Mom explains bruise on victim’s right leg
Defence lawyer gives State’s forensic pathologist a grilling
THE BRUISE found on Susan Rohde, wife of former Sotheby’s executive Jason Rohde, was acquired in a fall while doing a handstand, the Western Cape High Court heard. A statement made by Susan’s mother, Diane Holmes, presented by Jason’s lawyer Graham van der Spuy, explained how she acquired the bruise that contributed to her being diagnosed by forensic pathologist Akmal Khan with “battered wife syndrome”.
Holmes said that four days prior to Rohde’s death, while picking out outfits for the Sotheby’s conference, Susan told her about the accident.
“She pointed to a large bruise on her inner thigh of her right leg and said it had happened while she was doing a handstand and falling on a dumbbell. She decided to strap the bruise with a crepe bandage in the hope that the swelling would be reduced,” Holmes wrote.
The next morning before leaving for Cape Town, Rohde told her mother the swelling had gone and was not visible through her skinny jeans.
“Susan has rather thin skin and the veins are very close to the surface. This is a heredity condition with bruising,” she added.
Khan conceded that it was possible to get such an injury in such a way.
Following the affidavits Van der Spuy grilled the State pathologist on how he went about calculating Susan’s time of death interval and the way he compiled his autopsy report.
Van der Spuy asked the pathologist how he knew the mortuary body number and police case number when he drafted the report that same day of the incident.
“A body number is assigned when the call is made to the mortuary for a case. I know that it is different from the other regions but in the Western Cape, when you call in the forensics for a case the body number is assigned to it immediately,” said Khan.
He said he was given the case number by forensic officers at the scene, which the defence found unlikely.
“Doctor are you telling the truth now?” Van der Spuy asked, to which Khan replied that he was.
On arrival at the scene the pathologist said he first checked temperatures in the different areas, including outside the hotel, the bedroom, bathroom and the temperature of the body itself.
In his handwritten notes he wrote down the bathroom temperature and bedroom temperature, but did not fill in the body temperature. He said he made a mental note of it.
Rohde’s body was found hanging on the door in the bathroom at their Spier Hotel room. It was initially believed to be a suicide.