The carpet had two sections of pooled blood on the left side of the bed, presumably where Julia had been lying when she was attacked. One was smaller than the other. It was thought that she was first stabbed in the location of the smaller one and then managed to move a short way before she was assaulted again, creating the larger area as she bled out and was subsequently dismembered.

The walls to the left and right side of the bed had been sprayed with blood spatter, and as Val finished placing the last piece of string, Thomas stood back inspecting the projections and asked Jack, pointing at the wall, “Do you see what’s wrong there?” Val quickly glanced at Jack, waiting for his response. She couldn’t tell what Thomas was referring to and wanted to know the answer.

Jack walked closer to the left side of the bed, inspecting the string, then glanced at the photos. He pointed to the same section of the wall Thomas did. “The cast-off spatter pattern, right there. That’s what’s wrong.”

Thomas signaled for Val and Gwen to stand next to him. “Ladies, do you see the problem?” he asked them.

Val narrowed her eyes in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.” She had crammed all night with her textbooks to learn as much as she could about spatter analysis. The size of the droplets on a surface will tell the speed in which blood travels from the victim. These were about one to four millimeters, exactly the size they should be for this type of attack, which was stabbing. They were also teardrop shaped with an elongated tail on the pointy end of the tear. The tail end shows the direction it was traveling.

The shape of the drop gets longer as the angle of impact gets smaller. The angle from the floor to the wall wasn’t that big, indicating the person had been attacked on the ground. The string confirmed this.

Val continued, “These photos show a large area of medium velocity spatter, which is consistent with someone being stabbed. The angle is also consistent with the victim being on the floor and Julia was stabbed on the floor. Everything looks okay.”

Gwen nodded in agreement. “I don’t see anything wrong with it either.”

“That’s an excellent observation and you’re correct, but it’s not the size or angle of the droplets that’s the problem,” Jack said.

Val just stared. “What do you mean?”

“It’s the fact that they’re even there that’s the issue.” Jack put his finger on the photo and pointed out the aquamarine-colored lamp that sat on top of the nightstand. “This is why.”