This photograph is a photograph showing Ronda lying on her left side, showing her face covered with blood, the .32 caliber revolver sitting on her forehead, and the pillow peeled back 180 degrees.

Analysis of this photograph:

The pillow has been peeled back, but not otherwise moved. The dark area of the blood stain in the pillow corresponds with the entrance wound next to her ear. There is a gunshot residue mark on the upper side of the blood stain, which indicates the path of the bullet through the pillow. Additional photos confirm this. Blood flow from the wound contaminated the pillow, and the blood flowed down towards her chin, and then off the chin into the carpet. Replacing the pillow in its original condition would show that the gunshot residue does not correspond with the entrance wound. This fact would suggest that the pillow was moved after the gunshot. The gun is shown lying on her forehead, obscuring from the camera her right eye socket.

The blanket is shown covering part of the gun, but also it is not covering Ronda's shoulders. This would indicate that the blanket was also moved before this photo was taken. The best evidence to determine the position of the blanket when deputies arrived is Deputy Holt's report, in which he said the weapon was in the left hand, the hand was covered by the blanket and the gun was in the blanket.

The importance of this photo (one which was not shown to the H.I.T.S. unit) is that it shows that the pillow was covering the gun when Ronda was found. But, it is unexplainable as to how Ronda could have shot herself down through the pillow, and have the gun come to rest on her forehead underneath the pillow. That question, along with the position of the gunshot residue mark and the path of the bullet through the pillow is pretty convincing evidence that the scene was staged.

Photo F

This photo is shows Ronda's face, the pattern of blood flow, the volume of blood that flowed from the wound before she died, the position of her hands in full rigor mortis, and the blood contaminating her entire face, including forehead and nose. It is comparable to the first photo, except that the gun and blanket have been removed.

Analysis of this photograph:

This photo shows Ronda's right elbow in contact with the floor. Analysis of the lividity in this arm would indicate that she was resting on this elbow, when she died, as would a look at the outline of her body in the next photo. In order for to have shot herself with her right hand, at an approximate right angle to her head, her arm would have needed to be held away from her body, at which time the gun would have recoiled away from her head, with her hand following the gun and her elbow acting as a hinge, which is inconsistent with this photograph.
Additional analysis of this photo shows the blood flow downwards from her ear, onto her neck and chin. It also shows pooling of the blood at her ear, where the entrance wound is. Consequently, this photo shows that her head was basically horizontal to the floor, with the chin lower than the top of her head. It appears that since the gun was found resting on her forehead covering her right eye socket, it is likely that the gun was being held in place by her left hand, with the grip of the gun underneath the blanket. This would be the only feasible way the gun could have rested on her forehead.

Looking at her forehead though, one will see that it is completely smeared with blood. This contamination would have occurred by the blood soaked pillow, with the pillow becoming soaked due to the capillary action of the blood working its way through the cloth of the pillow case. As can be seen, the blood was flowing towards her chin, not towards her forehead. Thus, if the blood soaked pillow contaminated her face, and there was a gun resting on her forehead with the gun lying between the pillow and forehead, there would be a distinguishable outline of the gun on the forehead as the blood could not have contaminated her face if the gun had been separating the pillow from her face.
By this reasoning, the gun was placed between her face and the contaminated pillow after the pillow contaminated her face, otherwise there would have been an outline of the gun showing on her face and forehead.

This third photo shows Ronda having been rolled onto her back. One can see her arms in full rigor mortise, and the outline of her body, including her arms can be seen in the blood in the carpet.

Analysis of this photograph:

It shows that Ronda lost a lot of blood before she died, as the pillows are contaminated, the floor is contaminated, and her pajama top is contaminated. In addition, Dr. Demakis, a Spokane neurosurgeon indicates in a review of the photos that Ronda bled to death, and did not die immediately from the gunshot wound as indicated by the coroner's report. It also shows that Ronda's right arm was directly underneath her right breast, showing how she was resting on her right arm, confirmed by fixed lividty on her right arm. Thus, it is inconceivable that she could have shot herself forward of the right ear with her right hand, as the position of her arm is wrong for this type of act.

Photo G-1

This photo shows a close up of the gunshot residue and the entrance hole for the bullet on the pillow.

Analysis of this photograph:

The edge of the soot mark is next to the edge of the blood stain, and the stain gets lighter in color towards the edge. This is indicative of the blood stain spreading out from the center, where the pillow covered the entrance wound. This part of the pillow was not directly contaminated with blood, but became contaminated through osmosis. With that in mind, the path of the bullet was in fact approx. 6 inches from the final resting place of the pillow covering Ronda's head. If she had shot herself through the pillow, this hole should at least roughly correspond with the entrance wound.

Photo J

This photo shows the white blanching on the left side of her legs, the left leg
where it was in contact with the floor, and the right leg where it was in
contact with her left leg.

Analysis of this photograph:

You can see she is lying on her back on the
autopsy table. According to the available literature, lividity becomes
fixed after about 8 hours, so if the body is moved, the blood will not
return to the cells, as observed in this photo. This is pretty conclusive
evidence that she likely died 8 hours before she was moved, or about 2:00
am, as she was moved after Deputy Coroner Carmen Brunton arrived on the
scene and pronounced her dead at 9:30 am..

Photo K

The next photo shows her lying on her side, recreating
the death scene except for her head not being on the pillow.

Analysis of this photograph:

You can see
the fixed lividity on the pressure points on her back, which
the available literature indicates would form if she had been moved while
lividity was forming. This dual pattern of lividity is indicative that she
was moved about 8 hours after she died.