I'm going to play around with your hypothesizing and throw some ideas out there and if you want you can give me feedback (I really like this part of being a member of WS! It's what we all do best IMHO!).
Of course all of the below is also hypothesizing and my humble thoughts due to change as more details and facts come out.
Right he would have possibly grabbed her by the throat and then driven his elbow into her face. (sorry to put that so harshly).
He says she hit her head and the next thing he knows she is on the floor. Did she get the injury to the back of her head (IIRC she had one too, if not I apologize) when she hit the wall, headboard, nightstand..etc. because of the force of the blow from his elbow threw her back and he lost grip on her neck? Or was the floor of the room carpeted or non-carpeted and she hit her head on a bare floor if it was not.
Then he states as above the next thing he knew she was on the floor. (or course we can't trust a word out of this man's mouth-disclaimer!) He either sat on her chest or knelt on her chest. Effectively limiting her ability to fight back. Did he also push her down with his one of his hands to hold her still while she while injured from the initial blow attempted to fight him off thereby possibly scratching her ownself? IMHO she would have been disoriented and in extreme pain and incapacitated to effectively defend herself if it is true he struck her in the face with an elbow and then proceeded to sit on her.
Then he could have delivered as many blows as he felt was needed. Creating her other injuries and COD.
Ugh, like I said earlier (not directed at Bobarino) he is one of the sickest individuals I've seen in a very long time. Not ill---just sick.
Thanks. Good to try to see if we can come up with something of value. difficult to do knowing how he lies all the time, especially now when he has so much at stake.
One thing off the top. Did you catch yestrday when 1 or 2 pics of a swollen left hand pointer finger knuckle were found and shown here? This swelling does not appear to be on the video ar Lima Police intake. Not sure how much later that is?) So the greatest blow to her face may thus have been with his left fist, and not the elbow. The elbow is massive and would not likely sustain injury unlike a knuckle striking something hard, which coul deasily break.
If NG's supposition of scratches on SR's face or chin are accurate, the strangling may have occurred first, and he is lying again about the sequence. Not sure why he would except that maybe he wants to hide anything that indicates he was trying to rob her before she died.
The massive facial injury would indicate unconciousness at that time--if not before. He may not have had to throw her to floor, as she would have gone limp. So carpet burns, we may not be able to tell came from trying to move her before or after death.
I think her pants and shoe removal was most likely when he momentarily thought of taking the body out, either to a stairwell or such, or if he was checking tidal parameters, as has been suggested, maybe he thought of taking her body to the ocean, a la Holloway. But he didn't carry this thought past the pants removal. Maybe too much work for him. Or he couldn't cut her into pieces like he may have wanted to.
Note that the report indicates part of a finger was cut off.
Did he attempt to see what he could do with whatever knife he had there, and saw that just a finger was difficult to cut, and gave up?
The above is the first I have suggested a reason for a partially removed finger. And I have not heard anyone else suggest this. Others have said he may have grabbed her keys from her hand even while she was alive causing that. I think what I suggested may be more likely--but I may be prejudiced.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and updates for you for now.