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the river within three hours after she left her mother's house, only
three days from the time she left her home--three days to an hour. But
it is folly to suppose that the murder, if murder was committed on
her body, could have been consummated soon enough to have enabled her
murderers to throw the body into the river before midnight. Those who
are guilty of such horrid crimes, choose darkness rather the light....
Thus we see that if the body found in the river was that of Marie Rogêt,
it could only have been in the water two and a half days, or three at
the outside. All experience has shown that drowned bodies, or bodies
thrown into the water immediately after death by violence, require from
six to ten days for decomposition to take place to bring them to the top
of the water. Even where a cannon is fired over a corpse, and it rises
before at least five or six days' immersion, it sinks again, if let
alone. Now, we ask, what was there in this cave to cause a departure
from the ordinary course of nature?... If the body had been kept in its
mangled state on shore until Tuesday night, some trace would be found on
shore of the murderers. It is a doubtful point, also, whether the body
would be so soon afloat, even were it thrown in after having been
dead two days. And, furthermore, it is exceedingly improbable that any
villains who had committed such a murder as is here supposed, would
have throw the body in without weight to sink it, when such a precaution
could have so easily been taken."
The editor here proceeds to argue that the body must have been in the
water "not three days merely, but, at least, five times three days,"
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