Gun shot wounds caused the deaths of a couple found last year buried in a makeshift grave under their lawn, a pathologist told the trial of their daughter and son-in-law accused of their murder.
Doctor Stuart Hamilton described to a jury how he came to determine the cause of death from the decomposed skeletal remains of William and Patricia Wycherley.
The couple were discovered dead by police last October, lying one on top of the other in the ground, 15 years after they were killed.
Susan Edwards, 55, and her husband, Christopher Edwards, 57, deny their murder between May 1 and 5, 1998.
Dr Hamilton, a Home Office pathologist, told their trial on June 11 how Mr Wycherley's spine had a groove to part of the thoracic vertebrae and there was a scalloped defect on the inner surface of his right pelvic bone.
Two bullets were recovered from his duvet-wrapped remains in the area around the lower chest and tummy.
In Dr Hamilton's opinion the rounds had entered from the front, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
"Particularly in respect of the pelvis from the front," said Dr Hamilton.
"There was damage to the front without corresponding damage to the back."
Mrs Wycherley had a bullet lodged in her spine, a round that would have travelled through her aorta, the largest artery in the body, and her cause of death was also gun shot wounds.
The Edwards are alleged to have planned what happened and concocted a story to explain evidence surrounding the deaths.
Mrs Edwards, 55, has admitted the manslaughter of her mother – on the basis that she was provoked.
But her plea has not been accepted by the prosecution.
The deaths of the Wycherley's, who lived at Blenheim Close, forest Town, from 1987 to their murder, emerged after Mr Edwards' stepmother called police.
She revealed to detectives how she had been told by her stepson that he had helped his wife bury her parents.
The debt-laden couple – who owed £160,000 to creditors – were in France at the time but had allegedly run out of money. They were arrested on their return to the UK on October 30 last year.
The trial continues
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