makes sense. I guess it is hard for people to separate their bodies from their souls as we know the whole person on earth. Considering the photos I've seen of JB"s skull ( I hope that was a "recreation") skin totally removed and the huge fracture shown. I would be hesitant to allow the only thing I have left of child (the body) to be butchered more than already done. It makes me cry to think about what she suffered at time of death but it makes me angry that BPD didn't do what should have been done AT THE TIME.
 
CathyR said:
Hmm I thought the soul was at rest and the body just the vessel. My hubby and I have this argument about our final arrangements. He wants a burial and I want to be cremated and ashes scattered in Colorado, (no where near Boulder). He actually believes he won't go to heaven unless he is buried. I asked him about the saints who were burned at the stake-they were not buried and the bible speaks about the saints in heaven. He just associates fire and cremation with hell not heaven. It isn't logical but to him it makes sense. I guess it is hard for people to separate their bodies from their souls as we know the whole person on earth. Considering the photos I've seen of JB"s skull ( I hope that was a "recreation") skin totally removed and the huge fracture shown. I would be hesitant to allow the only thing I have left of child (the body) to be butchered more than already done. It makes me cry to think about what she suffered at time of death but it makes me angry that BPD didn't do what should have been done AT THE TIME.
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HA! I'm am atheist! No religious considerations at all. I just couldn't bare the thought of digging my child up once buried.
 
CathyR said:
Hmm I thought the soul was at rest and the body just the vessel. My hubby and I have this argument about our final arrangements. He wants a burial and I want to be cremated and ashes scattered in Colorado, (no where near Boulder). He actually believes he won't go to heaven unless he is buried. I asked him about the saints who were burned at the stake-they were not buried and the bible speaks about the saints in heaven. He just associates fire and cremation with hell not heaven. It isn't logical but to him it makes sense. I guess it is hard for people to separate their bodies from their souls as we know the whole person on earth. Considering the photos I've seen of JB"s skull ( I hope that was a "recreation") skin totally removed and the huge fracture shown. I would be hesitant to allow the only thing I have left of child (the body) to be butchered more than already done. It makes me cry to think about what she suffered at time of death but it makes me angry that BPD didn't do what should have been done AT THE TIME.
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That was not a "re-creation". That was an autopsy photo of her actual skull.

As far as what I want to happen to me after death- I'll simply be beamed up to the Mother Ship.
 
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