Medical Examiner Says Evidence Shows Jasmine Pace Was Killed While Bound In Fetal Position With Handcuffs, Shackles

  • Thursday, January 16, 2025
Dr. Cogswell holds up portion of butcher knife that broke off in Jasmine Pace's chest
Dr. Cogswell holds up portion of butcher knife that broke off in Jasmine Pace's chest

Medical Examiner Dr. Steven Cogswell testified Thursday that evidence indicated that Jasmine Pace was viciously killed with a butcher knife while bound in a fetal position with handcuffs and shackles.

Dr. Cogswell said the location of her injuries lined up with her having been killed while in the same position as she was found stuffed in a suitcase off Suck Creek Road on Dec. 1, 2022. She had disappeared over a week earlier after going to the Tremont Street apartment of boyfriend Jason Chen.

Chen is standing trial for first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.

Prosecutors said earlier that Ms. Pace had 60 stab wounds. One went into an eyeball and another through her hand.

Dr. Cogswell also said neck marks indicated Ms. Pace, who was 5'2" and weighed 98 pounds, may have been strangled.

He said she had a large contusion on her left chest that may have been caused by some sort of blow.

The medical examiner told the jury, "This was not a rapid death. It occurred over several minutes - less than 10 minutes, closer to five."

The jury from Nashville was shown photos of the long litany of knife punctures and slashes she suffered.

One knife wound went in the front of her neck and came out of the neck near the right. Dr. Cogswell said it cut her jugular vein. Another went through her hand.

One knife blow was so fierce that it went all the way into the lungs and broke off the end. That was recovered and shown to the jury. Dr. Cogswell said he never found the tip of the blade.

He said some of the knife wounds were punctures - often deep into the body. Others were slices, such as a series of slices in one large injury on the victim's back.

"There was a thin layer of blood on her whole body," he stated.

A section of bloody carpet showed red stains in a fetal position pattern, lining up with her position when she was killed, the expert told the jury.

Dr. Cogswell told of going to the scene where the body was found and quickly determined that a human was inside of three layers of black garbage bags. "It was not an animal," he said, while noting that two carcasses of deer that had been butchered were nearby.

The witness said the suitcase was a large hard-shelled version with wheels and a handle - "One like you might take on a long trip."

He said the body was taken straight to the morgue on Amnicola Highway and the autopsy began. The suitcase with the body still inside was first x-rayed. Dr. Cogswell said that showed a human was inside.

Dr. Cogswell said he cut the ends off the garbage bags to get to the victim's body. One garbage bag was placed over her head and pulled down, the second over her feet and pulled up, and the third was placed over her head and pulled down. She had no clothes on from the waist up.

When the garbage bags were removed, he found that the right arm had been handcuffed to the right ankle. He said it was a cheap novelty type handcuff, not the heavy-duty type used by police.

The arm at the left elbow had been shackled to the left ankle. The shackle, also described as novelty type, included a long chain.

Dr. Cogswell said the autopsy showed that Ms. Pace was in her menstrual period. He said she was wearing a sanitary pad.

Defense attorney Josh Weiss earlier told the jury that Ms. Pace saw on Chen's phone that he had been calling other young women. He said she became enraged and went after Chen with a wine bottle. He said Chen then began stabbing Ms. Pace.

He said Chen put on the handcuffs and shackles after she was dead so he could get the victim's body into the suitcase.

Dr. Cogswell said there was no evidence that Ms. Pace had been drinking just before her death.

He said, "Her body was very well preserved. She was just in the early stages of decomposition. She looks fresh or very close to fresh."

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