Dr. Tapp found no signs of organic disease or of pregnancy. In his view the condition of the remains were consistent with death shortly after the time of the reported disappearance in 1976. If however the death was said to be some months different from that either way, he would be unable to say that it was not. The condition of the body was he said in this
adipocerous state such as it would have required to have been excluded from external factors, and he thought that the inside of the package would have been relatively water tight. The upper part of the jaw had been fractured into a large number of fragments. There were fragments in the cheekbones, and in his view it would have required considerable force to cause that injury to the face. There was a minimum of two blows that would have been required, but it was impossible he said to set a maximum number. The blows would have required a heavy instrument, probably with a sharp edge, and in his view it was an axe that usually causes injury of this type. The cause of death in such a case was in his view the inhalation of blood causing a drowning of the lungs from the inhaled blood, and he believed that that was the most likely cause of death in this terrible case. He said that the injuries were not consistent with having been caused after death.
That is what was discovered about the state of the body and the cause of the death. Dr. Tapp also told us of the effects of rigor mortis, and how this would have affected the ability to tie up the body in the way that has been described. He said it would not have been possible to tie up the body in this way after rigor mortis had set in, which would be within two to four hours of death, and although rigor passes off he said after 48 hours, putrification would then begin and therefore the white soapy material effect would not be seen after that. So in his view the tying of this body would have had to have been done within approximately two to three hours of the death. He told us also that there was no point at this distance of time or that distance in time in carrying out toxicology tests so as to try to identify poisons or anything of that sort. Similarly, there was nothing felt to be done in trying to examine hair blood or urine.