A forensic pathologist who conducted a second postmortem on the bodies of slain botanists Rodney and Rachel Saunders suggested a “heavy-bladed” weapon with a cutting edge was used on her.
“My chief finding is that there was a scalp fracture haemorrhage involving the lining of the skull. This feature suggests a sharp wound penetration,” said the expert who gave medical evidence in the double-murder trial of the British and SA couple who were kidnapped and killed in February 2018. His testimony was confirmed by the research pathology centre at the University of Pretoria.
Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 41, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 30, and Malawian Mussa Ahmed Jackson, 35, are charged with the kidnapping, robbery, theft and murder of Rodney Charles Saunders, 74, and his wife, Dr Rachel May Saunders, 63, in February 2018 in the Eshowe area.
The trio are on trial in the Durban high court, which resumed on Monday with medical evidence from a second pathologist who had examined the bodies.
He said the task of judging the weight in the physique was not easy owing to the body’s changes and decomposition. It was the small skull volume, high female contoured forehead and the pelvis that suggested the body was that of a female.
“She also had strands of black hair present on a scalp. They were mainly attached to the crown and top of her head,” said doctor.
“I did not identify any neck tissue to suggest strangulation. The previous doctor would have been more likely to have seen it. The finding that I made does not mean it was not there,” he said.
The expert found it was not pronounced during his analysis, concluding decomposition may have had a part in this.
“If the body is immersed in water for a long time, the blood tends to wash out. The body was also covered by dry sand and plant matter,” said the pathologist.
Some of the wounds had a particular shape and were suggestive of an animal bite and had no presence of bleeding or haemorrhage.
Some parts of the body were missing, which included the left leg and some organs, pointing to predation — the consumption of one animal or human by another animal for food — as a plausible reason for this, according to the doctor who conducted more than 2,400 postmortem reports.
The postmortem examinations were conducted from May 23 2022, three months after the first postmortem was conducted.
His initial analysis revealed Rachel Saunders was between the ages of 30 to 70 years based on dental attrition.
The bodies were transferred from Stanger to Gale Street mortuary.
On Rodney’s corpse, the pathologist found his body had been covered with grass and sand that could be traced back to the river near where he was found, and bones were missing from his left leg and arm.
“When I conducted an X-ray I found four loose teeth in the mouth,” he said. In external injuries, he found wounds and lacerations that could be mostly attributed to predation and trauma.
The doctor is now based in Canada.
The case is continuing.
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