An autopsy revealed Bates had been repeatedly kicked in the head in addition to having suffered two stab wounds to her chest, inflicted by a knife estimated to be one-and-a-half-inches wide and three-and-a-half-inches in length. Her left cheek, upper lip, hands and arms had also been cut, with three slash wounds to her throat having severed her jugular vein and larynx and almost decapitating her. Bates had evidently lain upon the ground when she had received the knife wounds to her left shoulder blade and neck. Furthermore, she had not been subjected to any form of sexual assault or robbery within this attack. Numerous fragments of skin and brown hairAmerica's Jack The Ripper: The Crimes and Psychology of the Zodiac Killer p. 229 were also recovered from beneath the fingernails of her right hand; this evidence having evidently been collected beneath her nails as she clawed at her assailant in a desperate effort to defend herself.True Crime: Unsolved Crimes pp. 5–6 The ground surrounding her body was described in her official autopsy report as "looking like a freshly plowed field."
