The
Discovery of 'Blood-Like Stains': A Very Bad Attempt to Bolster the Suicide
Finding
|
About
This Snippet
During the early evening
of July 20th 1993, the body of White House Counsel Vincent Foster was found
lying on a berm in Fort Marcy Park Va. According to the official
investigations into the Foster death, Vince Foster placed a .38 caliber
handgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Per the official autopsy,
the bullet is supposed to have exited the back of Foster's head.
However, investigators at the scene reported that they did not see any
blood around Foster's head.
Since a .38 caliber
shot through the mouth and out the back of the head would blow a tremendous
amount of blood and other material out behind the head of the decedent,
the lack of blood behind the head is a strong indication that the death
may not have occurred there, or that some other means was used to cause
the death.
This lack of blood
and other biological material in the vicinity of Foster's head has been
problematic in the face of the official finding of suicide, and apparently
concerned Starr's chief forensic scientist, Dr. Henry Lee, enough that
Lee decided to look into the matter.
Since Dr. Lee began
his investigation over two years after the death, any evidence of blood
at the death scene would be long gone. So Lee did the next best thing
-- he examined one of the few remaining polaroid photographs of the death
scene (most of the photographic evidence was supposedly ruined; there is
no explanation how that occurred).
Following his examination
of the polaroid photograph, Dr. Lee reported that he had observed "[r]eddish-brown,
blood-like stains ... on several leaves of the vegetation" in the area
around Foster's body. Dr Lee then conjectures that "[i]f these stains
are, in fact, blood spatters, this finding is consistent with the shot
having been fired at the location where Mr. Foster's body was found".
Unfortunately, Renee
Abt, one of the Park Police officers at the death scene and an amateur
gardener, examined the foliage around the body and observed " .. raised
brown spots on the leaves, which she described as "leaf disease".
The "[r]eddish-brown,
blood-like stains" Dr. Henry Lee found appear to have been leaf disease,
not bloodstains. |
The
discovery of "blood-like" spatter in a death scene photograph
In his summary of conclusions,
Kenneth Starr declares that the Foster death was a suicide and summarizes
the evidence supporting this finding. In the summary, Starr says
that "blood-like spatter" was observed in a photograph of the scene (emphasis
added):
X.
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS
...
Dr. Lee found gunshot residue in a sample of the soil from the place where
Mr. Foster was found. He also found a bone chip containing DNA consistent
with that of Mr. Foster in debris from the clothing. Dr.
Lee observed blood-like spatter on vegetation in the photographs of the
scene.
Given that Starr changed Dr. Lee's finding of
"gunpowder-like particles" into "gunshot residue", the term "blood-like
spatter" gives us reason to look into this a bit more closely..
In a violent and supposedly
unattended death by gunshot, it is crucial to establish that the decedent
actually died at the location where the body was found, so as to rule out
possibility of foul play.
During the early evening
of July 20th 1993, the body of White House Counsel Vincent Foster was found
lying on a berm in Fort Marcy Park Va.
According to the official
investigations into the Foster death, Vince Foster placed a .38 caliber
handgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Per the official autopsy,
the bullet is supposed to have exited the back of Foster's head, leaving
a wound some 1 x 1.25 inches [2035]; however, investigators at the
scene reported that they did not see any blood.
Excerpt
from Investigator John Rolla's Death Investigation Report |
For example, John Rolla
the US Park Police Investigator in charge of the death scene, wrote in
his Death Investigation Report (emphasis added) [150]:
The
blood on the ground and on his shirt appeared to still be wet. There
was no blood spatter on the plants or trees surrounding the decedent's
head.
Since a .38 caliber shot
through the mouth and out the back of the head would blow a tremendous
amount of blood and other material out behind the head of the decedent,
the lack of blood behind the head is a strong indication that the death
may not have occurred there, or that some other means was used to cause
the death.
Robert Fiske merely
ignored the fact that eyewitness accounts reported no blood or other matter
on the vegetation behind Foster. In his report on the Foster
death of July 30, 1994, Robert Fiske never mentions the lack of blood on
the vegetation.
Starr did not ignore
the lack of blood on the vegetation, Starr appears to have tried to explain
the matter away.
Starr's top forensic
expert, Dr. Henry Lee, examined one of the remaining photographs
of the death scene (most of the photographic evidence of the death scene
was supposedly ruined; there is no explanation how that occurred) and reported
that he had seen "blood-like stains" on the vegetation.
From page 59 of the
Starr Report:
Dr.
Lee stated that one photograph of the scene "shows a view of the vegetation
in the areas where Mr. Foster's body was found. Reddish-brown, blood-like
stains can be seen on several leaves of the vegetation in this area."[170]
He also noted that "[a] close-up view of some of these blood-like stains
can be seen in [a separate] photograph."[171]
In Footnote 171 Dr. Lee
engages in speculation:
[171]
Id. Dr. Lee said that "[i]f these stains are, in fact, blood spatters,
this finding is consistent with the shot having been fired at the location
where Mr. Foster's body was found." Id.
Perhaps ... if
the "blood-like stains" are really blood spatters.
Clearly, this attempt
to support Starr's suicide finding is valid only if the "stains are, in
fact, blood spatters".
Leaf
Disease ...
In his book on the
Foster death Dan Moldea reports that he discussed the lack of blood on
the vegetation behind Foster's head with Renee Abt, one of the US Park
Police officers who responded to the death scene. Moldea reports
(emphasis added):
USPP
Investigator Renee Abt told me that she, along with other police
investigators at the crime scene, had specifically examined the foliage
around Foster's body for blood but found none. However, Abt,
a gardener, did observe minuscule raised brown spots on the leaves, which
she described as "leaf disease".1
Summary
There
you have it:
-
Trained police investigators
at the death scene examined the foliage around Foster's body and found
no blood.
Years later, Dr. Henry
Lee examined one of the few remaining polaroid photographs of the scene
and declares that he observed "blood-like" spatter on the vegetation.
Dr. Lee then speculates that "if these stains are, in fact, blood spatters,
this finding is consistent with the shot having been fired at the location
where Mr. Foster's body was found".
-
This "blood-like spatter"
appears to have been leaf disease, not blood.
1: Dan
Moldea, A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited
a Political Firestorm, Regnery Publishing, Inc; footnote 74 page 443.
Citations
in brackets are to page numbers of the two 1994 Senate Whitewater Hearings
Volumes [S. Hrg. 103-889, Volumes I & II] and of the 1994 Report Volume
[Rept. 103-433, Volume I].
jc
huntington
revised
10/98
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