Lateral Spine Render Used in Angle Analysis
What This Image Shows
A lateral anatomical render showing the skull, jaw, cervical and thoracic spine, clavicle, scapula, ribs, and heart beneath a translucent blue outline of the body. Geometric measurement lines are drawn across it, along with several reddish-brown freehand marks. A faint dreamstime watermark runs across the torso, and a semi-transparent data chart on the left appears mirrored, its numbers reading backwards.
The mirrored chart is a tell worth noting: the underlying stock plate has been flipped horizontally so the body faces the other way, which is how the analyst wanted it oriented relative to the firing position being tested. The measurement lines and the freehand marks are added on top.
Diagrams like this one are used to argue about how far a projectile could travel through the neck and chest and where it would come to rest. The state's account places the round entering the neck and continuing into the thoracic cavity, and researchers have questioned whether the energy of a .30-06 round is consistent with a projectile stopping inside the body at all. That energy argument is at .30-06 Energy Mismatch, and the alternative mechanisms proposed to explain the wound pattern are at Alternative Kill Mechanisms and Exploding Pendant and Shaped Charge.
Related Areas
- Cluster: Ballistics and the Gun
- Section: Gun & Bullet Analysis
- All photo evidence: Photos