Multiple Shot Suicide

[Passer-by]

I imagine the change to murder investigation occurred - quite reasonably - when the pathology report came back with 2 shots to Sheila written in it.  We can only imagine the observation skills of police on the scene who didn't notice it sooner.  A decade before Silent Witness, at a time when Morse's pathologist was only a plot device and love interest, when all good Agatha Christie victims fell on their watch so we could fix the time of death - who wouldn't be suspicious?  In fact even now it warrants a thorough investigation.

However multiple-shot suicides do happen:  in one study 3.6% of suicide victims had 2 gunshot wounds to the head.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_gunshot_suicide

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2589286

The weapon was an automatic:  I've posted elsewhere about cadaveric spasm
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaveric_spasm
and how it can cause even a person who is killed by the first shot to pull the trigger a second time, but the blood in Sheila's right hand could have happened by touching her neck wound.  There is now evidence to suggest Sheila could still have moved after the neck shot - I think walking round the house is a bit ridiculous, but it's possible she could have just repositioned the gun without moving anything other than a hand.

Any thoughts?

3

[Myster]

If the second shot was immediately fatal, then she couldn't have touched the wound which that bullet caused with her right hand (i.e. the one showing those two smear marks running across it from left to right). The first wound shows no sign at all of having been touched.

[Passer-by]

If the second shot was immediately fatal, then she couldn't have touched the wound which that bullet caused with her right hand (i.e. the one showing those two smear marks running across it from left to right). The first wound shows no sign at all of having been touched.

I don't agree:  I think she was lying on the floor with her head slightly raised rather awkwardly against the bedside table and the shots were fired into creases in her neck. I think the first shot caused the splatter and she put her hand up to it - or even just to the blood coming out of it - but that the second fatal shot caused her head to fall forward with her chin on her chest, closing the creases and blocking some of the blood flow.  I think that the blood from the first shot was wicked away by the nightie being against it, possibly even in the crease, which would affect how the blood and wound would look.  I think her head was either moved or slipped backwards later, possibly when the bible slid off her chest.  The bible has a bloodstain which would correspond with being open face-down on her chest with the blood mark being where the stain was forming near the right armpit of the nightie.

[John]

I don't agree:  I think she was lying on the floor with her head slightly raised rather awkwardly against the bedside table and the shots were fired into creases in her neck. I think the first shot caused the splatter and she put her hand up to it - or even just to the blood coming out of it - but that the second fatal shot caused her head to fall forward with her chin on her chest, closing the creases and blocking some of the blood flow.  I think that the blood from the first shot was wicked away by the nightie being against it, possibly even in the crease, which would affect how the blood and wound would look.  I think her head was either moved or slipped backwards later, possibly when the bible slid off her chest.  The bible has a bloodstain which would correspond with being open face-down on her chest with the blood mark being where the stain was forming near the right armpit of the nightie.

Sheila never touched her wounds otherwise there would have been blood all over her finger tips and neck.  The first shot left her semi conscious and unable to react.  Bamber pushed her head back and shot her again.