National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1018 - 954 This is Reasoning

Chapter 1018: Chapter 954 This is Reasoning

Smack!

Su Shanming lit a cigarette when there was no second-hand smoke around.

He had been a part of the special case team since ten years ago. Although the detectives present might not be able to crack the case, by looking at his colleagues’ demeanor, he knew exactly which side was taking the pressure for the day.

Smack.

Lang Heng also lit a cigarette, using the Zhonghua brand that Liu Jinghui had saved and left on the table.

Smack smack!

In conference room 4303, smoke once again dominated the space, forcing the air ventilation fan to buzz loudly, and causing the dry grass outside to sway incessantly. Ordinary plants could not withstand the ravages of nicotine and had long since perished.

Su Shanming took another sip of tea before saying, "The lead involving the daughter, I was the one who investigated it initially."

This was a standard procedure, as ten years ago there was already a mandate that all homicide cases must be solved, with even higher demands than now, and the police resources, especially the human resources, were extremely adequate. With two people dead, someone would definitely follow up on the relationships of the other person involved.

Su Shanming took a couple more puffs before continuing, "The young girl was studying in our city’s No. 3 Middle School, probably in her second year at the time. I first questioned her teachers, then some classmates, and later our colleagues helped inquire with her father. The specific details, how they were explained back then, I can’t remember clearly now, but in today’s terms, the young girl indeed had some ambiguous relationships."

"It’s normal for an eighth grader to have one or two secret admirers," Huang Qiangmin added to ease the mood.

Mu Zhiyang, seeing the political commissar join the fray, quickly chimed in, "During my middle school days, I was secretly in love with all the girls in my class."

"Uh... The girl’s ambiguous friend, wasn’t really that romantic, just some private phone calls and mutual fondness, I guess. He was a classmate from the next class over, quite tall for a middle schooler, skinny and lanky, about 175 cm tall in second year, had learned dancing, and was pretty articulate. His parents were high-ranking intellectuals," reported Su Shanming simply. He added, "I investigated this classmate carefully back then and personally felt that he didn’t have the capability, nor was it necessary for him to commit such a heinous crime.

"Did he have the ability to strangle an adult woman like Sui Yingxue?" Jiang Yuan asked this because Sui Yingxue took care of two children, was quite active daily, slightly stout, weighing over 110 pounds. Although she couldn’t compete with male strength, against teenagers, she still had some ability to resist.

Su Shanming recalled for a moment, shaking his head and said, "That boy was very thin, even if he could strangle an adult woman, it wouldn’t be through overpowering."

"That would require at least two people then," Jiang Yuan turned to look at Liu Jinghui.

Liu Jinghui nodded, "Teenagers don’t have enough deterrent power. Even with a knife, to control Sui Yingxue and her daughter, brute force would still be necessary. Simply brandishing a knife and making a few threats wouldn’t make them comply."

Su Shanming took another drag of his cigarette and said, "I had looked into this ambiguous relationship of the young girl and made a note in the investigation files back then, and didn’t write anymore after. Being conservative at the time, I thought..."

"Since it was a lead that was ruled out, mentioning it briefly was enough," Lang Heng waved his hand grandly, not allowing Su Shanming to further explain. He turned to ask Liu Jinghui, "Should we continue investigating this lead? There’s a problem here; if it involves the young girl’s boyfriend, or secret admirer, or pursuer, would it escalate to murder? At least it’s not very likely that it would quietly escalate to murder. Furthermore, if it was a problem related to the girl’s personal connections, the mother would either not hide the boy, or would hide both, right?"

"That’s indeed one of the considerations," Liu Jinghui said, furrowing his brow but his lips couldn’t help curving into a slight smile.

This case, indeed required real deductive reasoning!

Two murderers, multiple investigative directions, each showing promise, yet seeming like dead ends... precisely the type of case that needed to be carefully analyzed with logic.

"I think it’s necessary to reconfirm the situation with the young girl here," Liu Jinghui said, restraining his expression, and continued: "Of course, I’m not saying there are major doubts about this direction, but I believe that the investigation in this direction was not sufficient back then. Naturally, this was also limited by the circumstances at the time. The world of adolescents is different from that of adults, and even during police interrogations, some teenagers might not fully disclose information for various reasons..."

After emphasizing this, Liu Jinghui added, "Now that 10 years have passed, those who were 14 at that time are 24 this year. I think this is actually a good opportunity. The issues that seemed insurmountably difficult in middle school, even those that were embarrassing or frightening, might no longer pose a problem today. Perhaps by asking them again, we might gain something?"

This time, Su Shanming couldn’t help but nod: "Indeed, issues that may have been difficult to speak of at the time can probably be discussed now. I’ll continue to follow up on this."

Liu Jinghui looked toward Lang Heng. He was still acting as an expert from the provincial office, and there was no need for him to direct the personnel in Chang Le City.

Lang Heng nodded and said, "Okay, Shanming, you continue to follow up."

Reasoning must also be based on evidence, and the continued push for progress in investigation direction by Liu Jinghui also requires the assistance of other detectives.

After discussing this leads, Liu Jinghui felt slightly invigorated, and organizing his thoughts, he said, "From a human perspective, the victim’s husband, previously the prime suspect, has had his network reviewed by you all."

"Of course," Lang Heng nodded lightly.

"However, you probably had limited trust in this suspect’s statements back then. I think it’s necessary to take out his statements again and investigate them deeply," Liu Jinghui proposed another major direction, implying that about 20 police officers will need to work extensive shifts over about a week.

"Sure," Lang Heng immediately agreed.

"Captain Jiang, what about you?" Liu Jinghui looked at Jiang Yuan.

"I don’t have a complete plan right now," Jiang Yuan replied, then glancing at Liu Jinghui, he suggested, "If we’re to speak, I recommend focusing on trace evidence. Maybe do more of it, collect more samples."

"Do... how many?" Lang Heng gritted his teeth.

"Let’s execute the analysis on all the collected evidence, and I’ll mark some additional items to collect samples from more points later," Jiang Yuan responded.

Without a clear strategy, widening the net is often the approach, which was actually Jiang Yuan’s tactic. He had handled countless cases, large and small, from provincial to local levels, and many significant cases had been solved by employing such relentless methods.

Jiang Yuan followed this example, quickly shifting from having no strategy to deploying one.

Compared to DNA, which targets genetic material from human bodies, trace evidence deals with non-human substances, but its effectiveness and sensitivity can match that of DNA.

"Do all of them over again? The cost of doing a single trace evidence analysis nowadays is at least 500 yuan. With the number of pieces of evidence left from case 430, wouldn’t that cost tens of thousands?"

"Let’s start with the marked ones first, and then gradually expand," Jiang Yuan suggested reasonably. Analyzing trace evidence was inherently slow and needed to be done in batches.

"I’ll try to process more," assured Lang Heng, who guessed Jiang Yuan’s thoughts and just pretended not to know. Though he was the one footing the bill, he had to admit that the approaches suggested by Liu Jinghui and Jiang Yuan were both very practical.

Whether it was Liu Jinghui’s reasoning or Jiang Yuan’s trace evidence plan, both of these proposals had broken the constraints of the previous two special investigation teams, undeniably pointing towards the most promising investigative directions.