Introduction
Strangulation is a very common technique when it comes to homicide cases. Ligature strangulation is a form of strangulation that involves using an object to strangle the victim, for example rope or a telephone cord. Cases of ligature strangulation are usually premeditated as opposed to strangulation using bare hands, as there is less chance of transfer of DNA. Unfortunately, ligature strangulation was the method of choice in the killing of JonBenét Ramsey (see figure 1).
JonBenét Ramsey was a 6-year-old Pageant Queen from Boulder, Colorado. Her murder is one of the most famous unsolved cold cases in the world. On the morning of 26th December 1996, Patsy Ramsey, JonBenét’s mother, claimed to have found a ransom note for her daughter on the back staircase of their house, which prompted her to call the police to report JonBenét as missing. At the time of the call, John Ramsay (the victim’s father), Patsy Ramsey, and Burke Ramsey (the victim’s 9-year-old brother) were all inside the house. JonBenét’s body was found less than 8 hours later inside the house, in the utility room in the basement. The victim’s father found the body with a cord around her neck and blunt force trauma to the head. According to the official autopsy report, JonBenét’s cause of death was “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma”, in other words she was strangled to death after being knocked unconscious due to blunt force trauma to the head. The main system that has been affected and ultimately led to her death is the respiratory system, as strangulation can be defined as “excessive or pathological constriction or compression of a bodily tube that interrupts its ability to act as a passage”, which is exactly what happened to JonBenét’s larynx/trachea/laryngopharynx area. In this essay, JonBenét’s injuries will be thoroughly discussed to explain the way that the trauma caused her death, and how other factors affected the process of her death.
Ligature Strangulation
Ligature strangulation basically means that someone is being strangled to death with a foreign object like a cord or a rope. At first glance, the act of ligature strangulation and hanging sound very similar, however the main difference is that with hanging, the body is suspended; with ligature strangulation, the victim is not being suspended, and usually they are being strangled with the object from behind.
Anything can act as a ligature, but in the case of JonBenét Ramsey, the object used was described as a “white cord [that] is flattened and measures approximately 1/4 inch in width. It appears to be made of a white synthetic material.”. The cord was found not only around her neck in a double knot (see figure 4), but also around the victim’s wrists. From the images published from JonBenét’s autopsy, we know that the ligature was a white synthetic fibre rope with frayed ends, so it’s safe to assume that there was also some superficial damage to the neck area, like contusions from the compression of the cord and friction burns from where the cord has rubbed over the surface of the skin.
The Respiratory System
Oxygen is one of the fundamental elements needed for life on Earth.
The most important role of the respiratory system is to carry oxygen around the body so as to keep bodily cells alive and functioning; without oxygen, our cells lack function and begin to die, which can stop certain bodily systems from working e.g. during cardiac arrest (where the heart stops completely), if CPR is not given to the patient then cells in the heart can begin to die, meaning that the affected areas will cease to function again even if the patient survives.
The respiratory system (see figure 5) also helps to get rid of carbon dioxide which is a by-product in the body, and if left to accrue it can become toxic. “As the blood flows through the lungs, excess carbon dioxide passes out of the blood and into the alveoli by diffusion. It is then removed from the lungs when we exhale” (BBC). Our brains can identify when levels of carbon dioxide are particularly high and act accordingly by indicating to the lungs that they need to inhale and exhale quicker to expel the waste, thus returning the body’s carbon dioxide levels back to normal. There are certain conditions that are ideal for the exchange of gases in the body that eradicates excess CO2. These conditions are a) a large surface area, b) a ventilation method, and c) a pump and circulatory system to distribute the gases.
In our bodies, oxygen particles split up into single atoms to find single electrons that have not yet joined into a pair with another electron. Single oxygen atoms, otherwise known as ‘free radicals’, roam the body looking for these single electrons in an attempt to form a pair, thus causing harm to important elements of the body like cells and DNA. We generate free radicals from the food and drink that we ingest alongside other environmental factors. Free radicals have been linked to sicknesses like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientist Christopher Wanjek has even gone as far as to describe ageing as “a gradual accumulation of free-radical damage” due to free radical’s suggested links to ageing.
What happens to the body when the Respiratory System is interrupted
Once bodily tissue becomes injured or dies, the cells go through a process called autolysis (auto meaning to one’s self, and lysis meaning to get rid of or kill); autolysis is essentially the cells way of digesting itself once the tissue is no longer working or salvageable. Autolysis happens when a cells functionality ceases, so the cells’ lysosomes deliver digestive enzymes from specialised cells to the cytoplasm.
It is proven that the maximum amount of time the brain can function properly without oxygen is around 6 minutes; after this point, the brains cells start to die, and the other systems of the body begin to follow suit. As cells cannot regenerate, this 6-minute period is pivotal in the fight between life and death.
JonBenét’s official autopsy report states that she died from ligature strangulation after she had been knocked unconscious from blunt force trauma to the head, so it’s safe to assume that she was not able to fight back against her attacker, and it seems unlikely that anyone was around to give her CPR, so presumably she passed away almost immediately after the 6-minute period of oxygen starvation.
JonBenét may have even suffered from Cerebral Hypoxia (see figure 6), where there is a lack of oxygen in the brain, or Cerebral Anoxia, whereby the brain is completely starved of oxygen, leading to the death of the brain’s cells.
The Autopsy Process and Determining a Cause of Death
The first thing to determine after any death is whether there is any foul play in the incident (e.g. a murder), or whether the death occurred naturally (e.g. a heart attack). To do this, the place in which the body was found should be investigated and any suspicious evidence (for example objects that seem out of place or the body being in a strange position) should be photographed and then documented as evidence. The description of the basement in which JonBenét’s body was found was described in the Autopsy report as a “dark, dirty area” riddled with mould (F. White Dep. at 228). “Next to the utility space, at the southeast corner of the basement, is the unfinished, windowless room where JonBenét’s body was found behind a closed door (see figure 3). The room is dank and bunker-like, with water stained cement walls and a cement floor.” (The Daily Camera, 1997). Obviously due to the extensive amount of/type of injuries that the victim incurred (see figure 2 and 4), alongside the location the body was found in, the ransom note and the age of the victim, suicide and a natural cause of death would have been immediately ruled out.
In the official autopsy report, this is how JonBenét’s neck injuries are described: “A deep ligature furrow encircles the entire neck. The width of the furrow varies from one- eighth of an inch to five/sixteenths of an inch and is horizontal in orientation, with little upward deviation. The skin of the anterior neck above and below the ligature furrow contains areas of petechial haemorrhage and abrasion encompassing an area measuring approximately 3 x 2 inches. The ligature furrow crosses the anterior midline of the neck just below the laryngeal prominence, approximately at the level of the cricoid cartilage. It is almost completely horizontal with slight upward deviation from the horizontal towards the back of the neck. The midline of the furrow mark on the anterior neck is 8 inches below the top of the head. The midline of the furrow mark on the posterior neck is 6.75 inches below the top of the head.” (JonBenét Ramsey Case Encyclopaedia, 2017)
Potential Causes of Death in Strangulation Victims
Tracheobronchial injuries can occur in victims of all types of strangulation. Tracheobronchial injuries involve injury to both the trachea and the bronchi. Injuries can occur after blunt force trauma, compression injuries, and invasive trauma (like bullet wounds). It is thought that around 30% of victims suffering from this type of trauma who actually make it to seek medical attention still die from their injuries eventually. This is because in order to breathe properly, the trachea and bronchi need to be fully functional as they are the passages that the air passes through in order to get to the lungs. The lungs are relatively well covered in the chest as they have the ribcage to protect them from exterior forces, however the neck area is very vulnerable as it is stabilised by small rings of cartilage (which makes it easy for you to move your neck around). However, because it is cartilage and not bone it makes it a lot easier for it to be damaged as well. This poses a lot of problems for the respiratory system as during tracheobronchial injuries, the windpipe often collapses or there are lacerations in the cartilage, meaning an unstable supply of air to the lungs. Most people who suffer from tracheobronchial injuries die within minutes due to complications from not being able to breathe.
Another cause of death in strangulation victims is cervical fractures, more commonly known as a broken neck. Cervical fractures occur when one or more of the 7 cervical discs in the neck, known as vertebrae, become fractured or broken. An extreme amount of force would need to be exerted on the victim in order to fracture one of their cervical vertebrae. In the case of JonBenét Ramsey, she did not incur this injury, however as she was so young and not yet fully developed, and we assume that her murderer is a fully-grown adult, the conditions for the possibility of cervical fractures were certainly there. One way that cervical fractures can cause death is if the brain stem, located at the back of the neck, is severed, however, this is only in very extreme cases whereby serious pressure is exerted to the victim’s neck. The severing of the brain stem is more of a prevalent injury in gun crime and hanging victims. In fact, when people get hanged, the optimum cause of death is to have the brain stem severed as it causes immediate death, rather than have the victim struggling.
Effects of Ageing on the Respiratory System
In the case of JonBenét Ramsey, the effects of ageing on the respiratory system are obviously very minimal. Being the tender age of 6, it is important to note that although JonBenét’s respiratory would have been fully developed, it would have been somewhat smaller than an adult’s respiratory system, e.g. the lungs would be smaller. There isn’t much difference between a child’s respiratory system and an adult’s. The main difference is that children’s respiratory rates tend to be higher than that of adult’s. This in turn means that children are more susceptible to absorbing allergens and pathogens through the respiratory route, leaving them more susceptible to airborne disease. The older you are, the less functional all of your bodies systems are. The respiratory system is less effective the older you get. The maximum function of the respiratory system progressively deteriorates as time goes on, meaning that it gets harder to breathe, the system is less able to exchange gases, muscles become weakened, and organs like the lungs are more susceptible to airborne illness.
JonBenét’s rate of death was perhaps sped up by the fact she was a child, as physically, she would be a lot weaker than her attacker who was most likely an adult.
Conclusion
To conclude, JonBenét Ramsey was very unfortunate that her attacker came to her at such a young age. Had she have been an adult, and fully developed, she would have stood a much stronger chance of fighting off her attacker or being able to survive her injuries. JonBenét fell unconscious after being struck over the head causing blunt force trauma. The blunt force trauma led to a huge fracture forming in her skull, leaving her at an already critical state. The ligature strangulation she suffered around 40 minutes after the craniocerebral trauma really just sealed her coffin. It was unlikely that someone of such a small, fragile stature would be capable of surviving such an aggressive type of trauma, but to ensure her death it would have been easy to cut off her oxygen supply via strangulation as there would have been no struggle. Her body was starved of oxygen, leading to cell death and thus JonBenét’s death as her major bodily systems began to shut down. The respiratory system was not able to complete its primary function of gaseous exchange and allowing the body to breathe, therefore going into respiratory failure.