The loss of blood was all internal, between her scalp and skull around her entire head, and also on the right side of her brain. My layman's knowledge is not extensive enough to know exactly how to interpret these facts as regards how quickly it might have caused her death. I speculate that it was a brief time, because I know that massive bleeding leads to loss of blood pressure, which in turn stops the heart.
As for the county cornor's competency, you won't catch me insisting that such people are, by definition, competent.
You're also right that it's hard to interpret the garrotting if one assumes it was done as part of a coverup. But I struggle with that notion now that I've seen the autopsy report/photos. I don't think someone who was just trying to cover up the blow to the head would be prepared for what it would be like to strangle someone to death.
Not intending to be gross here, but it is well to understand exactly what the killer saw and did during that strangulation. The child's lips were turning dark blue. Large amounts of saliva and mucus were coming out of her mouth. If she were conscious when the strangulation started, she would have struggled as best she could. Yet the killer kept going. The killer turned and turned and turned and turned that garrot until it was so tight it made an extraordinarily deep groove in her neck.
And the ligature wasn't around the upper part of her neck, under the jawline where most stranglers kill their victims. The ligature was toward the base of her neck, with the front part going under the Adams apple. The muscles of the neck are stronger there, yet the killer applied immense force to dig that rope very deep into her neck.
I certainly could be wrong, but that, to me, speaks of enormous rage, not something done to cover up a prior act.
You may be right about the lack of cover-up intent or whatever. I just don't want to exclude the possibility out of hand. Yes, looking at the autopsy photos was a bit shocking; I quickly ruled Burke out on lack of strength alone. An adult did this.
Some things to note:
researchers on forumsforjustice have noted that there were no scrapes on the body characteristic of a struggle, there was no neck muscle bruising (though the skin was bruised) which indicates struggle, and the saliva discharge was drool, also not indicative of struggle. If that's right then at minimum I think she was unconscious when the ligature was applied.
An interesting footnote is that the drool ran down the face outside the region of tape adhesive, meaning it happened before the mouth was taped. In other words, she was unconscious when the tape was applied. To me, that alone indicates a deceptive act.
I've struggled with how a family member could stomach 'faking' something like that at such a traumatic time. But that assumes they are like me...
It's not really the base of her neck - there's a lot more of her neck below the ligature.
There is a difference of opinion on how the garotte worked, too. I never felt it was a twisted type because of the length of the rope and the small distance in circumference. I felt there would be more than just the one knuckle-type mark on the neck area where it was twisted.
I believe, until I hear differently, that it was a slip knot. I'm in the minority, I realize and will certainly concur if I have different info in the *next* 7 years or so.