Free The Case Against Owen Williams by Allan Donaldson

temperatures to which the body was exposed before it was discovered, it is impossible to be more accurate than that. An examination of the contents of the stomach suggests that the subject had not eaten anything substantial within four hours of her death. Blood tests revealed the presence of alcohol in the blood in a concentration of .09, but the accuracy of that measurement might be open to question in the circumstances. If this were accurate, it would be enough to cause some impairment of physical function and no doubt of judgement, but would not result in what could be called real drunkenness.
    â€œThe subject had been the victim of a succession of acts of violence. The cause of death was unquestionably suffocation, apparently by having a cloth, perhaps an article of clothing, stuffed into the mouth and held over the nose. Small fibres were found in the subject’s teeth, which under microscopic examination proved to be rayon. In addition, the face and upper body of the subject had been battered by a blunt object of some kind—a club, a piece of metal, a stone perhaps. There were fractures of the left cheekbone and the front of the skull, and there were thirteen contusions on the upper body and arms. In view of the absence of bleeding, it would seem that these injuries were inflicted after death. In addition, the right ankle of the subject had been gnawed through almost to the bone by some scavenging animal. This had also clearly happened after death.
    â€œExamination also revealed the presence of semen in the vaginal tract, indicating that an act of sexual intercourse had taken place sometime within a few hours before death although it could conceivably have been afterwards. There were no signs of violence in the genital area, but minor abrasions there, or elsewhere, might have been obscured by the deterioration of tissues after death.
    â€œIn summary, the probable sequence of events was that the victim had sexual intercourse at some point not long before her death. She was then suffocated, at some time not later than twenty-four hours after she was last seen. After death had occurred, she was subjected to a violent battering with some kind of blunt object.
    â€œNaturally the post-mortem examination revealed other things about the subject of a purely medical kind, and I have confined myself to those which seemed relevant to this hearing.”
    â€œThank you, Dr. Bourget,” McKiel said. “A few supplementary questions, if you would be so kind. Did you find any evidence that the victim had struggled against her suffocation? Or do you think that she was perhaps already unconscious?”
    â€œThere was no sign of a struggle—no broken fingernails, for example, no evidence of hair or skin under the fingernails, nothing of that kind at all. No evidence of blows other than those inflicted after death. However, it is possible that the victim had been struck a blow which had been sufficient to stun her before she was killed. In combination with the alcohol she had ingested, this might have left her incapable of defending herself before she lost consciousness completely.”
    â€œDid you see any evidence that the body had been moved from some other location?”
    â€œThere were no abrasions that would have been consistent with the body’s having been dragged. Nor any tearing of her clothing. If she had been carried, of course, none of these signs would have been left.”
    â€œIn other words, all of the evidence which you found was consistent with the victim’s having been murdered where the body was found?”
    â€œYes, but it would not rule out the body’s having been moved provided it hadn’t been dragged. By car, for example.”
    â€œIn your opinion,” McKiel asked, “would the victim have bled much as a result of the injuries that were inflicted?”
    â€œNo,” Bourget said. “I think that there would have been virtually no