Autopsy: Jennifer Blagg shot in the eye

<p>Jennifer Blagg was shot up close in her left eye before her body was dumped in a Mesa County landfill, a pathologist testified Monday.</p><p>Dean Havlik, a forensic pathologist with the Mesa County Coroner's office, did an autopsy on Blagg's body on June 5, 2002 - seven months after her husband reported her and their daughter missing.</p><p>Michael Blagg, 41, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife. Their 6-year-old daughter, Abby, has never been found and is presumed dead.</p><p>Blagg was arrested at his mother's home in Warner Robins, Ga., shortly after his wife's remains were found.</p><p>Havlik testified the track of the bullet was consistent with someone firing straight down, with Blagg's head on a pillow.</p><p>Havlik said Blagg may have survived the initial gunshot, and that she may have been alive as blood flowed out of the wound for a few minutes.</p><p>He was unable to determine the time of Blagg's death because of her body's decomposed state.</p><p>Michael Blagg appeared shaken as nearly 30 X-rays and photographs from his wife's autopsy were shown to the jury.</p><p>A Mesa County Sheriff's sergeant also testified that investigators followed a trail of garbage from Michael Blagg's workplace to Jennifer Blagg's body in the landfill.</p><p>"We followed essentially that trail of garbage up until we found Jennifer," Sgt. Rusty Callow said.</p><p>Prosecutors claim Blagg killed his wife to get out of an unhappy marriage and dumped her in a trash bin at Ametek Dixson in Grand Junction, where he worked at the time.</p><p>Defense attorney David Eisner questioned the failure by investigators to document exactly what they found along the trail of trash they followed.</p><p>"It's not in any way recorded where it was found, who found it and how much was found at the places where it was found, right?" Eisner asked Callow.</p><p>"That is correct," Callow said.</p><p>Eisner pointed out that trash from a roofing company was found near Jennifer Blagg's body, but that investigators hadn't followed up on that discovery.</p>

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