Transcripts for CNN Forensic Files 20150719 05:07:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
and thoughtful. her husband was in the navy. at the scene, the mcginnises told investigators that donna was wearing high-heeled shoes which might have caused her to lose her footing as she stood at the edge of the cliff. in the photographs taken by the mcginnises shortly before the fall, donna was wearing high-heeled shoes. the autopsy of donna hartman was routine. the autopsy on our victim was not a true forensic autopsy. it was an autopsy and it did show cause of death, but it was not in the greater detail you would want had you suspected foul play from the get-go. the cause of death was a basal skull fracture, a massive blow to the back of the head, consistent with someone falling 500 feet to their death. but donna s family in louisville, kentucky, had questions about what happened, so they hired a civil attorney named steve keeney to help them get answers.
even though he and donna were already married to other people. the mcginnises filed a claim to collect on the life insurance policy just one day after donna s death. virginia plopped the insurance policy down on the desk of the agent. he looked up and said, you re kidding. she s dead? well, it s a pretty incredible story, but, you know, in the end, you have to pause. surely somebody somewhere bought a life insurance policy and had the bad luck to have the deceased die the next day. it s not proof, but it sure stinks. can a business have a mind? a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit?
and if virginia was the photographer, why did she take what was perhaps the most incriminating photo of all? a photograph of donna just before she was pushed over the cliff. i think virginia wanted a souvenir. i think virginia wanted to revisit the death of donna and enjoy it over and over again. i think she believed that by having that picture, she would have something that would arouse in her the same excitement and the same violation of rules that she had felt live on the cliff when donna died. virginia had apparently picked donna as an ideal victim. just as donna was separating from her husband, virginia befriended her. donna was vulnerable and an easy mark for an experienced con artist like virginia. 52-year-old b.j. mcginnis never made it to court. he died in prison while awaiting trial.
in her coke. but it s speculation. but there was no way to prove it. so investigators turned to another set of pictures, the ones taken during donna s autopsy. they were analyzed by forensic pathologist dr. barbara weakley- jones. she noticed two things which were barely mentioned in the original autopsy. wounds on the back of donna s hands, but not on her palms. and her fingernails were broken. she is up like this, and she is grabbing hold of the edge, the nails would break off. well the same you should then have abrasions on the palm surface of your hands as you re going down, and she did not have that. all of her injuries are on the back of her hands. why would someone who slid down a cliff have bruises on the backs of her hands, but virtually no marks on her palms?