Dr. Kendall Crowns

Correct, yes.

So what else will be done is microscopic analysis or looking at sections of the tissue under a microscope, looking for any disease processes.

Also, you'll be looking at the lungs there as well, looking to see if the air sacs or the alveoli in the lungs have filled up with air.

The other thing you'll be looking at is the placenta, if it's available, looking at the placenta, looking for any evidence of hemorrhage or loss of oxygen or infarction or infection of the membranes.

You'll be looking at the umbilical cord to see if it's normally formed, if it was wrapped around the child's neck.

or if it has inflammation as well.

And then you'll also be looking for any evidence of trauma, birth trauma where like the shoulder got stuck and they had to pull the child very hard, fracturing the shoulder or separating the neck.

You'll also be looking for inflicted trauma like crushing of the ribs, breaking of the extremities or the long bones of the extremities or crushing of the skull.

Yes, we see that occasionally with full-term infants or babies that are beyond the 23-week gestation.

The mother places it in the trash bag and seals the trash bag, throwing it in the trash.

There's not enough oxygen in there for the child to survive, and so they eventually will suffocate by being in a plastic bag, just as if you put a plastic bag over your head, it would suffocate you.

So mechanical asphyxia is basically some sort of compression on the chest or neck that makes it impossible for you to breathe.

Specifically mechanical strangulation, what they're referring to as a bar hold or choke hold is where the arm is placed across the front of the neck

and then drawn back with the other arm, compressing your trachea and making it impossible for you to breathe.

The other situation is the carotid sleeper hold, where they put your neck in the crook of the arm and then compress both sides of your carotid, causing the blood not to flow to your brain and you pass out.

So either one of those scenarios could be what they're defining as mechanical asphyxia or mechanical strangulation.

So it could mean when they're compressing the neck with the arm that they're placing pressure with the other arm along the side of the neck and the arm is kind of to the side causing the bruising.

It could also mean that he placed her in a carotid sleeper hold and using the cruck of his arm, both sides of his arm compressed on either sides of her neck, compressing her carotids and caused her to pass out and die from lack of blood to her brain.

Well, toxicology reports can take up to six to eight weeks, so you potentially don't have the DNA report back from a sexual assault kit or a rape kit because there hasn't been enough time passed.

So again, there'd have to be a little more testing done, a little more stuff done by the crime labs before it's all back.