The Pineapple Digestion Timeline

I have been a medical imaging technologist for 40 years. During this time, I have watched at least 1,000 stomachs empty.

As soon as liquid or solid substance lands into an empty stomach, peristalsis begins and wave after wave of muscle contraction begins pushing material through the duodenal cap into the duodenum of the small intestine.

The only time this would not happen is in the event of an obstruction, gastritis, bowel paralysis due to trauma or other sickness, etc.

Jonbenet's G.I. tract was not compromised by gastritis, obstruction or paralyisis. We know this because the little girl's upper G.I. tract was empty except for several pieces of UNDIGESTED pineapple. Her gastrointestinal tract was operating quite efficiently.

This little girl had an empty stomach when she bit into the pineapple. The flavor of the pineapple would have caused saliva to be secreted and peristalsis to begin.

My experience tells me that those pieces of pineapple (no more than they were), would have been going into the small intestine within 10 minutes.

I believe the first blow was struck no later than 30 minutes after she ate the pineapple.

So she died 30 minutes after eating pineapple.

That means most likely she didn't eat it when she got home.

Wow, learnin! That's some statement you have made. Where have you BEEN for 12 years?

So if your timeline were correct, let's follow it.(And to keep shrill from having a seizure and breaking his head open--let me say we're having a DISCUSSION about some information upon which we will SPECULATE.)

According to the Ramseys, they got home about 9:30ish and JonBenet was asleep.

Then Burke, Patsy, and John went to bed themselves during the next hour, with John going last around 10:30ish.

So if JonBenet didn't eat the pineapple at the Whites, nor at the Stines, nor in the car on the way home, when her parents said she fell asleep, then she either woke up later and ate it and was then killed shortly afterwards, or Patsy and John lied about her being asleep and she went in and ate it at some point and never went to bed or went and was killed shortly after.

Burke, on the other hand, said JonBenet walked upstairs on her own when they got back home.

Burke and Patsy's fingerprints are on the bowl, and Burke's were on the glass of tea. We don't know when it was put out nor how long it was there, because--amazingly enough--Patsy doesn't even remember OWNING the bowl, spoon, and glass.(HAHAHAHA Sorry, that Patsy always gets to me. Soon as Patsy began denying the silliest thing, voila! DISTANCING! Patsy doth protest too much....)

Well, this is just interesting. I never thought about the timeline from eating the pineapple to death being that short. I'm going to have to ponder this....

Thanks so much for sharing your professional experience and knowledge on this, learnin. You have no idea how helpful this is to those of us who have argued about this for a decade.

Oh, let me add that rigor mortis was set in at least the upper limbs when the body was "found" at 2 pm, so that's something like 10 to 12 hours after death, right? The TOD has most often been speculated to have been around midnight to one because of that and the digestion of the pineapple. Medical examiner Dr. Meyers refused to give a TOD, as he didn't manage to even show up at the crime scene and look at the body until that evening at 8:20 pm, AMAZINGLY ENOUGH, and didn't do the autopsy until the next morning.

So she ate the pineapple after she had already been put to bed. So the Ramseys are telling the truth about putting her to bed, which is what was stated by all three eye witnesses.

koldkase wrote:

Wow, learnin! That's some statement you have made. Where have you BEEN for 12 years?
So if your timeline were correct, let's follow it.(And to keep shrill from having a seizure and breaking his head open--let me say we're having a DISCUSSION about some information upon which we will SPECULATE.)
According to the Ramseys, they got home about 9:30ish and JonBenet was asleep.
Then Burke, Patsy, and John went to bed themselves during the next hour, with John going last around 10:30ish.
So if JonBenet didn't eat the pineapple at the Whites, nor at the Stines, nor in the car on the way home, when her parents said she fell asleep, then she either woke up later and ate it and was then killed shortly afterwards, or Patsy and John lied about her being asleep and she went in and ate it at some point and never went to bed or went and was killed shortly after.
Burke, on the other hand, said JonBenet walked upstairs on her own when they got back home.
Burke and Patsy's fingerprints are on the bowl, and Burke's were on the glass of tea. We don't know when it was put out nor how long it was there, because--amazingly enough--Patsy doesn't even remember OWNING the bowl, spoon, and glass.(HAHAHAHA Sorry, that Patsy always gets to me. Soon as Patsy began denying the silliest thing, voila! DISTANCING! Patsy doth protest too much....)
Well, this is just interesting. I never thought about the timeline from eating the pineapple to death being that short. I'm going to have to ponder this....
Thanks so much for sharing your professional experience and knowledge on this, learnin. You have no idea how helpful this is to those of us who have argued about this for a decade.

The professional opinion of doctors and educated professionals was never able to establish any such timeline. There are to many unknown variables. An x-ray tech would not be considered an expert in any court matters in this regard.

In the Michigan Coed Murders of the 1960s J. Norman Collins was put on trial for killing Karen Sue Bienemann. In the course of that trial evidence was put forth that peristalsis ceased in Karen's stomach due to intense fear. I am just putting this out there for everyone to remember that emotional trauma can stop the digestive process and throw off a normal timeline.

We had a lengthy discussion at FFJ on the timeline. Pineapple digests more easily because of the enzymes. It was concluded the fruit was out of the stomach in less than an hour. The autopsy says the fruit was in the proximal,(meaning next to the stomach) intestine, but not how far down the tract it was.

Spitz put the TOD at or before 1 am. So the pineapple/milk meal was eaten very late on the 25th or very early on the 25th. Either way it's a strange time for a snack before a trip.

Correction; very early on the 26th.

pinker wrote:

<quoted text>
The professional opinion of doctors and educated professionals was never able to establish any such timeline. There are to many unknown variables. An x-ray tech would not be considered an expert in any court matters in this regard.

How about an M.D. radiologist? Who is a Medical Imaging specialist. I've asked several and they all have said that, within 15 minutes, the pineapple would be going into the samll intestine.

I am a certified Xray Technologist, Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, Registered Vascular Technologist and a Registered Cardiac Diagnostic Sonographer.

I am often asked my opinion by "specialists".

You're always going to find an "expert" who will have a different opinion...someone who will stretch it out to two hours....

I'm telling you what I know to be a fact. The only thing that might move my timeline back to an hour would be where in the proximal small bowel that pineapple was found. The proximal small bowel is several feet in length...was it found right after the stomach or a foot down the road?

At this point, I've seen such conflicting data put forth, by experts, about the flashlight, the ransom note, the garrotte, about profiling et., al., that, minus a confession, we're not going to prosecute this thing.

My objective here is to whittle the scenarios down, with the help of others, to a precious few possibilities. Since I can't trust the fraking experts, who will crawl out of the woodwork to even cloudy the O.J. Simpson case, I'll rely on what I know about digestion, behavior, etc.

cyber wrote:

In the Michigan Coed Murders of the 1960s J. Norman Collins was put on trial for killing Karen Sue Bienemann. In the course of that trial evidence was put forth that peristalsis ceased in Karen's stomach due to intense fear. I am just putting this out there for everyone to remember that emotional trauma can stop the digestive process and throw off a normal timeline.

Excellent, Cyber, Excellent! This is why I have posted that she ate the pineapple within 30 minutes of being whacked. By this I mean, whenever, JBR was whacked or put under stress, peristalis stopped.

learnin wrote:

<quoted text>
Excellent, Cyber, Excellent! This is why I have posted that she ate the pineapple within 30 minutes of being whacked. By this I mean, whenever, JBR was whacked or put under stress, peristalis stopped.

So she could have either been put in fear of her life after 30 minutes and the peristalsis stopped, or she could have been hit in the head at that time. But either way, how does this throw light on the death/murder/case?

pinker wrote:

<quoted text>
The professional opinion of doctors and educated professionals was never able to establish any such timeline.

??????????

JR said the family was in bed by 10:30.

Spitz put the TOD at or before 1 am.

The pineapple was eaten less than an hour before death.

cyber wrote:

<quoted text>So she could have either been put in fear of her life after 30 minutes and the peristalsis stopped, or she could have been hit in the head at that time. But either way, how does this throw light on the death/murder/case?

It doesn't.

cyber wrote:

I am just putting this out there for everyone to remember that emotional trauma can stop the digestive process and throw off a normal timeline.

It can't stop the process, it can only interrupt it. As can physical activity. There is no way to determine that happened in this case.

kk bumped the pineapple threads at FFJ. The photo clearly shows the milk/cream.

koldkase wrote:

Wow, learnin! That's some statement you have made. Where have you BEEN for 12 years?
So if your timeline were correct, let's follow it.(And to keep shrill from having a seizure and breaking his head open--let me say we're having a DISCUSSION about some information upon which we will SPECULATE.)
According to the Ramseys, they got home about 9:30ish and JonBenet was asleep.
Then Burke, Patsy, and John went to bed themselves during the next hour, with John going last around 10:30ish.
So if JonBenet didn't eat the pineapple at the Whites, nor at the Stines, nor in the car on the way home, when her parents said she fell asleep, then she either woke up later and ate it and was then killed shortly afterwards, or Patsy and John lied about her being asleep and she went in and ate it at some point and never went to bed or went and was killed shortly after.
Burke, on the other hand, said JonBenet walked upstairs on her own when they got back home.
Burke and Patsy's fingerprints are on the bowl, and Burke's were on the glass of tea. We don't know when it was put out nor how long it was there, because--amazingly enough--Patsy doesn't even remember OWNING the bowl, spoon, and glass.(HAHAHAHA Sorry, that Patsy always gets to me. Soon as Patsy began denying the silliest thing, voila! DISTANCING! Patsy doth protest too much....)
Well, this is just interesting. I never thought about the timeline from eating the pineapple to death being that short. I'm going to have to ponder this....
Thanks so much for sharing your professional experience and knowledge on this, learnin. You have no idea how helpful this is to those of us who have argued about this for a decade.

Your welcome, KK. Thank you for providing me with many helpful facts.

cyber wrote:

<quoted text>So she could have either been put in fear of her life after 30 minutes and the peristalsis stopped, or she could have been hit in the head at that time. But either way, how does this throw light on the death/murder/case?

I believe it whittles down the possible scenarios a great deal.I believe it negates Smit's scenario of an intruder waiting in the house until the parents are asleep and then slipping into her room and subduing her with a stun gun.

This little girl was as comfortable with the perp as the perp was comfortable being in the house.

The only other scenario which would fit, IMO, is that the little girl woke up after an hour or two, went downstairs and ate some pineapple and then was confronted by the perp. What's the odds of this happening?

The most logical scenario, IMO, is that one or more family members did not go straight to sleep.

pinker wrote:

<quoted text>
The professional opinion of doctors and educated professionals was never able to establish any such timeline. There are to many unknown variables. An x-ray tech would not be considered an expert in any court matters in this regard.

There are always variables in any discussion we have about the autopsy results and timeline. I don't see any experts around here more qualified than learnin, if his resume is true, so I think it's worth considering in a discussion based on nothing but second and third hand info, at best. I don't believe anyone thinks we're testifying under oath.

The problem with the "fear factor" being an issue in the digestion is that JonBenet did not physically fight her killer, as there are no defensive wounds or bruising on her body anywhere. So it's likely she was unconscious before she even knew what hit her, as I see it anyway.