Jennifer Tanner committed suicide and was not murdered evidence shows, late detective Ron Irwin claimed
THE EVIDENCE: IN his last media interview before his death, ex-detective said evidence showed Jennifer Tanner killed herself.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IN his last media interview before his death, former detective Ron Irwin claimed physical and other evidence proved Jennifer Tanner killed herself.
“There is no evidence whatever that would support a murder hypothesis,” Mr Irwin told the Herald Sun.
“When the Mansfield policemen assessed Jennifer Tanner's death as a simple suicide in 1984, they were right.”
Her body was found on a couch in the living room of her Bonnie Doon home.
She was holding a bolt-action .22 rifle, with the barrel pointing upwards and the stock resting on the carpet. She had two bullet wounds to her forehead and wounds to the webbing between her thumb and forefinger on both hands.
Mr Irwin's book on the case, Blackened Tanner, which was released last year, devoted a chapter to outlining the evidence he claims proves Ms Tanner, 27, committed suicide.
“The police had drawn sketches of the scene, recording the position of the body, the rifle, blood, the couch and a spent shell,” he said.
“Later, the ambulance driver also drew a sketch.”
Mr Irwin got copies of the sketches, 10 police tapes made at the time, witness statements and a photograph of the room in which Ms Tanner was shot and used them to build a computer image and evidence assessment of the scene.
Two contact wounds close together almost always indicate suicide
Ex-top cop raises doubts on inquest
Charge me if you think I did it
Tanner abandons inquest appeal
Mum still believes Tanner killed Jennifer
"This was bread-and-butter stuff for a detective, but nobody had done it in three separate police investigations spanning more than 20 years,” he said.
“My reconstruction incorporates all the witness observations and is significantly different from the police artist's sketch created for the second inquest.
“Several crucial details were omitted from that sketch: the baby's bottle and two clean nappies in front of Jenny; the bloodstained towel with powder-burn marks; the blood spatters on the back of the couch and spatters of blood and human tissue sprayed upwards on the curtains behind the body.”
Pathologist Peter Dyte, who conducted the autopsy, was the only expert who actually had her brain in his hands, Mr Irwin said.
Dr Dyte concluded she could have had the capacity to fire twice as the first bullet simply bruised the undersurface of the brain.
“Contrary to the impression you'd get from the movies, there have been many multiple head shot suicides, particularly when the weapon is a low-velocity .22 rifle,” Mr Irwin said.
“The two shots to Jenny Tanner's skull were both skin contact wounds, very close together, one above the other in the centre of her forehead.
“The head photographs show powder burning to the skin around the entry holes. All published papers, books and experts agree that a contact head wound is a sign consistent with suicide.
“In murders, shots are rarely fired hard against the skin, because the shooter can't get that close; the victim is instinctively evasive and moves about.
“In suicides, by contrast, the shooter is always still. Two contact wounds close together almost always indicate suicide.
“Jenny also had a through-and-through wound in each hand through the webbing between the thumb and forefinger.
“This is consistent with using her toe to fire vertically while her hands were cupped over the muzzle.”
Mr Irwin said the ambulance driver who attended the death scene drew a sketch that showed blood and body matter had sprayed upwards away from the body and on to curtains or wall behind the body.
That body matter can only have come from Ms Tanner's hands as neither of the shots to her head exited the skull.
“This shows that the bullet or bullets that caused the hand wounds had been fired almost vertically, certainly at such an upward angle as to miss the window behind her,” Mr Irwin said.
“Ballistic tests on the rifle also support vertical discharge.
“The evidence is inescapable that at least two shots were fired upwards at an angle close to vertical: a hand-wound shot or shots and the last head shot.
“Logically, the hand wounds can be explained as accidental, as the police at the scene originally surmised, and were likely to have occurred when Jenny was dazed after the first head shot and trying to reset her toe into the trigger guard. The blood on the rifle also told a story.
“Both police and the ballistics expert testified that it was heavily covered with blood in four specific places, one with a palm print; all are consistent with Jenny being the shooter.”
There was blood on the stock around the trigger guard, on the front of the trigger guard and the front of the trigger face; as well as on the front of the stock, where there is also a palm print, and on and inside the sight at the end of the rifle and in the bore and muzzle.
“The fourth position was a blood drop on the lens of the telescopic sight, which can only have dripped from directly above the rifle,” Mr Irwin said.
“This is consistent with blood dripping from the hands holding the upright muzzle.
“There's no other explanation of the blood distribution on the rifle than that the shooter's hands were bleeding while holding the rifle in a normal firing/ejecting position.
“If a murderer had been bleeding heavily from the hands, there'd be blood on the floor, on the carpets and furniture.
“Sen-Constable Bill Kerr's sketch also shows a rolled-up towel beside the body covered in blood.
“He described the towel as having two 'holes with powder burn on it'. Those powder burns on the towel didn't come from either head shot, because those were contact wounds.
“They must have come from the hand shot or shots, suggesting that Jenny may have been holding the towel when the rifle accidentally discharged.
“This also explains why one of her hands had minimal powder burning and is consistent with her handling the towel to wipe blood from her face or hands while dazed from the first shot.”
