Opinion ID: 2603715
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Coroner's and the Pathologist's Testimony

Text: Dr. Alan Hancock, the Wyandotte County Coroner, went to the Bierman residence shortly after Syndi's body was discovered. He testified at trial that there were wounds on Syndi's hands and arms which appeared to be defensive, and that her throat was cut after she had been beaten and when she was in deep profound shock. Dr. Hancock concluded that the entire episode took several minutes to occur. Dr. Philip vanThullenar, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, testified that there were many wounds on Syndi's head and neck, her cheekbone was fractured, and the bone above her eye was fractured and displaced. vanThullenar identified a faint oval bruise on Syndi's right forehead. The bruise had a number of evenly spaced crossmarks. It was typical of a shoe mark. vanThullenar stated that the bruise was probably from the sole of a woman's shoe. There were seven superficial wounds on the left side of Syndi's neck. A wound on the right side of her neck cut the carotid artery and the jugular vein. Stab wounds were identified on each side of Syndi's abdomen. vanThullenar determined from the amount of blood in the tissues that the head wounds were inflicted first, then the neck wounds, followed by the wounds to the abdomen. The cause of death was loss of blood.