Disturbing Details Discovered In Nicole Brown Simpson's Autopsy Report

The murders were incredibly violent, bloody, and swift. Whoever killed 35-year-old Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, 25, seemed to go right for the kill, savaging Brown Simpson (and later, Goldman, who had the misfortune of arriving during the attack) in front of her Brentwood, California condominium on June 12, 1994, while her two children slept inside, according to the Los Angeles Times. A passerby found the bodies crumpled on the ground — Brown Simpson at the bottom of the courtyard stairs — and Goldman close by near some foliage.

The killings would turn into one of the most infamous crimes in modern U.S. history, with Nicole Brown Simpson's famous ex-husband, NFL-star-turned-broadcaster and occasional actor, O.J. Simpson, becoming the prime suspect in the killings.

According to Sportscasting, the couple met while Nicole was an 18-year-old waitress in 1977 and O.J. was still married to his first wife, whom he divorced in 1979. Nicole and O.J. married in 1985. The couple had two children together but, over the years, Nicole told friends and family he was abusive toward her. In 1989, O.J. was arrested for "spousal battery" to which he pleaded no contest. According to Bustle, during the 1989 spousal abuse incident, Simpson kicked and hit Nicole and, when responding officers arrived, Nicole reportedly told them "he's going to kill me."

By 1992, the couple had divorced. Sportscasting reported that Nicole and O.J. tried to reconcile in 1993, but it didn't work out.

O.J. Simpson was the only suspect ever really considered for the killings, according to what a lead investigator said during the so-called "trial of the century" per the Associated Press, in which Simpson was acquitted of the double murders after nearly nine months of testimony. 

Still, shortly after the killings neighbors started sharing what they knew. One told the Los Angeles Times he'd seen O.J. Simpson there several times, but that's not unusual since the couple shared children. Another said they'd see Nicole walking her dog sometimes and wondered if she was attacked during a dog walk, as he said there was a dog walking unattended on a leash found the next morning. 

Another said she'd heard the non-stop barking of dogs a little before midnight, telling the Los Angeles Times, "It made me think something was going on with the neighbors."

Though Simpson was later held liable for Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman's deaths in a civil trial, to this day, no other suspects have been named for the crime of showing up outside of Brown Simpson's home, wildly stabbing and slashing her and Goldman, then running off. There were no signs of robbery, burglary, or any known motives for the vicious killings.

What was later learned in Brown Simpson's autopsy report (via Autopsy Files), is that the assailant stabbed the mother four times in the neck and cut her throat so deeply that the knife went into her cervical spine. The medical examiner wrote that "the incised wound of the neck is gaping and exposes the larynx and cervical vertebral column."

The slice was 5 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches in length, cutting through the soft tissues of the neck and a quarter-inch deep into Brown Simpson's bone, sparing the spinal canal and spinal cord. Per trial testimony, a medical examiner said that the stabs likely happened first, then as Brown Simpson lay on the ground, possibly (hopefully) unconscious, the killer lifted her head by the hair and did the cut that would end Nicole Simpson's life, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Medical examiner's report showed that other than the stabs to her neck, there were three other stab wounds to Brown Simpson's scalp, as well as a blunt force injury to her head.

There were only a few defensive wounds on Nicole Brown Simpson's hands, which medical examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran later testified showed that the attack only lasted a few minutes, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

"I would say she died within a few minutes, probably less," said Sathyavagiswaran. "These kinds of altercations can take place pretty rapidly."

According to Sathyavagiswaran, the knife used was most likely six inches long and single-edged. Yet whoever wielded it, did so with such furious intent that he nearly decapitated Nicole Brown Simpson. 

Beyond the tragedy of the brutal murder of the young, vibrant woman — and the fact that no one has ever been convicted of taking her life and the life of Ron Goldman on that California summer night — is that Brown Simpson's autopsy report shows that she was otherwise in great health, and likely had a long life ahead of her to be a mother to her children and to simply enjoy the gift of life.