A father returned home to find his eleven-year-old daughter dead in bed. Her hair, face, back and right palm were bloody. She sustained several scalp cuts and small calibre contact gunshot wounds to the right temple and the right side of the chest.

The gunshot wound to the head extended slightly upward and to the back. The bullets recovered were both .22 short. Beneath the largest scalp cut was a depressed skull fracture with radiating linear fractures. Her lungs were pink; the cut surfaces were relatively dry.

Another significant observation was a peculiar mark on the outside of her right arm: a 3/4 inch vertically oriented scratch with black to gray foreign material in the center and a reddened margin. A red pinpoint area with a black center was next to the highest point of this mark.

The center of the mark on the right arm resembled gunpowder, which was later confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The firearm examiner reconstructed recovered pistol grip pieces, concluding that the weapon used was a Saturday Night Special. Photographs taken of the autopsy revealed that cylinder flare—a spray of soot and gunpowder discharged from the gap between the cylinder and the barrel of the revolver—caused this mark.

A matching revolver with the same type ammunition used in this murder reproduced the mark on her arm.

To do so, a towel was placed on the arm of the forensic pathologist, paper was taped over the towel, and the gun was placed in contact with the paper and fired. The pattern obtained when the revolver touched the paper most closely reproduced the mark on her arm. The tearing of the paper by the gun's contact explained the abrasion-like characteristic of the arm wound.

This available data allowed for reconstruction of probable events. The cylinder flare mark on the arm was easily aligned with the contact gunshot wound of the head (but not the chest wound). This showed that her right arm was placed against her head and just below the level of the entry wound when the gun was fired—a defensive posture. The distance of the cylinder flare to the gunshot wound was about two inches, giving some clue as to the barrel length.

The body's position, the blood spatters, and the position of the broken pistol grips suggested she probably received the blunt force head injuries while kneeling on the bed. The fact that she had more than one liter of blood in her internal cavities indicates her heart continued to beat for several minutes after she was shot.

The crime was committed by two men who were handing out leaflets in the neighborhood. At trial, one defendant confirmed this sequence of events and was convicted of murder.