Estimated-Time-Of-Death... What If?

I’ve been thinking about this more and more so will post it here….

A few things worth noting:

1)  Faith’s body was discovered around 11am, with police there soon after.

2)  We know Faith and Karena arrived home from the Thrill shortly before 3am. and Karena then left again around 4:30 — IF Karena killed Faith (which I DON’T believe, but some do) she had a narrow window of opportunity to do it, basically an hour, say between 3:15 and 4:15am., 7-8 hrs. before Faith's body was found.

3)  I (and I think many others) have always presumed the crime occurred after Karena departed, but still under the cover of darkness before sunrise, say between 4:45 and 6:45am, a 2-hr. window, 4-6 hrs. before discovery.

4)  We have never been told an estimated-time-of-death for Faith, either from the police nor the Coroner.

The table below, I found on the Web, summarizes bodily changes that take place within 48 hours of death:

********************

Time since death: …. Change observed

1-2 hours: ………Early signs of lividity. [blue-gray discoloring]

2-5 hours: ………Clear signs of lividity throughout body.

5-7 hours: ………Rigor mortis begins in face.

8-12 hours: ….….Rigor mortis established throughout the body, extending to arms and legs

12 hours: ……….Body has cooled to about 25°C internally.

20-24 hours: …...Body has cooled to surrounding temperature.

24 hours: ……….Rigor mortis begins to disappear from the body in roughly the same order as it appeared.

36 hours: ……….Rigor mortis has completely disappeared.

48 hours: ……….Body discoloration shows that decomposition is beginning.

********************

Thus, if Karena were the killer, 7-8 hours earlier, one would expect some noticeable rigor mortis and extensive lividity.

IF the crime occurred after Karena left but before sunrise, 4-6 hrs. before the body was found, one might only expect some rigor mortis beginning in the face, if any at all.

Of course neither rigor mortis or lividity is described in Karena’s 911 call, which may be understandable under the circumstances. I’m a bit more surprised that the first officer on the scene also made no mention of rigor mortis or lividity in his brief initial report (though perhaps I’m wrong to think such an observation would be routinely recorded?).

But this all does leave yet one other possibility: that there was NO lividity or rigor mortis to note when the body was discovered! That the murder took place much closer to 11am! Perhaps this would account too for why very little suspicious was seen or heard from the apt. that morning. By say 9:30am. maybe most occupants had left for work or school and there were few renters (potential witnesses) lingering around? Perhaps the crime occurred AFTER 10 am. in the morning! Is that plausible? — I have no idea (especially since I think Faith would've left for classes well before 10?); again the police can probably either rule that possibility in or out, but haven’t allowed us to do so. Such a late time for the crime might also very much alter theories of who-done-it.

I still believe the 4:45 - 6:45 time slot is the most probable; but I'm less certain than I was previously in this confounding case.

Crossing My Fingers… This May Be Encouraging!?

I'm increasingly, hesitantly hopeful in this case!:

Most have heard the news of familial DNA being used recently to pinpoint a suspect in the decades-old “Golden State Killer” cold case. And now a second cold case in Washington state from 1987 may have been solved using the same technique: 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/investigators-genetic-genealogy-arrest-suspect-cold-case-1987/story?id=55273043

This is all being done as a relatively new application by Parabon NanoLabs the SAME company that developed the highly publicized DNA phenotype/profile in Faith’s case. Their new technique is called genetic genealogy service. You can read more about it (and how it differs from more traditional familial searching) here:

https://snapshot.parabon-nanolabs.com/genealogy

But here’s the article that gives me hope/encouragement:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/parabon-genetic-genealogy-cold-cases

Apparently the company has already used the procedure in ~100 more cold-type cases and gotten leads in ~20 of them, though nothing has been publicly released yet, but a company spokesperson says, “I think there is going to be press around this very soon.” Given that police in Faith’s case have already employed Parabon previously I’m hoping just perhaps (I don’t know) Faith’s case is one of those involved, or if it isn't it soon will be.

----------------------
ADDENDUM:  No doubt there will be more articles coming along, and there is now this one from Atlantic Magazine saying the "floodgates" may soon open to solving crimes with genetic technology:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/the-coming-wave-of-murders-solved-by-genealogy/560750/?utm_source=twb

A Numbers Game?

Not much real news happening so I’ll just put in a sort of ‘filler’ post…

I continue to receive notes from folks (as well as seeing them across the Web) pointing the finger at Karena Rosario, essentially proclaiming ‘It’s obvious Karena did it,’ ‘Karena is guilty, how can anyone not see that,’ ‘Any fool knows Karena killed her’… etc. All you have to do is explain how and why such a brutal, seemingly impulsive attack would have been pulled off by a ‘best’ friend (while there could have been some bad blood between Faith and Karena, no evidence solidly demonstrates it)… And moreover how Karena managed to talk a male acquaintance to pick up a few key items in the apartment and also leave his semen at the scene, just to draw attention away from her is another task you must explain. One can concoct some scenarios for how she could have done such, especially if you assume the crime was planned for days or weeks in advance, but it requires a pretty convoluted route (in my opinion)… and even more convoluted if you think she killed Faith first and then asked a male to help her out a bit. The police are convinced the killer is a male, and so am I (...one thing I'm not entirely convinced of though is whether or not Faith was even the intended victim).

Certainly possible that KR knows more than she’s told — perhaps she is protecting someone, or quiet because she fears for her own life or that of her family… but, I doubt it. She’s spoken to police at least 10 times about the crime; there’s absolutely no reason for her to continue to give in (and re-live that day over again) to badgering from press or public asking the same redundant questions over and over and over and over.

Because of the “Breaking Homicide” episode some others are now pointing at the boyfriend Ty McNeil… the sort of new flavor-of-the-month for this crime… again based on speculation and circumstantial details; and again little solid evidence that I’m aware of.

And way back at the very beginning of the investigation of course we had Eriq Takoy Jones, who seemed a slam-dunk suspect, and one of the few named figures I’m still quite curious about — would love to know how he answered police interrogation about his incriminating social messages, or his disingenuous comments at the crime scene on day 1. Again, no solid evidence he is the perp, but does he know more than he's told?

Anyway, the point is that people, quite naturally, keep throwing their aspersions at the names we already know, that have appeared in police documents or online videos. That’s convenient and easy, but may be hasty or ill-conceived.

If I look over all my old notes, based on official documents released at the 2-year point and press coverage since, I can maybe come up with a dozen names of some suspicious interest. And researching those names in turn I might even come up with an additional dozen names or so, but that’s about it.

On-the-other-hand, on the morning of Sept. 7, 2012, Faith and Karena attended a night club for about an hour-and-a-half where they were exposed to dozens if not over 100 males, who may have approached them, encountered them, interacted with them, or simply admired them from afar — that, to me, is a LOT of possible suspects who we know almost nothing about (…and it’s not clear to me that police have very deep knowledge of ALL the males at the Thrill that morning either). So just from the standpoint of proximity of the Thrill visit to the murder, and the sheer number of males present there, I continue to believe the probability is great that the perp stems from that population (and all the more-so given that 100s of males from Faith's own social circles have already been tested and cleared). I’m always willing to be persuaded otherwise, but so far nothing has done it.