Pathologist rejects Rohde literature

Jason Rohde Picture: Courtney Africa/ANA

Jason Rohde Picture: Courtney Africa/ANA

Published Dec 1, 2017

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State pathologist Deidre Abrahams yesterday contested literature put to her by the defence, saying that “it was not relevant to the case”.

Abrahams was referring to 83 cases of suicidal or homicidal hangings in the Forensic ABC of Medical Practise.

Graham van der Spuy, lawyer for the defence in the murder case against Jason Rohde, argued that a histopathology report which was not done at the autopsy was a vital “remiss”.

Abrahams noted that the cases referred to in the literature were that of ante-mortem origin and not of post-mortem origin.

“With respect to the authors, this literature is not relevant to our case. The histology from this literature shows ante-mortem hangings and not post-mortem cases.

"Our forensic pathologist conducted a full layer dissection of the neck and location where the ligature mark was found.

“We have no doubt that this ligature mark was of a post-mortem origin,” Abrahams said.

“Histology is not always useful in homicide cases. We found the deceased had a post-mortem ligature and there would be no reaction on the soft tissue.

"She was already dead at the time she was hanging. We concluded the cause of death was manual strangulation.”

“We found there was no haemorrhaging under the ligature mark. It is not mandatory to do a histology report if we have a firm case of death.”

Rohde is accused of murdering his wife last year and staging her death as a suicide.

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