(URGENT) How was the case presented by the prosecution for Truscott?

The greatest challenge for the Crown at the trial was proving that Lynne was murdered between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm, since during that time, Steven’s whereabouts were not precisely accounted for. It was pivotal for them to prove that Lynne died during that time period – without proof of her time of death falling within that period, the Crown had no case against Steven.

Enter Dr. John Penistan, the coroner who performed the autopsy on Lynne’s body. By putting some of Lynne’s stomach contents in a vial and holding them up to a light to examine them, he placed the time of death between 7:15 and 7:45 pm, a time that was relative to the time of her last meal. With that evidence in hand, the Crown had the final nail to hammer into Steven’s coffin.

From a modern perspective, Penistan’s methods appear highly unreliable. If fact, modern scientific technology has proven Penistan’s method to be ineffective and his conclusions incorrect.

Interestingly enough, seven years after the trial, Dr. Penistan announced publicly that the statement that he originally gave at the trial was false and that Lynne could have died any time during a forty-eight hour period. Had that been his original statement, the Crown’s case against Steven would have been significantly weakened. As stated in the book, The Trial of Steven Truscott, “If a different time of death had been estimated, all the other evidence would have been meaningless.”