[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Your scenario is most plausible... but that would still make it a homicide.

His animosity toward her parents regarding her internment betrays him to me as a would be murderer... I cannot prove it, but it does point me towards the intent to commit murder or grievous bodily harm at the least...

It is the psychological profile of his behavior.

[T'wit]

>> that would still make it a homicide.

Yes.

If I were DA, I think I would have gone for voluntary manslaughter. Or whatever is appropriate for "assault causing death."

There is quite a lot of material about Michael giving insights into his personality. The material shaped my scenario, but let's save that discussion for another occasion :-)

[T'wit]

One little afterword, if I may. We have visitors who haven't come to grips with the fact that domestic violence is the #1 cause of injury and death in young women. That makes it the first thing to suspect when trying to explain how a healthy young woman, age 26, probably asleep, ended up face down on the hallway floor, in cardiac arrest and near death, right after her husband came home late one Saturday night.

Nobody has ever explained how this happened, and medical testing found no natural causes. The autopsy report ruled out bulimia and that was Michael's only alibi. I ask our visitors for their assistance solving this mystery, but only one has even replied and that poster had no facts at all.

I also put my own reconstruction out for comment and nobody has yet refuted any point on it. The injuries I mention and the abnormal blood tests are all from evidentiary medical records. The fight between Terri and Michael was conceded by both sides of the family and was known to friends, one of whom urged Terri to spend the night with her for safety sake. Terri might be alive and well today, had she accepted. (Btw, Michael lied about the fight to the police when they arrived. He told them that everything was untroubled and rosy between him and Terri.)

It's theory, no more, no less. I'll amend the thing if someone can show me better, and I'll scrap it if someone can disprove it. If you find any holes in it, fire away. But for the moment, it's the only theory out there that fits ALL the known medical facts. That's extremely difficult to do. In fact, nobody offers any other theory at all any more.

So, visitors, refute it if you can. Suggest something better if you can. Whatever did happen that night must color our view of everything else that occurred. If it turns out that Michael himself caused Terri's injuries, one cannot still sympathize with his efforts later to finish her off. After you know Michael injured her in the first place, you cannot go on believing his whopper that he's only killing Terri because she wants to die. Neither can one go on applauding "due process" when you realize it covering up a murder.

[T'wit]

Backgrounding, FYI. Peruse at your leisure or not at all. But it is fascinating for Terri's case -- an exact fit.

The police expert here, Dr. Reay [chief medical examiner, King County, Seattle, WA], is mainly discussing the restraint technique of hog-tieing. This alone is enough to kill. By my reckoning, Terri was in a similar prone position, but with great weight on her back -- far deadlier. I will quote only three brief passages of Dr. Reay's report:

> "This [hog-tied] physically incapacitating position ... makes it difficult for subjects to breathe and can cause them to die. Because of the risks associated with hog-tied and prone restraint, officers must monitor subjects closely for signs of respiratory distress."

>"Positional Asphyxia ...occurs when the position of the body interferes with the person's ability to breathe. Breathing involves interaction of the chest wall, the diaphragm, and the muscles of the rib cage and abdomen. Interference with proper breathing produces an oxygen deficiency (known as hypoxia) in the blood, which disturbs the body's chemistry and creates the conditions for a fatal rhythm disturbance in the heart."

[Terri suffered a loss of oxygen that resulted in cardiac arrest and severe brain damage.]

>"...a report should contain explicit witness statements about the subject's behavior--especially noting any unusual physical respiratory signs, such as vocalizing, gurgling, gasping, and difficulty breathing"

The witnesses here (Bobby Schindler and EMS) reported that Terri was making gurgling noises (but was beyond vocalizing, gasping or being able to breathe).

Suspect Restraint and Sudden Death

[T'wit]

This photo suggests the approximate position of what I think happened, except that I'd put Michael's knees right onto Terri's back. The force of that was enough to break her back and bruise the strongest bone in her body, the femur. Michael is a huge man -- I think 6-6 and maybe 260 pounds. His weight would make it impossible for Terri to breathe.

[T'wit]

As before. Warning, heavy med stuff! Terri's blood showed lactic acidosis. One chronic form of this condition, due to lack of oxygen, is common among the elderly because their bodies aren't metabolizing the oxygen well. Ignore that one! :-) In a young healthy patient, it is caused by some form of exertion in the absence of oxygen. Example: the burning sensation you have at the end of a sprint race or after fast, furious exercise.

Terri was almost certainly sleeping, and she'd never show lactic acidosis from that! She obviously struggled like mad to breathe. That is in fact what regularly happens in positional asphyxia. Note the association of cardiac arrest and metabolic acidosis, exactly as in Terri's case.

"This article presents a series of five patients with restraint-associated cardiac arrest and profound metabolic acidosis."

[T'wit]

Just a ref, and this is the last one. You certainly don't have to read this one! I'll just say it is, again, a perfect fit for Terri. She had severe hypokalemia (low potassium) of the acute, one-time kind related to trauma. (Not the chronic kind possible in bulimia. The bulimia theory of Terri's "collapse" -- Michael's only alibi -- was hopeless on several grounds, as I said here long before the coroner tossed it out, but we don't have to go into that.)

Frequent hypokalemia was noted immediately after trauma