After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 97

September 3, 1993. 9:16 AM.

"Dr. Keller, you concluded that Pieter Kingston's cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head yesterday afternoon, is that correct?" Dana Barnes picked up where she left off bright and early that Friday morning. The primary forensic examiner who also examined the forensic evidence pertaining to Simon's death returned to the stand for the second time in twelve hours. Dr. Jillian Keller also testified to the evidence in Simon's case back in January, nearly nine months ago now.

"Yes, that's correct" Dr. Keller confirmed.

"From what were you able to draw that conclusion?" Barnes asked the witness to elaborate.

"Pieter Kingston sustained only minor injuries from the neck down, nothing that would've killed him independently. The most severe of injuries were to various parts of the brain. We saw evidence of severe bruising, broken blood vessels, excessive internal bleeding, and various types of brain hemorrhages. The impact itself killed him instantly, and created open wounds in which the internal brain bleed became also an external one. The lower part of the body was significantly less injured than the upper parts such as the neck, shoulders, and chest. In medical terms, this serves as evidence that the object that caused the fatal injury came down from above" the examiner explained, using layman's terms as much as possible so that the members of the court could follow.

"And it is possible that the injuries may have been caused by a large boulder falling on top of Pieter from above?" Barnes sought to confirm.

"Yes, it's highly likely. We found small rock fragments imbedded into the skull and even in the internal structure of the brain, the kind of fragments that could have easily broken off a larger rock upon impact" Dr. Keller further explained.

"Based on Pieter's injuries, were you able to estimate from how high the boulder may have fallen?" Barnes questioned the witness.

"Yes, we are able to look at the severity and location of injuries of this nature to determine how heavy, at what speed, and from what distance an object struck its victim at. In Pieter's case, we estimated the distance or height to be about twenty-five feet, give or take five feet based on the weight of the boulder, which we estimate to be between eighteen and twenty-two hundred pounds" she explained.

"In your expert opinion, Dr. Keller, do you think it may have been possible for someone to survive getting hit by something so heavy from the height that you mentioned?" Barnes questioned.

"No, it's extremely unlikely. If the boulder had somehow managed to miss striking the victim's head, and instead collided with a shoulder or lower body upon impact, then potentially we could see survival with severe injuries, but only if treated by medical professionals right away. But because the bolder struck Pieter directly on the top of the head, it would be virtually impossible for him to have survived the incident regardless of access to medical care" the examiner described with certainty.

"Was your team able to determine an approximate date of death for Pieter Kingston?"

"Based on the decomposition stage of the body, we were able to narrow down the date of death to about twelve days prior to our examination of the body. That would put the date of death on January 16th 1991, potentially the 15th or 17th dependent on the time of day in which he was killed. We aren't able to narrow it down to the exact hour unfortunately" Dr. Keller confirmed.

Ralph knew that the estimation was right. Following Piggy's death, he started counting the days and nights on the island again. He survived exactly eleven nights after Piggy died, eleven nights all alone. Knowing they were rescued on the 27th meant that the 16th was an accurate prediction for his date of death. Which meant that it was highly likely Dr. Keller was right about everything else she was saying about Piggy's death too.