Autopsy photo analysis from a laymen point of view

This much anticipated day came with very mixed emotions. On one hand, I was on a mission to find out as much as I could about “how”, thinking it could better lead me to “why?” When I finally made it to the 10th floor of the Brick house-Bullitt Building in Chapel Hill NC, I began to ask myself, why am I here? My stomach was now in knots. I was about to see all the very graphic injuries gravely inflicted upon a beautiful pregnant mother. As I was lead into a conference room outside the autopsy suite, I said to myself, anything I see and describe to others will be in the name of potential justice for Michelle and her unborn baby boy. None of us here matter in this investigation, but we can all pray for Michelle’s family and pray for justice. Pray that the evil person responsible for this exceptionally vicious, heinous murder is soon caught and prosecuted.

From a manila envelope, I was handed 27 8X10 color photos showing all the wounds described in the 14 page written autopsy report. I will attempt to describe my interpretation of these images as they were plotted on various diagrams and reports. It will be helpful to have a copy of the written autopsy report so you can follow the Medical Examiner’s description of the various blunt force injuries. (link below on this Blog)

Blunt force Injury #1

This 1” crescent mark was on the left shoulder. Her arm appeared very bruised around this mark. It was not a laceration, but appeared as a well defined superficial mark on her skin. Very telling for possible weapon clues.

Blunt force Injury #2

This was a very clean, 1 ¼ cut on her lower left jaw. This was due to her jaw being broken and then fragmented bone protruding from “inside out”.

Blunt force Injury #3

The left side of Michelle’s head had 8 very deep and gaping wounds. As the diagram shows, they were all around her ear and ultimately caused a temporal skull fracture. It was very obvious that this was a very hard attack, as all were very deep and gaping.

Blunt force Injury #4

Michelle’s neck appeared very swollen and was a medium shade of pink. The ME said this was evidence of attempted strangulation. The perpendicular scratch marks appeared as her own, obviously done in a desperate attempt to pull the killer’s hands off.

Blunt force Injury #5

This was the first photo I saw and one of the hardest to look at. The frontal shot of Michelle’s face showed a once beautiful girl with swollen, contorted features. Her upper and lower lips were badly swollen and bruised. Her tongue was very swollen and protruding. The complex mandible fractures described in the report was in layman’s term, a very badly broken jaw around the chin and upper gums, where 3 upper front teeth were missing. Another photo showed 3 perfectly formed teeth, with roots intact. In other words, these 3 teeth were totally knocked /ejected from Michelle’s gums, not just broken off. In addition, there were 2 additional fragmented teeth broken from the lower jaw. As we all know, there was another partial tooth found in the home by the Young Family after the crime scene investigators left. It was confirmed to me that this tooth fragment matched Michelle’s remaining tooth mast.

Blunt force Injury #6 and #7

Both of Michelle’s outside surface of the hands appeared extremely swollen and badly bruised. In fact, several of her fingers appeared at least 25 % larger than normal. The swelling was so pronounced, I compare it to a time I was stung by a wasp and my hand swelled tremendously.

Blunt force Injury #8, # 9, #10

This group of 13 severe wounds and abrasions to the back of the head was very hard to look at. These were not just “cuts”, but were gaping gashes directly on the back of head. Because the back of her head was shaven, I was able to see that many of these severe lacerations were carved very deep all the way to the skull. The drawings you see on the report cannot come close to helping you truly understand the gravity of the vicious wounds.

The photo of Michelle’s brain showed extreme bleeding on both sides. There was a skull fracture present in the base of the skull. I was told this type of skull fracture is very rare since it take a tremendous force to the back of the head to cause one. Another clue to what occurred here.

I saw livor mortis (settling of the blood in the lower portion of the body, causing a purplish red discoloration of the skin) on her front side, much more pronounced along the left side. Though not depicted fully in the photos, I could see some evidence of this discoloration on her upper back.

I was disappointed that her clothing was not photographed; as I wanted to get a better idea of the weight of this zipped up “hoodie”. Even more disappointing, there was not a photo available of the single hair strand found on Michelle’s hand. I was told this was considered evidence and could not be revealed in an ongoing investigation (seems obvious now that I think about it).

Time of death ? We know law enforcement said from 12 am to 6 am . It seems logical they would want to allow a window before and after. Could it be in the middle....3 AM ?

The Photos seemed to be arranged first showing the face shots, hand, neck and finally the very graphic scalp wounds. The very last photo in the stack was the one I did not want to see…. Michelle’s 5 month old baby boy. So-so sad.
Like lacy Peterson and "Baby Connor", please do not forget him just because he was not named. Michelle's baby boy was a human being that did not deserve to die.

At the end of 5 months:
* Baby is 8 to 10 inches long
* Weighs about 1 pound
* Hair begins to grow on his head
* Michelle begins to feel fetal movement
* Eyebrows, eyelids and eyelashes appear



Hopefully there will be murder trial sooner rather than later. I am sure the jury will see these god awful photos of a battered Michelle Young. I would also suspect they will see what this savage killer did to this innocent unborn child. If there was ever a case that deserved the death penalty in NC, this is the one.





God Bless Michelle’s family