Time of Death
Facts
- In her sworn statement on April 19, 1979, Josie Stepenhorst said Theresa had finished her meal in the Dewhurst Dining Hall by 6 pm.
- Theresa was seen by Tamara Westall around 9:30 pm grabbing a late-night snack in the King’s Hall dining room.
Fact
“The stomach contains a small mass of solid food, digested or decomposed. The intestines are void of matter.”
--Teresa Sourour, pathologist with the Laboratoire de medicine legale, in her April 14, 1979 autopsy report of Theresa Allore
Fact:
"The ME can often use the contents of the victims stomach to help determine time of death. After a meal, the stomach empties itself in approximately 4 to 6 hours, depending on the type and amount of food ingested. If a victim stomach contains largely undigested food material, then the death likely occurred within an hour or two of the meal. If the stomach is empty, the death likely occurred more than six hours after eating. Additionally, if the small intestine is also empty, death probably occurred some 12 hours or more after the last meal.
"At death, all digestive processes stop. This means that any food in the stomach or intestines remains as it was at death, until decay sets in….The stomach empties in about 2 hours and the intestines in about 12. So, if your victim was known to have eaten at about 6 p.m. and the ME found that his stomach contained the meal, he could state that the time of death was between 6 and 8 p.m. If the victim ate at 6 p.m. and the stomach was empty, he would say that the death was after about 8 or 9 p.m."
--D.P. Lyle, MD, “Timely Death”
Conclusion
- By 9:30 pm, Theresa’s meal from Dewhurst Dining Hall would be fully digested and therefore not present in her stomach or intestines. Therefore, the food discovered in her stomach during the autopsy would have been what she ate in the King’s Hall dining room. This means that Sharon Buzzee's and Tamara Westall's testimony is accurate.
- Theresa definitely made it back to Compton and King’s Hall on November 3, 1978.
- Theresa’s time of death should be estimated between 9:45 pm and 11:45 pm on November 3, 1978.
Questions
- Where did Theresa go after her late-night snack? She wasn’t seen back at Gillard House. Nobody at the store in the village remembered seeing her. Did she meet up with her killer/fate at King’s Hall or on the way to the store? Did somebody invite her outside for a smoke in their car? Did somebody ask her to go with them to buy some weed or liquor?
- How did Theresa get back to Compton? She missed the 6:15 pm bus. Could she have met up with someone she knew in Lennoxville (e.g., student/teacher) who offered her a ride back to her residence? If so, why didn’t this person admit to giving her a ride? If she hitchhiked and accepted a ride from a stranger, why didn’t that person come forward?
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Maritime Missy
posted by John Allore @ 11/18/2007 01:34:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I would think that a possible reason that the person who gave her a lift from Lennoxville to Compton has not come forward, is that they are no longer living in the area and therefore unaware of the developments of the last few years...or just plain no longer living. Of course, there are those who's hand might not necessarily have been clean that might have given the lift, and are sure as heck not going to fess up to it either.
I have always felt that Theresa made it back to King's Hall safely; why would those 2 girls make up a story? And because of a special event that weekend, they had the date and night right. If Theresa was not seen in the village, then perhaps she didn't make it there, but was picked up on her way there...(there have been blitz-like attacks reported to John by other females in the area at that time). There is a road before the village, Highway 208 that meets with Cochrane Road, the road Theresa would have walked to get to the village...could someone have been coming from that direction and offered her a lift...or had perhaps been waiting there...knowing that students walked to the village? It's Friday night, there's a bar in town...students get hungry, want cigarettes...there's a dep in town too.
ANON...I guess I should have been a bit more specific when I asked "Why didn't the person who gave her a lift from Lennoxvile to Compton come forward?" What I meant was...why didn't they come forward back in 1979 when word was out that she went missing. I think one of the things you mentioned (about the driver having a checkered past) is possible. Or...the driver was worried about how it looked to give a lift to a young woman who later disappeared. Maybe he/she didn't want to be put under suspicion.
I have a theory I'm working on that I'll be posting soon. I just have to work out a few more details.
In the meantime...how far is the "bar and depanneur in town" that you referred to in your last sentence?
MM, the depanneur is just at the intersection of Cochrane Road and Rte 147. It is a 5-minute walk or a 1-minute car ride from King's Hall. The 'Entre-Deux' bar would have been facing the dep but on the other side of Rte 147. From here it is less than a 4-minute car ride (50km/hr) to 'Pont de la Station' over the bog where Theresa was found.
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