#7 and #8 look like one cut to me, resulting from a double-side bladed knife.

QT

Quite possible Quicktrader, if you mean one strike causing two separate wounds that line up.

This is what I was wrangling with in the Cheri Jo Bates autopsy, with knife wounds being described as lacerations and not incisions or slashes,

Maybe the fact that both Cheri and Cecelia fought with their attacker, Cecelia actually "rolled around" instead of fought, resulted in some wounds being more laceration type than incisions. It was a bit more like being hit/punched with a closed fist and knife instead of stabbed, if that makes sense.

The Cecilia Shepard attack has always been described as a woman who was stabbed 10 times, yet of the 12 entries Chaucer posted, only 5 are described as stab wounds and the rest are described as slash-type cuts, cuts, incisions and slash-type incisions. The picture we get from the descriptions down the years is of an attacker who plunged the knife into her back, and continued stabbing her sides and front as she rolled over. This isn’t the story told in the autopsy report. The autopsy report suggests a killer who was stabbing and slicing his victim, and not a killer who was just plunging the knife in a downwards motion. Admittedly, Cecelia Shepard would have been moving about, but that doesn’t explain the 10 inch cut and 10 inch incision. The commonly told story doesn’t align with this autopsy report.

Richard that’s not entirely accurate. As quicktrader pointed out, many of the "slash" wounds are secondary to other ones.

I have detailed a sequence of the attack on Cecelia here:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4684

It would account for an attacker stabbing in a downward motion, but leaving slash wounds due to the movement of Cecelia.

That sounds reasonable Chaucer. Good work yet again. The knife blade length is still difficult to ascertain based on the autopsy report.

That sounds reasonable Chaucer. Good work yet again. The knife blade length is still difficult to ascertain based on the autopsy report.

Petris’s determination of a 9" to 11" blade does line up with Hartnell’s description, yet I don’t see how he could make that determination based on the information presented in the autopsy report.

I have re-examined the autopsy, and I determined that some corrections were in order. For one thing, the autopsy describes a stab wound "4 inches laterally on a plane with the nipple". Originally, I had this place to the right of the left nipple near the sternum. However, "laterally" means away from the midline so this would mean the stab wound was to the left of the left nipple – essentially in her side.

I have corrected this in the original post and provided and edited image.

I will also correct the attack sequence in that post as well.

Apologies.