MovieChat Forums > The Keepers (2017) Discussion > Sister Cathy's skull

Sister Cathy's skull

posted 5 years ago by pepetoony (1744)
4 replies | jump to latest

That forensics expert in Detroit had a photo of Cathy's scalped, bashed in, hollowed out and decapitated skull. Now how does that work? They literally took her head off of her body and de-fleshed her in order to keep her skull for the investigation?? Why was that necessary vs simply taking routine autopsy photos and then restoring her body (including her head and face!) for a respectful burial? How are they allowed to do that to human remains and why was it necessary? I can't imagine Sister Cathy's family wanted that done to her. What did that process even look like? Do I even want to know?

[–] JohnnyDoe (1884) 5 years ago

Almost two months between disappearance/found, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse_decomposition

[–] pepetoony (1744) 5 years ago

But it was November, December, January in Maryland? I know it was unseasonably warm the week she was actually killed (allowing for the maggots) but I assume those temps didn't last much longer. The doc makes it appear she was discovered in snow, so I don't think she could've completely decomposed to that extent. Plus they kept referring to finding her "body" not her skeletal remains.

I've seen other cases where the skull of the victim was also completely scalped and removed from the body, like with Jon Benet Ramsey.

[–] liscarkat (18410) 2 years ago

I took a forensic anthropology class, in which I learned that heads and whole bodies are put into large trash cans with flesh-eating insects. A lid is placed on the container, and it's left alone for weeks. Eventually, the insects completely clean all soft tissue from the skull or whole skeleton.

[–] pepetoony (1744) 2 years ago

What. Don't the families have a say in this?? I can't imagine many families would want that done with/to their loved one. And in what instances is the 'bug' method done vs just a routine autopsy??