“How many cuts are there?” Matthew asked.
Skimming Georgia’s body, Tracey replied, “two on her stomach, one on her left arm, three on her right, eleven on her breasts, nine on her face plus the ones on her eyes. Then what is almost certainly the fatal wound to her neck.”
The killed had slashed both of Georgia’s eyes, cutting right through the eyeballs and leaving them a bloody, gaping mess. That he had focused the majority of his anger on her face and breasts told them a lot about him. “He wanted to destroy her identity,” she said. “Take away who she was by destroying her face.”
“And what made her a woman,” Matthew added. “Her breasts are a mangled mess. Tracey, did he cut her around her genitalia?”
With a grim look on her face, the medical examiner spread Georgia’s legs. “Yes, he did. I see probably seven or eight cuts but it’s hard to tell, things are a bit of a mess down there.”
Rylla sighed and closed her eyes for a moment to gather herself. It wasn't surprising. Tracey had found signs that both Tillie and Jeannie had been sexually assaulted during the time that they were held prisoner. And given the level of rage the killer had displayed in his attack on Georgia it made sense that he would want to destroy what made her a woman. It looked like he was after a perfect princess, and if Georgia had done something to not fulfill those wishes and to make him angry, she could see how he might feel compelled to obliterate the very things that he felt she had failed in.
“Are there any other injuries?” Matthew asked.
Carefully Tracey rolled Georgia over onto her side so she could see her back. “There’s a small welt on her bottom. Looks like he hit her with something.”
“Do you know what?” Rylla asked.
“I see handprints, and probably a belt,” the medical examiner replied.
“Any defensive wounds?” Matthew asked tightly.
Tracey picked up Georgia’s left hand and examined it. “I see bruises here,” she pointed to the back of the hand. “Looks like he might have held it down, possible with his knee or something while he attacked her.” Setting her left hand down, Tracey picked up Georgia's right. “Bruises around her wrist, looks like fingertips, he restrained her.” Turning her attention to Georgia’s stomach. “Bruises here too. He sat on her. Explains why there are no cuts on her legs.”
“So, she does something that makes him so angry that he broke with his usual MO and viciously attacked her then killed her only forty-eight hours in. Then he cleaned her, he’s never done that before. With Tillie he redressed her, but he didn't worry about trying to clean anything up, something was different with Georgia,” Rylla said.
“He was worried we might find something on her if he didn't clean her up,” Matthew said.
“She got him.” Rylla moved closer to the body and knelt down so she could see Georgia’s hands. “There are small cuts on her fingertips. She found something she could use as a weapon and armed herself.”
“Legs have been recently shaved,” Tracey inserted.
“She got the blades out of a shaver, then she tries to attack him, she must have got him, only he managed to overpower her and cut her up before killing her. That’s why he was so angry at her, he didn't expect a woman—a princess—to try and attack him. He couldn’t take it, he couldn’t control himself, he gave up on her, on his mission to teach her to be what he wanted, and just killed her.”
Rylla felt a rush of pride for the woman lying dead at her feet. Georgia Lars hadn’t given up. She had tried to escape at the warehouse, then she had kept her wits about her and formulated a plan of attack, she had executed it, and even though she had failed, she had been willing to risk him killing her to make a go at escaping. It was exactly how she herself would have played it. She would rather have died trying to get away than submit and be this man’s plaything.
“He cleaned her thoroughly, I don’t see a speck of blood,” Tracey observed. “I’ll check more carefully back at the morgue, but here in this light I don’t see anything.”
“So, he cleaned her after she was already dead. But did he do it before or after he did that?” Matthew pointed at the hole in Georgia’s chest.
Unwillingly Rylla felt her eyes moving toward the hole. The hole that the killer had cut into her chest so that he could remove her heart.
It was grotesque.
That huge dark opening in Georgia’s pale white chest—made even paler in the dark illuminated only by the torches and floodlights set up—looked so out of place.
But in the killer’s princess game Georgia was Snow White, and even though in the fairytale the huntsman hadn’t been able to cut out Snow White’s heart, their killer had obviously had no trouble following through with Georgia.
“He cut out her heart before he cleaned her, I see a puddle of water inside her chest cavity,” Tracey replied.
“But she was dead when he cut out her heart, right?” Rylla asked.
“There’s no way to know at the moment. But I would assume so, otherwise there wouldn’t have been much point in slitting her throat. The cut on her neck is deeper than any of the others on her body, so it was obviously intended to sever her arteries and make her bleed out. If she was already dead because he’d cut out her heart, then why would he do that? I think we can safely assume that she was indeed dead before he did it.”
Taking a little comfort from that, she said, “He didn't stage this scene like he did with Tillie’s. With that one he took his time laying her out and posing her just so, with Georgia he just parked his car, tossed her out, threw the heart out too, then sped off.”
“911 caller said he didn't even get out of the car,” Matthew said. “Just pulled up at the side of the road and then flung her out.”
“The heart landed several feet away from the body,” Rylla said. “He didn't even worry about them being together.”