“the amount of tape now makes me think it was postmortem; it wasn’t intended to be removed.”
What purpose would the tape be wrapped around postmortem? Why wrap her head with it postmortem?
But if you had first injected or had her inhale chloroform, and had decided not to break her neck, it would make sense that she wrapped the head thoroughly to ensure suffocation.
What I was thinking of was the pain it would have created removing the tape. It wasn’t intended to be temporary is what I was thinking. I can’t imagine any person would do this that didn’t involve death as the end result.