Rachel Scotts wounds and autopsy

Well, sory to bring forth a grim topic, but I think it shoudl be looked at given some inconsistency between various witness reports, like Richard Castaldo. The acolumbinesite.com website (http://acolumbinesite.com/victim/rachel.html mentions: "According to witnesses, she (Scott) was hit and fell to the ground where, moments later, one of the shooters came down the hill and shot her at point-blank range when she tried to get up"

Who is the witness in question who mentions them walking up to her? Its not Richard Castaldo in the 11k.

Another question: The autopsy just mentions "gunshot wounds" not shotgun wounds. Were al the wounds inflicted by Dylan's TEC-9? All of Rachel's wounds had entry points from the left side of the body, which would make sense if she was sitting to Castaldo's right and was hit with shots coming from Dylan's opening volley.

During this time Eric was mostly firing his shotgun and in comparison the autopsy of Dan Rohrbough (killed by Harris with a shotgun) specifically mentions "large caliber" gunshot.

What I'm trying to establish here is:

1) Was she killed by a single volley, or is it true that one of the shooters came up to her and finished her off?
2) Was all of her wounds done by Dylan?
3) Do we have any autopsy information if all the shots fired at her were from the same distance, or were some fired from point blank range?

1) Assuming the reports released by Jeffco are true then there isn't any reason to believe that Eric approached her again to finish her off. I suspect the coroner during her autopsy would have noticed any external bleeding (or lack thereof) which would have indicated whether her heart was still beating for a minute or so or if she died almost instantly. Supposedly the autopsy diagrams which were only seen by a select few on the old CRTF forums showed a lack of bleed out. I believe Richard had an out of body experience when having his operation straight after being taken to hospital which made him believe Rachel was asked about God before she was shot. Richard came out a few years later and changed his story: that he remembers hearing gunshots, seeing Rachel fall over in the corner of his eye and then felt himself get shot, in which he lost consciousness.

2) She was shot by Eric Harris, her wounds were rifle wounds and not shotgun wounds, otherwise the coroner would have found pellets in her body. Off topic a bit but I actually thought it was quite strange that all her wounds have a higher exit wound compared to entry wound, makes me think she was standing (as mentioned by heaps of students in the released documents) instead of sitting, and that Eric was kneeling when he first started shooting.

3) Nothing explicitly stated, except for the diagrams mentioned in point 1.

Here is what I would like to know:

The one consistent detail of Richard's reports is that he heard her crying for an indeterminate amount of time, then asked if she was ok to which he received no reply.
With her injuries which were obviously fatal, especially the head wound, would she have had time to cry out ? It seems like she would have went unconscious almost immediately. Would her brain and body had the time to register more than a second of pain, if that?
There are so many versions of her death, from her head being picked up by her ponytail and then being executed at point blank range to her being shot and then being fatally shot when she tried to get up. I doubt either of those things happened.

Did she even have a ponytail at the time of her death? Her hair looks almost too short in the photo of her corpse.

Juicy Jazzy wrote:

2) She was shot by Eric Harris, her wounds were rifle wounds and not shotgun wounds, otherwise the coroner would have found pellets in her body. Off topic a bit but I actually thought it was quite strange that all her wounds have a higher exit wound compared to entry wound, makes me think she was standing (as mentioned by heaps of students in the released documents) instead of sitting, and that Eric was kneeling when he first started shooting.

Thanks, you sure about that? Becuase IIRC Eric was shooting a shotgun just moments later at Dan Roughborough and Lance Kirklin, while Dylan was shooting a TEC-9 at them.

So, did Eric fire his rifle, then just slung it over his shoulder and opened up with his shotgun?

Do we have a list anywhere of who was wounded/killed with which weapon?

Juicy Jazzy wrote:

Off topic a bit but I actually thought it was quite strange that all her wounds have a higher exit wound compared to entry wound, makes me think she was standing (as mentioned by heaps of students in the released documents) instead of sitting, and that Eric was kneeling when he first started shooting.

I think I might actually have an answer to that one. Castaldo and Scott were sitting on higher ground than Eric and Dylan IIRC, who were still by the stairs. Check the diagram at the link:

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Its possible taht the opening shots of columbine were fired when they were still on the stair and thus at a lower ground tahn Richard and Rachel. Would also expalin why the volley sent Richard directly up-and-on-his-back.

Most witnesses just mention that they started firing near the top of the stairs, so yeah.

This is something that has always bothered me. I thought of making a thread about it but didn't because I thought it might be too minor of a detail.
Her hair was short when she died because she had cut it for the play she was in right before she died. I've seen a picture of her around this time with her hair down and I'd describe her hair as having a bob cut.
It seems to me to be too short for a ponytail but in the accounts of the day she is consistently described as having one so all I can figure out is that it must have been in what's call a baby ponytail.

Radioactive_Clothing wrote:

Did she even have a ponytail at the time of her death? Her hair looks almost too short in the photo of her corpse.

PaintItBlack wrote:

I can figure out is that it must have been in what's call a baby ponytail.

Probably.



I'll bump this with the focus on the question from the opening post:

The acolumbinesite.com website (http://acolumbinesite.com/victim/rachel.html mentions: "According to witnesses, she (Scott) was hit and fell to the ground where, moments later, one of the shooters came down the hill and shot her at point-blank range when she tried to get up"

Who is the witness in question who mentions them walking up to her? Its not Richard Castaldo in the 11k?

I'm askign abotu this, as I really am trying to see if there is any possibility of a shooter walking up to her, then killng her point blank after her being asked any questions.

Well, to play the devil's advocate here (no pun intended), I think there is a vague posibility that she was asked the god question.

For this to occur, the following must be true:
1) Rachel suffered just the wounds to the extremities in the opening salvo.
2) Rachel fell on the ground, with her right arm to the ground (reasonable assumption, given she was shot in the left arm before).
3) Eric or Dylan walked up to her, asked the god question and only then shot her point blank in the head and chest causing the brain and heart wound.

I've heard she was shot , then received the fatal short to the head a few minutes later. Whether this happened or not is the key to all these questions because if she received all her injuries within seconds I don't see how she could have attempted to get up or made any intelligible speech.

This picture pretty much tells you how long her hair was at the time of her death.
Tbh, for the longest time I thought her hair for prom looked like it was a ponytail/updo.
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paradisedreams wrote:

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I just noticed the columbine flower broach/pin she was wearing. I wonder if this photo was taken at a school event?

I will have a look into the 11k to see if I can find who was quoted saying that. Also, does anyone have any documents/images from the CRTF forum? I might use Wayback machine to track some stuff down.

PaintItBlack wrote:

I've heard she was shot , then received the fatal short to the head a few minutes later. Whether this happened or not is the key to all these questions because if she received all her injuries within seconds I don't see how she could have attempted to get up or made any intelligible speech.

Eactly.

The only place where I found this "and after being shot initially, a shooter walked up to her and she was shot again" statement is acolumbinesite.com which just says taht "some wintesses report this".

I have failed to find it in 11k, but we all know its a huge file. Acolumbinesite.com tends to be among the more reliable columbine-related websites, but everyone makes mistakes I guess.

Thus I realy want to know if this: "and then she was shot again point blank" theory is true at all.

Quote :

Becuase IIRC Eric was shooting a shotgun just moments later at Dan Roughborough and Lance Kirklin, while Dylan was shooting a TEC-9 at them.

As I know Eric did not use a shotgun outside the school. Shotgun rounds were found in the library and 4 in the other places in the school.
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MysteryMan wrote:

Quote :

Becuase IIRC Eric was shooting a shotgun just moments later at Dan Roughborough and Lance Kirklin, while Dylan was shooting a TEC-9 at them.

As I know Eric did not use a shotgun outside the school. Shotgun rounds were found in the library and 4 in the other places in the school.
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Thanks, good link... but also confusing conclusions. Seems Dylan fired a total of just 5 shots outside, while Eric fired 47 shots in the same timeframe.

I think I will need to start a grisly, but ultimately necessary thread: "Who fired at who when and with what?"

Look at this discussion for more:

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lasttrain wrote:

Look at this discussion for more:

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Thanks, read it.

Lack of the "bleed out" would suggest she dies in the opening volley indeed, but the problem is taht its all second-hand unpublished sources.