Amy Renee Leiker
@AmyReneeLeiker
Oct 19
Jurors actually got to go into the room with the barrels and tomb to get a close-up look. New media had to stay back, out of the room and look at it from a distance.
Media was able to view the tomb and barrels because court proceedings are open to the public.
Next witness is Dr. Scott Kipper. He works for Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center as deputy coroner & medical examiner
He's going to testify about what Evan's autopsy found. Jurors will view autopsy photos. I won't be tweeting those. But I'll share what Kipper says
Kipper says that when the Forensic Science Center got the body, they thought it was Evan's but they didn't have a positive identification.
As I tweeted yesterday, Evan's body came to the center in the concrete block. Efforts had to be taken to remove him.
Kipper performed the autopsy the day after Evan's body was removed from the concrete. Kipper says this is the first autopsy he's done where a body was encased in concrete. He's says this is unusual. "In over 3,000 examinations I've never had that presented to me."
Evan's body was decomposed when Kipper received it, in part from the concrete encasing, he says. That made the autopsy more difficult than typical.
Jurors are only going to see a portion of the autopsy photos that were taken of Evan. They'll see about 8.
Kipper says Evan wasn't mummified - because that's a drying of a body. Kipper is pointing out some dark coloring of skin around Evan right eye. It's unclear exactly what caused that. There's also discoloration near one of his ears that might be a bruise or a superficial mark.
Kipper is pointing out a mark that he says is likely a bruise on the back of Evan's head. There's discoloration. Kipper described that mark on the autopsy report as a blunt force injury to Evan's head. The eye and ear injuries were also possible blunt force injuries, he says.
Kipper did an x-ray of Evan's body but didn't find any broken bones or skull fractures. He also didn't notice any healing bone breaks or fractures. He didn't note any nose injury. Some of the DCF reports about Evan mentioned concerns that he had a broken nose.
The condition of Evan's brain at autopsy couldn't explain what had happened to him. His heart, lungs looked normal, other than decomposing.
Prosecutor asks if there's a way to determine a time of death. Kipper: "No." Contrary to what you see on TV, there isn't a way to determine that with scientific accuracy.
Prosecutor Alice Osburn asks if anyone could determine the time of death. Kipper's answer is that it's highly, highly unlikely.
Kipper's goal in the autopsy is to determine cause and manner of death: What kills a person and how it's done.
Kansas has 5 manners of death: accident, suicide, homicide, natural death, and undetermined. Undetermined means autopsy couldn't figure it out.
Kipper says several causes of death in Evan's case can't be ruled out including strangulation and some natural diseases like lymphoma. But some can be, like stabbing. Kipper couldn't tell if injury on back of head killed Evan because condition of brain didn't allow for that exam
Kipper says he also couldn't rule out a chance that Evan might have been poisoned.
Someone else conducted toxicology testing on Evan. Evan had Benadryl in his system, the toxicology testing found.
Kipper testified that Evan was 34 1/2 inches tall. That's night quite 3 feet. His body weighed 31 pounds at the time of autopsy - a little less than what he would've weighed when he was alive. The pajama pants Evan had one his body were a size 12M - twelve months.
Kipper testifying that a person can cause brain injuries without causing skull fractures through a variety of means including strangulation, drowning & shaking. Again, Evan's skull didn't have any fractures & his brain wasn't in a condition that could show injuries at autopsy.
Prosecutors brought this exhibit into court to show jurors Evan’s size: