In 2011, the embedded fragments had not been visualized in their pre-shatter configuration.

They were still just fragments, distributed through the rib channel, their original shape lost in the impact that had broken them.

The CT images could show each fragment individually, but they could not show what those fragments had looked like when they were part of an intact object.

Reconstructing that original shape — reverse-engineering the weapon from its broken remains — would require separating each fragment from its surroundings in the CT data, examining its surface geometry, and fitting the fragments back together like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

By 2023, digital technology had advanced far enough to make this possible.