TOPIC: Bloodstains on pajama top

In 1971, Paul Stombaugh was asked by Peter Kearns and Jack Pruett to analyze the blood stains on Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top.  Kearns and Pruett were heading a CID reinvestigation of the MacDonald case and felt that the FBI would be of great help in analyzing specific evidentiary items.  Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top was heavily blood-stained with the majority of the stains consisting of the Type A blood of Colette MacDonald.  Jeffrey MacDonald's Type B blood was found near the left elbow of the pajama top and Kimberley MacDonald's Type AB blood was found on the lower left front panel.  Jeffrey MacDonald has consistently stated that he was not wearing his pajama top when he discovered Kimberley in her bed the morning of February 17, 1970.

When Stombaugh realigned the torn sections of the pajama top to restore it to its original shape, he found four Type A blood stains that formed a contiguous whole.  In other words, there were four blood stains that were torn through or bisected, which indicated that some of Colette's blood was on the pajama top before it was torn.  Jeffrey MacDonald has always maintained that he did not place his pajama top on his wife's body until he found her on the master bedroom floor.  Stombaugh discovered bisected Type A blood stains on the left front seam, left shoulder, left sleeve, and left cuff of Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top.  Stombaugh was able to locate these four stains with the naked eye and with the use of a lightbox.

During his testimony on the blood stains at the 1979 trial, Stombaugh pointed out where the four blood stains were located, but added that the stains were heavier and more visible when he originally looked at them in 1971.

MacDonald's defense attorney, Bernie Segal, attempted to hire experts that would disagree with Stombaugh's assertion that Colette's blood was on Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top before it was torn.  Blood pattern analyst Judith Bunker refused to testify for the defense at the 1979 trial.  Bunker told Segal that she agreed with Stombaugh's blood stain analysis of Jeffrey MacDonald's pajama top.  Bunker's refusal to testify for the defense resulted in Bernie Segal not calling a single expert to challenge Stombaugh's blood stain analysis.