Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [65]
Scheck usually worked for the defense.* He had destroyed the credibility of a police criminalist, Dennis Fung, on the witness stand in the Simpson criminal case. So it might prove tricky to convince Koby to accept Scheck’s role in the case. On the other hand, when law enforcement retained experts like Lee and Scheck, they became unavailable to the defense.
Bill Wise spoke to Henry Lee, who said he liked the idea of working with Barry Scheck again. He didn’t know if his schedule would permit him to sign onto the case, though. The two men agreed they’d talk after Wise spoke to Scheck.
John Meyer understood that his written autopsy report would be the official record of his findings. As coroner, he was the collector of objective evidence. Though JonBenét’s autopsy was only one of the 140 or so he did in a year, Meyer understood its importance and was in no rush to finish the report.
Under Colorado law, there is no provision for public access to autopsy findings until the reports are completed, so no one could legally obtain access until Meyer was ready to file his report. As he worked on it, the Boulder County District Attorney’s office prepared for a battle with the media, and by the end of the month, deputy county attorney Madeline Mason, on behalf of Meyer, would argue against release of the report. Meanwhile, Meyer took his time, knowing that the moment it was released, forensic pathologists and the press alike would scrutinize it.
As he wrote, Meyer prepared for the questions that would be asked when he appeared as a witness. Both the prosecution and the defense would be relying on his report, not on his memory, so he knew he had to be extremely thorough in the details.
The report Meyer was preparing stated that on the right side of JonBenét’s chin, he had spotted a superficial abrasion measuring about 3/16 by 1/8 inch. There was another abrasion on the back of her right shoulder and also several linear hemorrhages across her left shoulder. On the left side of her lower back were two very small dried abrasions, which Meyer planned to describe in his report as “rust-colored to slightly purple in color.”
On the back of JonBenét’s left leg, roughly 4 inches above her heel, Meyer had seen two more scratchlike abrasions, between 1/8 and 1/16 inch in size. For his report, Meyer wrote, “The examination of the extremities is otherwise unremarkable. On the middle finger of the right hand is a yellow metal band. Around the right wrist is a yellow metal identification bracelet with the name JonBenét on one side and the date 12/25/96 on the other side. A red ink line drawing in the form of a heart is located on the palm of the left hand.”
The coroner noted that JonBenét’s fingernails had been clipped and sealed in envelopes for further examination and that after examining JonBenét’s genitals, he had swabbed her thighs and taken several swabs each from her vagina, anus, and mouth.
Meyer remembered what the police had done during the autopsy. Detective Arndt had stepped away to call Detective James Byfield, who was drafting an addendum to the original search warrant so that the police could obtain additional evidence from the Ramseys’ home. Arndt told Byfield that fibers had been found on JonBenét’s shirt and that similar material had been discovered in her pubic area. She also reported the green fibers in the child’s hair.
At the same time, Detective Trujillo had called the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to ask about the feasibility of lifting fingerprints from JonBenét’s skin. It was a long shot, Trujillo learned, because of the skin’s comparatively rough texture. Meyer had suspended the autopsy while a CBI