ME rules Jennifer Ramsaran death a homicide, cause of death uncertain
NORWICH — Jennifer Ramsaran’s death was ruled a homicide, testified Onondaga Chief Medical Examiner Robert Stoppacher Tuesday at the Chenango County Courthouse.
Stoppacher testified that he received Jennifer’s body on Feb. 27, 2013, the day after Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Kelly Hayner said her father located what he thought was a dead body on his land in Pharsalia.
Stoppacher recalled the condition of the body and shared it with the jury. Since the victim’s body was found in the winter, he said her body was in a frozen state, and there was a short time before he was able to perform a full autopsy.
Stoppacher testified as both the medical examiner who performed the autopsy and an expert in the field. The reasoning for conducting an autopsy is to declare a cause of death and a manner of death, he said, adding that there are three components to an autopsy.
First is the external examination where injuries are noted, clothing, and where he would look for natural diseases. Second is the internal exam, where surgical procedures are performed to examine the condition of the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and other organs. Finally is the lab component that consists of x-rays, microscopic tests, blood samples, and toxicology tests.
“All three components are how we arrive at a determination,” Stoppacher said.
He said the most striking thing he noticed about the victim in this case was that he could tell she had been deceased for “some period of time.”
Due to decomposition of the body, and what Stoppacher referred to as “animal activity,” he was ultimately unable to determine a cause of death. He described the difference between cause of death and manner of death. A cause of death for a person could be a heart attack, and for that person the manner would be declared natural causes as he said a heart attack results from natural activities of bodies.
Stoppacher said in the case of this victim, there was no abnormal tissue; she didn’t have a stroke, pneumonia, hypothermia.
In the victim’s case, he did note “relatively small” bruises in a few locations on her body and a laceration of approximately one-half to three-quarters of an inch on the top left thumb knuckle. He said there was another tear behind her toe that was close to two inches in size. He said each injury could have been there prior to her death.
With regard to his internal examination, Stoppacher said there was decomposition to some of her organs, and he noted an area of bleeding on the left side of her scalp, near the top of her skull, approximately an inch in size.
“There were no fractures or breaks,” Stoppacher said. “On her back there were two narrow bands of bleeding, from left to right.”
He added there was nothing evident of that on her skin.
Stoppacher testified that those injuries happened prior to the victim’s death, because after death, “You don’t get bleeding as localized as that,” he said. “Although if the body does bump something after death, it could happen.”
According to Stoppacher, there was “no lethal injury in and of itself.”
Stoppacher said there are ways of death that don’t leave marks outside of a body, including suffocation or smothering. He added sometimes a medical examiner could see evidence of that, but in this victim’s case, he could not prove nor disprove that. He said another possibility was strangulation, but there were no bones injured on the victim, which is common with strangulation.
“Based on the state of the body are you able to tell anyone the cause of death?” asked Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride.
Stoppacher said no.
Stoppacher said there are five options for a coroner or medical examiner to write on a certificate for a manner of death: natural, suicide, accidental, homicide, or undetermined.
“In this case, my ruling was the death was the result of a homicide,” Stoppacher said. “Based on the circumstances, a healthy woman found naked on the side of the road, I had sufficient information to call it a homicide instead of undetermined.”
Stoppacher added that based on all the factors and his experience in the field of forensic pathology, that it his opinion that the body could have been there from Dec. 11, 2012 until it was found in February of the following year.
When Gilberto Garcia, Ramsaran’s defense counsel, asked Stoppacher about the date he filed the report, he asked why certain information was edited at various times.
Stoppacher said the toxicology results had not returned, nor had microscopic tissue tests. When asked how long it took for those results to come back, he said approximately one to two weeks. “Sometime in March,” Stoppacher said.
Garcia asked if there was any information added to the report between the time Stoppacher added the toxicology and microscopic results and the time he added that the manner was homicide. He said at some point he added the tissue results, but could not recall when.
“Are you telling us you delayed the report waiting for the police … is that typical practice?” asked Garcia.
Stoppacher said finalizing the report had to do with the circumstances around the death. The report was not signed and finalized by Stoppacher until May 20, 2013, while Ramsaran was arrested for murder in the second degree three days earlier, May 17, 2013.
Garcia asked Stoppacher if anyone had said anything to him such as “it was believed the husband did it.”
“There might have been a conversation in a room I was in,” Stoppacher said. “It doesn’t matter if someone said that or not.”
Stoppacher added that the body was found naked on the side of a road with no explicable reasoning. “No explicable reasoning that would tell us a cause of death, correct?” asked Garcia.
Garcia asked if it would have made a difference if Stoppacher received the body one month prior to when he did, and asked if that had been the case if he might have been able to determine a cause of death. Stoppacher said he did not know.
“And for that same reason you don’t know when the body was deposited … yes or no?” asked Garcia.
“I don’t know,” Stoppacher said.
Garcia asked Stoppacher how many times he signed the autopsy report. Stoppacher said he signed it once, and according to the evidence, that was May 20, 2013. The death certificate was filed within 72 hours with the cause and manner of death “pending.”
Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Detective Kevin Powell took the stand Tuesday morning, and his testimony is set to continue Wednesday. Details of Powell’s testimony will appear in the Thursday edition of The Evening Sun.
Stoppacher testified that he received Jennifer’s body on Feb. 27, 2013, the day after Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Kelly Hayner said her father located what he thought was a dead body on his land in Pharsalia.
Stoppacher recalled the condition of the body and shared it with the jury. Since the victim’s body was found in the winter, he said her body was in a frozen state, and there was a short time before he was able to perform a full autopsy.
Stoppacher testified as both the medical examiner who performed the autopsy and an expert in the field. The reasoning for conducting an autopsy is to declare a cause of death and a manner of death, he said, adding that there are three components to an autopsy.
First is the external examination where injuries are noted, clothing, and where he would look for natural diseases. Second is the internal exam, where surgical procedures are performed to examine the condition of the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and other organs. Finally is the lab component that consists of x-rays, microscopic tests, blood samples, and toxicology tests.
“All three components are how we arrive at a determination,” Stoppacher said.
He said the most striking thing he noticed about the victim in this case was that he could tell she had been deceased for “some period of time.”
Due to decomposition of the body, and what Stoppacher referred to as “animal activity,” he was ultimately unable to determine a cause of death. He described the difference between cause of death and manner of death. A cause of death for a person could be a heart attack, and for that person the manner would be declared natural causes as he said a heart attack results from natural activities of bodies.
Stoppacher said in the case of this victim, there was no abnormal tissue; she didn’t have a stroke, pneumonia, hypothermia.
In the victim’s case, he did note “relatively small” bruises in a few locations on her body and a laceration of approximately one-half to three-quarters of an inch on the top left thumb knuckle. He said there was another tear behind her toe that was close to two inches in size. He said each injury could have been there prior to her death.
With regard to his internal examination, Stoppacher said there was decomposition to some of her organs, and he noted an area of bleeding on the left side of her scalp, near the top of her skull, approximately an inch in size.
“There were no fractures or breaks,” Stoppacher said. “On her back there were two narrow bands of bleeding, from left to right.”
He added there was nothing evident of that on her skin.
Stoppacher testified that those injuries happened prior to the victim’s death, because after death, “You don’t get bleeding as localized as that,” he said. “Although if the body does bump something after death, it could happen.”
According to Stoppacher, there was “no lethal injury in and of itself.”
Stoppacher said there are ways of death that don’t leave marks outside of a body, including suffocation or smothering. He added sometimes a medical examiner could see evidence of that, but in this victim’s case, he could not prove nor disprove that. He said another possibility was strangulation, but there were no bones injured on the victim, which is common with strangulation.
“Based on the state of the body are you able to tell anyone the cause of death?” asked Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride.
Stoppacher said no.
Stoppacher said there are five options for a coroner or medical examiner to write on a certificate for a manner of death: natural, suicide, accidental, homicide, or undetermined.
“In this case, my ruling was the death was the result of a homicide,” Stoppacher said. “Based on the circumstances, a healthy woman found naked on the side of the road, I had sufficient information to call it a homicide instead of undetermined.”
Stoppacher added that based on all the factors and his experience in the field of forensic pathology, that it his opinion that the body could have been there from Dec. 11, 2012 until it was found in February of the following year.
When Gilberto Garcia, Ramsaran’s defense counsel, asked Stoppacher about the date he filed the report, he asked why certain information was edited at various times.
Stoppacher said the toxicology results had not returned, nor had microscopic tissue tests. When asked how long it took for those results to come back, he said approximately one to two weeks. “Sometime in March,” Stoppacher said.
Garcia asked if there was any information added to the report between the time Stoppacher added the toxicology and microscopic results and the time he added that the manner was homicide. He said at some point he added the tissue results, but could not recall when.
“Are you telling us you delayed the report waiting for the police … is that typical practice?” asked Garcia.
Stoppacher said finalizing the report had to do with the circumstances around the death. The report was not signed and finalized by Stoppacher until May 20, 2013, while Ramsaran was arrested for murder in the second degree three days earlier, May 17, 2013.
Garcia asked Stoppacher if anyone had said anything to him such as “it was believed the husband did it.”
“There might have been a conversation in a room I was in,” Stoppacher said. “It doesn’t matter if someone said that or not.”
Stoppacher added that the body was found naked on the side of a road with no explicable reasoning. “No explicable reasoning that would tell us a cause of death, correct?” asked Garcia.
Garcia asked if it would have made a difference if Stoppacher received the body one month prior to when he did, and asked if that had been the case if he might have been able to determine a cause of death. Stoppacher said he did not know.
“And for that same reason you don’t know when the body was deposited … yes or no?” asked Garcia.
“I don’t know,” Stoppacher said.
Garcia asked Stoppacher how many times he signed the autopsy report. Stoppacher said he signed it once, and according to the evidence, that was May 20, 2013. The death certificate was filed within 72 hours with the cause and manner of death “pending.”
Chenango County Sheriff’s Office Detective Kevin Powell took the stand Tuesday morning, and his testimony is set to continue Wednesday. Details of Powell’s testimony will appear in the Thursday edition of The Evening Sun.
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