AND THE BRAIN TO FATALLY HAEMORRHAGE
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, DR PENROSE GORDON-BLOOD prepared to carry out the autopsy on Emily Black.
Her body lay on the stainless-steel mortuary table, her eyes now closed as if asleep, her arms laid straight to each side, ready for Gordon-Blood to carry out the post-mortem.
An hour earlier, a distraught Derek Black, accompanied by Suzanne Fillmore, had been brought to the hospital to identify her, his wife being too upset to come. Instead, she sat at home, still clutching to her breast the hand-tinted photograph in the silver frame, comforted by another woman PC.
However, Suzanne had developed a certain sympathetic rapport with the distressed parents, and Derek had specifically asked for her to be with him, a duty she felt she had no option but to agree to, even though she was herself emotionally drained.
There was a small mortuary chapel adjacent to the mortuary, and Emily’s body, covered by a sheet so that only her face was visible, was laid out for her father to see. Her head had been cloaked in such a way to hide the brutal nature of her death. He took one long last look, gently stroked her cold cheek, before nodding, wiping away his tears, and said, ‘Yes, yes, that’s my Emily, my beautiful little angel,’ before Suzanne took his arm and led him away.
It was not the first time that she had comforted distraught parents as they identified the bodies of their children.
The autopsy could now begin.
Yarrow, as the Senior Investigating Officer would also attend the post mortem; together with the pathologist he would examine her clothes and look for any clues which might lead to the killer, such as blood or semen. Marjorie Thundercliffe took a couple of photographs, the flash searing off the polished steel table. Gordon-Blood, his hands encased in black rubber gloves which came up to his elbows, then carefully cut away the rumpled pink teddy bear patterned night-gown, using heavy seamstress scissors, easing it away from her stick thin arms and gently turning over the body to pull the nightie clear. He passed the garment to Yarrow who carefully looked over every inch, noting what appeared to be blood and semen stains on the back of the nightie before passing it over to Marjorie who carefully bagged the nightie in a brown paper bag, tagged the bag and made a note in her autopsy record. The nightie would go to the police forensic laboratory in Wetherby for the semen and blood to be analysed; fibres and other trace elements from the killer would be carefully collected and stored. There is always a cross contamination of fibres, of dust and dirt and of other particles between the victim and killer. Such evidence is pieced together and can be used to help identify and then convict a murderer. It is the immutable law of forensics that there is always, always, transmutation between victim and killers, hairs, fibres from clothes or carpets, dirt and dust, grass seeds, dust, all vital evidences that can tie a suspect to the victim. Once you have found your suspect. The pathologist then carefully examined the small body, carefully noting each mark, cut, scratch and tear, turning her over to examine her back and hideous smashed skull, directing Marjorie to the photographs he needed. He then used adhesive tape to collect all the dust, fragments of grass and leaves stuck to the body again passed to Marjorie for bagging and logging. He was surprisingly gentle with her, even though he felt no emotions that this body was that of a four year old girl, loved and now heartbreakingly grieved. Gordon-Blood had a reverence for all bodies, a reverence of almost religious proportions, he loved the dead and although he would shortly be cutting open the little corpse for autopsy, he still handled her with great gentleness. He noted tear tracks, Emily had cried, cried when vertical, either walking or being carried and when she had been lying down, presumably whilst being raped. He took more swabs from her and then carefully scraped beneath her finger nails and then cut the nails, handing the cuttings to Marjorie to bag and label. If she had scratched her killer, there would be skin particles to compare with that of a suspect, but no skin scrapings were found. Emily had not scratched her killer. Fingerprints were taken, and copies would be issued to the Fingerprint Squad for elimination purposes. At Yarrow’s specific request he carefully searched around and inside her mouth to find evidence, if any, of a gag. There were no bruises or contusions about her face to suggest that a gag had been tied about her mouth, but minute scratches to her upper gums and the soft flesh to the inside of her lips and cheek was suggestive that something, a cloth, rag, handkerchief might have been forcibly stuffed into her mouth. He took swabs from her mouth, vagina and anus to check for the presence of spermatozoa.
Subsequently semen was found in her tiny bloodied vagina but not in any other orifice. Tests carried out on the semen indicated that the rapist was a ‘secretor’ meaning that specific blood group information is secreted in bodily fluids such as semen or saliva, however 80% of individuals are ‘secretors’ and the information regarding blood grouping is confined to ABO groups. The fact that the killer was a secretor was not much use in identifying the killer.
It had been hoped that the killer might have left pubic hair on his victim, but no pubic hairs were found, either on or around her body or in her ravaged vagina.
It was only after a thorough examination of the little body and the collection of any potential forensic evidence did Gordon-Blood ask Marjorie to pass him a scalpel.
Once the autopsy complete, Emily’s body was sewn back up and placed back into the refrigerated drawer, to await the coroner’s decision whether to release her to her family for burial.
Gordon-Blood and Marjorie Thundercliffe collected their instruments and notes and returned to the ‘Golden Falcon’, the hotel where they stayed the previous night. After dinner, (stringy beef, boiled cabbage, boiled potato, boiled carrot and thin gravy followed by apple pie and custard) they had retired to their respective rooms.
They caught the morning train back to Sheffield where he would compile his report, accompanied by her murder scene and autopsy photographs which she would develop herself in the dark room adjacent to the mortuary.
When completed Gordon-Blood report would be despatched by courier to the Coroner, the report stating that the cause of death in the case of Emily Black was that her head had been smashed with such force by an unidentified blunt instrument that the impact caused her skull to shatter and the brain to fatally haemorrhage. The report would also indicate that three-year-old Emily had been raped, but not sodomised.