Opinion ID: 844272
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The examination and identification of the body

Text: Dr. Ann Bucholtz, a medical examiner in Phoenix, conducted the external examination and autopsy of the body. The body and the plastic bags were stuck to the bottom of the freezer in a frozen layer of fluid. To prevent the loss of any evidence of sexual assault during the thawing, Dr. Bucholtz first collected samples from the body‟s mouth and from the anal openings, and, after using a hair dryer to thaw portions of the legs, from the vaginal area. The body‟s head had been wrapped with three white kitchen garbage bags. Grey tape covered the face from the mouth to the upper eyelids. The head had numerous external injuries and the mouth had been plugged with a wadded cloth gag that had fallen out during the thawing. The handcuffs around the wrists were so tight that Dr. Bucholtz could not slip her fingers beneath them, so she removed them with bolt cutters. She then took fingerprints from the hands, which 4 were later matched to fingerprints that had been taken for Denise‟s California driver‟s license. Two days later, the body had thawed sufficiently that Dr. Bucholtz was able to collect internal swabs of the vagina and rectum. Dr. Bucholtz described Denise‟s skull as “basically shattered.” There were numerous curved and oval-shaped fractures and lacerations, and brain tissue was visible through some of them. In some of these indentations were embedded pieces of the white plastic bags that had been wrapped around Denise‟s head; the pieces matched slit-like tears in the bags. Dr. Bucholtz concluded that the blows to Denise‟s head had been inflicted after the plastic bags had been put over her head. Dr. Bucholtz reconstructed the skull, enlisting the help of two doctors who had experience in human bone reconstruction. They concluded that Denise‟s head had suffered at least 31 separate blows. There was no way to determine how many blows occurred beyond the minimum of 31 because there could have been fractures on top of fractures. Other than the head injuries, Dr. Bucholtz found no signs of external trauma and no signs of defensive wounds. Despite the tightness of the handcuffs, the wrists were not bruised. There was no physical trauma to her vagina or rectum, although Dr. Bucholtz stated that a sexual assault can occur without trauma to those regions. Dr. Bucholtz determined that Denise‟s death resulted from blunt force trauma to the head. Because the scalp has many blood vessels, Denise‟s injuries probably led to profuse bleeding if her heart was still beating at the time of the assault. d. The searches of defendant’s Arizona house and California warehouse On July 14, 1994, the day after the discovery of the freezer in the rental truck, police officers executed a search warrant at defendant‟s home in Dewey, 5 Arizona. The home was heavily cluttered with stacks of newspapers, books, decades-old receipts, and boxes neatly organized in stacks; the police collected over 100,000 items from the residence. Two adjacent boxes on a shelf in defendant‟s garage had the word “Christmas” written in marker ink on the outside and were identified by investigators as boxes 212 and 213. Box 212 contained a large black garbage bag similar to the ones used to hold the body in the freezer. In the bag were smaller boxes that contained items belonging to Denise, including her wallet, checkbooks, purse, makeup compact, car keys, pen, lipstick, and other items bearing her name, such as her credit cards and driver‟s license. Box 212 also contained items that Denise was last seen wearing on the night of her disappearance: her jacket, dress, underwear, and high heels. The left shoulder strap of the dress was torn and frayed, but it was still attached to the dress by a thread. The shoes had severe scrapes on the back of both heels, and the tip of one heel had broken off.2 The small box that contained the shoes, the keys, wallet, and checkbook displayed bloodstains that had grown moldy and had a strong, foul odor. Box 212 also contained a bloodstained hammer, a bloodstained pair of men‟s jeans, a bloodstained sweatshirt, dried, blood-soaked rags, and a pair of surgical gloves turned inside out. Box 213 had bloodstained flaps and contained the empty box for the handcuffs, a roll of duct tape, a bloodstained nail puller, more bloody rags, and a white plastic garbage bag similar to the bags that covered Denise‟s head. Inside the bag was a grey tarp that was covered in dried blood. The roll of duct tape was 2 Denise‟s mother, Ione Huber, recognized the shoes and said that she had never seen them damaged before and that Denise would “absolutely not” have gone out in public wearing them in the condition they were found in at defendant‟s home. Similarly, Robert Calvert, who had gone out with Denise on the night of her disappearance, testified that he noticed no damage to Denise‟s shoes that night. 6 the same kind of tape that had been used to cover Denise‟s face, and the end of the tape matched the tearing on a piece of tape found with the body. In another corner of the garage was a box that contained another bloodstained tarp. Rolled inside the tarp was a bloodstained shirt. Keys to the handcuffs found on Denise‟s body were found in one of defendant‟s desk drawers. The key to the freezer was discovered inside the rental truck. Police found a receipt for the freezer showing it had been ordered on June 10, 1991, a week after Denise‟s disappearance, and delivered the next day. In defendant‟s house, police discovered several issues of the Orange County Register that featured headlines concerning Denise‟s disappearance. In addition, one of defendant‟s videotapes began with a recording of a segment from a television show called Inside Edition that featured a story about Denise‟s disappearance. Boxes 212 and 213 had shipping labels addressed to Dragon Fly at a warehouse on Verdugo Drive in Laguna Hills, California. At the time of Denise‟s disappearance, defendant owned and operated a painting business out of that warehouse, which he used as his living quarters. Steve Parmentier owned an apparel manufacturing business named “Dragon Fly” in units adjacent to defendant‟s unit at the warehouse. Parmentier recognized the shipping labels on boxes 212 and 213 and the labeling on many of the bloody rags found in those boxes. Parmentier‟s business generated waste material during the apparel manufacturing process, and he remembered giving defendant these leftover pieces from time to time while they were neighbors. On July 18, 1994, Laurie Crutchfield, a forensic scientist with the Orange County crime lab, examined a corner of defendant‟s former warehouse unit where it was suspected that blood evidence had been cleaned away. Presumptive tests for traces of human blood were positive. After removing some of the drywall and 7 wood framing from the warehouse unit, Crutchfield discovered an area of “thick deep maroon color” where the concrete flooring met the wood floorboard. She removed the board so the lab could conduct further testing on it. e. Other forensic evidence Mary Hong, a forensic scientist for the Orange County crime lab, conducted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA testing using two genetic markers, the D1S80 and DQ-alpha genes. The tests revealed that the bloodstains from the wood floorboard taken from defendant‟s former warehouse unit in Orange County, California, the nail puller found in defendant‟s Arizona home, and many of the other bloodied items recovered from the home could not have come from defendant, but could have come from Denise. No DNA, however, was detected in the bloodstain found on the hammer taken from defendant‟s home. Most of the blood found on the pair of men‟s jeans taken from defendant‟s home was also consistent with Denise‟s blood, but a few of the stains contained weak indications of genetic markers consistent with defendant‟s — likely a result of defendant‟s skin cells detected on the jeans. Lisa Arnell, a forensic scientist for the Orange County crime lab, processed the 10 rectal samples that Dr. Bucholtz had taken from Denise‟s body. To isolate and detect any sperm that might be present in those swabs, Arnell used a chemical and mechanical process to separate any of Denise‟s cells (nonsperm cell fraction) from any sperm cells (sperm cell fraction). She swabbed the sperm cell fraction from the samples and then wiped the swabs on three microscope slides. To each slide, she added a coloring agent designed to stain sperm cells as a red oval dot. The agent stains sperm cells “differentially,” meaning that a sperm cell appears dark red on its tail side, but fades to a light red on its other side. She then examined each slide under a microscope. 8 When forensic scientist Arnell initially looked at the first two slides, she saw one differentially stained red dot, without a tail, on each slide. She indicated in her notes that she did not think the test was conclusive for any sperm, and she wrote “apparent sperm.” In her report, however, she concluded she had detected one sperm cell on each of the first two slides. The third slide was derived from a “rectal aspirate”: fluid injected into the anal canal and then removed for collection and testing. On the third slide, she identified four red dots as “apparent sperm,” none of which had tails. She explained that the dots on the third slide had “a majority of the characteristics” of sperm, but not to the point where she “felt comfortable” to identify them as sperm. Arnell acknowledged that the FBI‟s forensic laboratory‟s protocol does not consider a stained cell lacking a tail to be a sperm cell, but the Orange County crime lab‟s protocol permits such a conclusion because sperm tails are fragile and often fall off. Arnell believed this was especially true in this case, given the circumstances in which Denise‟s body had been stored. She acknowledged that pollen and yeast cells may also take the red stain, but she said that these cells do not stain differentially. Arnell processed all 10 rectal samples, and she gave the cell fractions to forensic scientist Hong for PCR DNA testing. Hong tested four samples — the sperm cell fraction and nonsperm cell fraction of a rectal swab, and the sperm cell fraction and nonsperm cell fraction of the “rectal aspirate” (see ante) used to make the third slide reviewed by Arnell. Hong tested the rectal swab samples: The sperm cell fraction generated no result, but the nonsperm cell fraction was consistent with Denise‟s. Hong tested the rectal aspirate samples: The nonsperm cell fraction generated no result, but the sperm cell fraction was consistent with Denise‟s and not with defendant‟s. Hong conceded it was possible a male other than defendant might have been the source of the sperm cell fraction, but she 9 thought it was more likely some of Denise‟s cells were not successfully removed from the sperm cell fraction, thereby showing up in the DNA test results. Denise‟s male friends, Calvert and Horrocks, testified that they never had sexual intercourse with her. None of the other vaginal or oral swabs generated any DNA results. In addition, the rectal samples were tested for P30, a protein found in seminal fluid, with negative results. As to why the DNA test did not confirm the presence of sperm, forensic scientist Arnell stated that it could have been because of degradation or the presence of a low number of sperm cells; the rectum is a particularly hostile environment for sperm because of the bacteria found there. Arnell also noted that the P30 protein degrades relatively faster than the sperm cells, so she would not have expected a positive result. She acknowledged, however, that the freezing process does preserve sperm as well as P30. Edwin Jones, a criminalist with the Ventura County Sheriff‟s Department laboratory, examined the same slides that Arnell had examined from the rectal swabs. He agreed with Arnell that two of the slides each showed one sperm, but he disagreed with Arnell‟s findings on the third slide. He identified five cells as sperm, and not just “apparent sperm.” Having conducted thousands of microscopic examinations for sperm during his career, he was certain his opinion was correct.