Peter Vogel Murder Trial | Strangled lecturer was tied up by more than one person - pathologist

A doctor testified yesterday that former university lecturer Dr Peter Vogel was strangled inside his St Andrew home, and suggested that his death was the work of more than one person.

Forensic pathologist Dr S.N. Prasad Kadiyala testified, too, that Vogel's body had multiple injuries that were inflicted before his death.

Prasad Kadiyala was giving evidence in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston yesterday in the murder trial of Vogel's former household helper, Yanika Scott, and her boyfriend, Kelvin Downer.

The former lecturer's body was found in the study with a cloth tied around his face at his home in Mona Commons,

St Andrew, on July 18, 2007.

Prasad Kadiyala, who conducted a postmortem, concluded that Vogel died of "asphyxia secondary to strangulation".

"Something, could be a hand or material, pressing against the nose area," he said as he was led through his evidence by lead prosecutor Maxine Jackson.

The pathologist testified that he conducted a preliminary examination of Vogel's body the morning after his death and estimated that the former lecturer died between eight and 12 hours earlier.

NOT A ONE-MAN JOB

He noted that Vogel was 5ft 10in tall and weighed 200 pounds. His preliminary examination revealed that pieces of cloth were used to bind Vogel's hands and feet while another piece was tied around his face.

"Because of his height and weight, it is not possible for him to be tied by his hands and feet by one person. It would take more than one person," the pathologist underscored.

He testified that during the post-mortem, he saw 14 injuries on Vogel's body and insisted that at least three of them were inflicted before his death. Among the injuries Prasad Kadiyala said he saw were abrasions to the tip of the nose, the nose bridge and the upper lip.

The pathologist testified, too, that he saw "imprint" abrasions on the former lecturer's face.

"From the right angle of the mouth going downward and back and passing the line to the upper part of the neck on to the left angle of the mouth," he said, describing the injury caused by the cloth tied around Vogel's mouth.