 Ellen 's body was examined by five physicians : police surgeon Charles Templeman , his colleague Alexander Stalker , Edinburgh surgeon Henry Littlejohn and two local doctors , David Lennox and William Kinnear . They concluded that Ellen had been strangled from behind . Her right leg was broken in two places so it could be crammed into the crate . <unk> , made by the penknife , ran downwards along her abdomen and had been made " within at most ten minutes of the time of death " according to Templeman , Stalker and Littlejohn . Lennox disagreed and thought the wounds were made later on the basis that when he examined the body the wound was not everted , but Templeman and Stalker said the wound was everted when they examined the body . Littlejohn explained that as Lennox made his examination three days after the others , the shape of the wounds could have changed , to which Lennox agreed . 
