In the following image, you will see the location of the rope marks on Brians body. I spent most of my fifteen minutes with his body remarking about:
1. his bruised cheek
2. his straight nose (which had been broken and laid to the right)
3. the rope indentations. I have them memorized.
In this image, I have marked the rope marks (fine line with pencil). The angle is WRONG.
Without my knowledge, there was an entire room of people seated outside the curtain who heard my conversation.
My first words were:
"Brian?"..."Brian?!"..."What did they do to you baby!?" because his cheek was the first thing I noticed. I knew every inch of that boy.
My son's cheek did NOT look like this:
THIS, is the face I kiss every day in a life sized photograph that hangs on my wall:
(Welcome to the TRUTH, Compass.)
Ligature marks are those marks made by an item of cord, rope, silk or some such material that has been used for the purposes of strangulation.
Ligature marks come in many different patterns and sizes and can be unique to certain fabrics and materials and this is why they are so important in criminal investigations that revolve around the strangling of a deceased individual.
Ligature Marks as Evidence
Normally strangulation is carried out by squeezing the area just about the Adam's apple for a sustained period of time, thus crushing the windpipe and preventing the victim from being able to breathe.
Once the assailant has carried out this task it is normally only a matter of time before the victim dies if they haven't already died during the strangulation.
Forensic scientists and Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) will normally look for these ligature marks around the neck and will photograph them at the scene of the crime before the pathologist looks at them in more depth at the autopsy stage. (This was NOT done.)
These ligature marks - as we have already mentioned - are made from the material used to strangle the victim and indeed are an imprint on the skin as a result of great force and pressure applied to them.
Ligature marks can also indicate if a victim has been hanged and then perhaps the body moved post mortem to another location. Marks that are the result of hanging have a raised imprint, which will normally point in an upward direction as gravity pulls the body downward during hanging.
Ligature marks are normally dark brown in colour and have a red band on either side of these horizontal marks signifying the width of the item used to carry out strangulation.
The pathologist will also check the tongue and larynx of the victim post mortem as well as this indicates strangulation if these organs of the body are enlarged.
He or she will also look for signs of the carotid arteries being obstructed as well as damage being caused to the thyroid arteries. All of these prove useful and can tell a lot about the pressure and force applied by the perpetrator whilst strangling their victim.
What Ligature Marks Could Indicate
Ligature marks also appear during what are called manual choke holds; this is when the assailant strangles the victim with nothing more than his or her bare hands. These ligature marks can sometimes be in the exact shape of the fingers that have applied the force to the neck area and it may be possible to extract skin samples for DNA analysis at this time.
In suicides where hanging has been used as a means of taking one's own life there will be several ligature marks around the neck area as the process of hanging can be sometimes a tricky one and may need several attempts. In addition to these extra ligature marks there may also be imprints of knots tied in rope or cord to indicate that the individual was trying to make sure that they could not be cut down easily from their makeshift noose.
All of these scenarios are recorded pictorially by the forensics team as well as the Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO) and it will also be the case that the pathologist will have photographs taken of the deceased's ligature marks at the autopsy stage to prove that no marks were made during the moving and transportation of the deceased.
UPDATE:
Collection and Preservation
of Evidence
by George Schiro
Forensic Scientist
Louisiana State Police Crime LaboratoryOnce the crime scene has been thoroughly documented and the locations of the evidence noted, then the collection process can begin. The collection process will usually start with the collection of the most fragile or most easily lost evidence. Special consideration can also be given to any evidence or objects which need to be moved. Collection can then continue along the crime scene trail or in some other logical manner. Photographs should also continue to be taken if the investigator is revealing layers of evidence which were not previously documented because they were hidden from sight.
Most items of evidence will be collected in paper containers such as packets, envelopes, and bags. Liquid items can be transported in non-breakable, leakproof containers. Arson evidence is usually collected in air-tight, clean metal cans. Only large quantities of dry powder should be collected and stored in plastic bags. Moist or wet evidence (blood, plants, etc.) from a crime scene can be collected in plastic containers at the scene and transported back to an evidence receiving area if the storage time in plastic is two hours or less and this is done to prevent contamination of other evidence. Once in a secure location, wet evidence, whether packaged in plastic or paper, must be removed and allowed to completely air dry. That evidence can then be repackaged in a new, dry paper container. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD EVIDENCE CONTAINING MOISTURE BE PACKAGED IN PLASTIC OR PAPER CONTAINERS FOR MORE THAN TWO HOURS. Moisture allows the growth of microorganisms which can destroy or alter evidence.
Any items which may cross contaminate each other must be packaged separately. The containers should be closed and secured to prevent the mixture of evidence during transportation. Each container should have: the collecting person's initials; the date and time it was collected; a complete description of the evidence and where it was found; and the investigating agency's name and their file number.
Each type of evidence has a specific value in an investigation. The value of evidence should be kept in mind by the investigator when doing a crime scene investigation. For example, when investigating a crime he or she should spend more time on collecting good fingerprints than trying to find fibers left by a suspect's clothing. The reason is that fingerprints can positively identify a person as having been at the scene of a crime, whereas fibers could have come from anyone wearing clothes made out of the same material. Of course if obvious or numerous fibers are found at the point of entry, on a victim's body, etc., then they should be collected in case no fingerprints of value are found. It is also wise to collect more evidence at a crime scene than not to collect enough evidence. An investigator usually only has one shot at a crime scene, so the most should be made of it.
http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/evidenc3.html
Where is the rope?
Where is the pill bottle?
Where are the beer cans?
Where is the document that you were shown that said they were married?
Where is the evidence list?
Why wasn't the swelling and bruising on Brian's cheek (clearly seen in the Coroner's photographs) noted in the case files?
Why wasn't my son's head and hands bagged before he was moved?
Why weren't his nails scraped?
When you make the words
"suicide" and "veteran" synonymous,
you create the perfect blueprint for murder.