In autopsy photographs, the area at the base of Carmin D. Ross’ neck below her voice box appears as one darkened mass of destroyed skin, with several isolated stab wounds around the edges.

Jurors at the murder trial of Thomas E. Murray saw those photos Wednesday, and a coroner said there were so many stab wounds around Ross’ neck that he couldn’t say which direction each one went.

“We have a lot of injuries that are close together,” Erik Mitchell testified. “To isolate one from another, because there’s been so much damage, no, I cannot do that.”

Mitchell’s analysis of Ross’ roughly 30 stab wounds and lacerations occupied much of day nine of the trial of Ross’ ex-husband, Murray, a Kansas State University English professor. Ross was found dead in rural Lawrence in November 2003.

Other key testimony Wednesday included a scientist’s statement that much of the DNA evidence tested from the scene came from Ross — with the exception of a mysterious drop of blood found in her bathroom.

And Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Jay Armbrister displayed a 6-inch boning knife police bought to match the only knife found missing from the Wolfgang Puck knife set in Ross’ kitchen. The knife’s blade appears to be roughly the same width as Ross’ stab wounds, but Armbrister testified no one knows how long Ross’ knife had been missing from the kitchen.

Movement

Coroner Mitchell testified that there was “a great deal of movement” around the crime scene and that Ross likely was injured with at least two objects: one blunt, the other sharp. He said he believed Ross was still alive when she was stabbed in the neck.

One of Ross’ wounds came from a blow that landed almost exactly in the middle of the back of her head, Mitchell testified.

Douglas County Coroner Erik Mitchell describes neck injuries found on the body of Carmin D. Ross. Mitchell testified Wednesday in Douglas County District Court in the trial of Thomas E. Murray, who is accused of murdering Ross.

Under cross examination, Mitchell said he couldn’t rule out that there was more than one assailant. Nor could he say conclusively what time or day Ross died.

Prosecutors believe Ross died the morning of Nov. 13, 2003. She talked on the phone with her fiance early that morning and missed an appointment in the afternoon.

Terri Worley, a forensic scientist for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, described testing about 75 pieces of evidence for DNA during a seven-month period.

Many of the items tested from the crime scene — including tissues, pieces of a bloody scarf and a drop of blood swabbed from Ross’ thumb — turned out to have Ross’ DNA on them, Worley testified.

There was one notable exception.

6News video: Murray trial jurors hear violent details from expert Photo Gallery: Murray Trial Day Nine See complete trial coverage

A drop of blood found in the first-floor bathroom near where Ross’ body was found came from at least two people, Worley testified. Some of the blood matched Ross’ DNA, she said, and the other appeared to come from a male.

Other testimony

Worley said she couldn’t rule out the blood coming from Murray, but she sent the blood to a private lab for more specialized testing. A representative from the lab is expected to testify today.

Carey Sisson, another KBI forensic scientist, testified that 18 swabs that police took from Murray’s car tested negative for blood. Police collected samples from the car after they sprayed the interior with a glow-in-the-dark crime-scene chemical that identified possible blood traces.

Sisson said she verified there was a trace of blood on a piece of paper found in Murray’s Manhattan home that had hand-written directions about how to get to Ross’ home using Interstate Highway 70. But Worley couldn’t say whose blood was on the paper because she wasn’t able to get a DNA profile from the sample.

Murray told police he always drove on I-70 to Lawrence, but detectives say he searched the Internet for the terms “Highway 40 and Topeka” days before Ross’ death.

— 6News reporter/anchor Janet Reid contributed information.