So What Did Margie Say About...CSI: Strip Maul

The 6/5/13 repeat CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode titled "Strip Maul" has me scratching my head trying to figure out a few things.

 

The first shooting victim is a male sitting up in the front seat of a vehicle.  The resulting cause of death is a gunshot wound (gsw) to the back of the head. The stippling pattern indicates that it is close range (although that would be difficult to distinguish in that thick black hair!).  There is no exit and they retrieve the bullet from the body at autopsy.  So far so good.

 

But then we are introduced to deceased Lydia by the dumpster.  There are passive blood drops and a bloody swipe pattern near the dumpster which leads to the body which is lying in a pool of blood.  The investigator states that these blood patterns indicate a struggle.  SAY WHAT???

 

Passive drops are just that - drops of blood that are falling straight down due to the pull of gravity.  When you have circular stains that tells you that a blood source is stationary and NOT in motion.  Motion would cause a change in the shape of the stains and they would look elongated (kind of like a bowling pin). The blood swipe tells you merely that a bloody object (in this case - the body) was drug to the final resting position where it drained the pool of blood.

 

Okay, so now we go to the autopsy where the Medical Examiner says that this was the same MO as the male victim.  Again I say: huh?  That would mean that there was an entrance to the back of the head with no exit wound.  Since they did retrieve the bullet from the body that would suggest that there was no exit wound.  But wait - when they show the body there is a big hole in the middle of her forehead.  Okay so maybe she wasn't shot in the back of the head but shot in the forehead and there is no exit wound.  But wait - look at the size of that entrance wound (and WITHOUT STIPPLING!!).  I dare say that the size of that hole is way too big for a 22 caliber. 

 

I am officially confused with what they are trying to convey.  But then I must admit:  I can grab this concept more so than a pregnant transvestite, pregnant with drug balloons.  As they say - OH BABY.