Forty color photos of Lisa McPherson's autopsy now are public record in Pinellas County. Two of them are shown below in black and white. This photo shows McPherson's upper right arm, which is so thin it is narrower than the elbow. Scientology's records of McPherson's care show that church staffers had trouble feeding her while she was in the throes of a severe mental breakdown. Michael M. Baden, a nationally known pathologist hired by Scientology, says of the photo: "It absolutely is not evidence of malnutrition.'' He noted the photo was taken with McPherson face down and her left arm under her body. Baden said the elbow appears to be pressed against McPherson's left hand, which could exaggerate the elbow's width. Settling of blood also could have caused the elbow to enlarge, he said. "I think you can't take it by itself.'' Baden added that other autopsy photos show McPherson's limbs to be "perfectly normal.'' He also pointed to the conclusion of the pathologist who conducted the autopsy and found McPherson to be of "average nutritional status.'' Baden, a former chief medical examiner in New York City, participated in some of the country's most celebrated death cases. He was part of the team of consultants that helped defend O.J. Simpson. The spot in the middle of the elbow is a scab, from an apparent abrasion. The cause of a dark bruise on Lisa McPherson's left thigh, just above the knee, has been hotly debated. The Church of Scientology has hired an auto reconstruction expert who says the bruise likely was caused by a minor traffic accident just before McPherson came under the care of church staffers at Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel. The consultant says the force of the accident would have pushed McPherson's left leg against the driver's side handle of her 1993 Jeep Cherokee. The shape of the handle matches that of the bruise, he says. Scientology's medical experts say the bruise is what caused a blood clot behind the crook of McPherson's knee which traveled to her left lung and killed her. However, prosecutors and the lawyer for McPherson's family say this scenario is unlikely. Before dropping the case because of questionable testimony from Medical Examiner Joan Wood, prosecutors consulted their own accident reconstruction expert. He said McPherson's accident was too minor to have caused such a bruise. Also, medical experts hired by McPherson's family say the bruise seen in this photo was too recent to be the source of the fatal blood clot. They say the more likely cause of her death was dehydration. http://www.sptimes.com/News/072100/TampaBay/photos.html