National Forensic Doctor -
Chapter 1033 - 966: Battle Lines
Chapter 1033: Chapter 966: Battle Lines
Inside the office building of Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment, the lights had not gone out all night.
Although Jiang Yuan did not urge them on, the detectives of the detachment were self-motivated. Now that they had invited Jiang Yuan over, if they didn’t work hard, the detachment itself might be the next to be "sold".
The next day, Yu Wenshu also arrived very early.
Just as he settled into his office and took a sip of tea, several captains knocked on the door and entered with feigned casualness.
Yu Wenshu nodded in satisfaction. Although the Special Case Team was under Jiang Yuan’s charge, Yu Wenshu still needed to control the overall situation. His relationship with Jiang Yuan was like that of a producer and a director: the producer handles the finances, sets up the operations, and integrates resources, but when it comes to the specific operational aspects and the use of these resources, the director is the most important.
"How’s the situation? You all seem to be in good spirits," Yu Wenshu said as he took his seat on the visitor’s sofa.
The captains took their respective seats.
The captain of the Image Reconnaissance Brigade couldn’t wait to say, "We have indeed made a discovery!"
"Oh? Let’s hear it," Yu Wenshu brightened up with enthusiasm.
Image Investigation is gaining more and more attention because it truly can solve cases.
The images processed by Image Investigation often can clarify the facts of a case, more than the swearing oaths of suspects or dense interrogation transcripts. If you can find surveillance videos or any other kind of image evidence for a case, you’re pretty much eight or nine out of ten on the way to cracking it.
Abroad, there might be lawyers blathering about privacy, poisonous tree doctrines, exclusion of evidence, and so on. But that’s not how it works domestically.
In China, it’s very rare for courts to exclude evidence, and furthermore, since judges decide the cases and prosecutors decide to initiate litigation, even evidence that needs to be excluded is seen by judges and prosecutors before being excluded.
As a result, as long as the images truly contain information that proves the facts of the case, even if the judge excludes the evidence in court, the inclination toward the case is quite obvious.
"According to the revised time of death by Captain Jiang, we timed the vehicles that passed the body disposal site, and currently, four vehicles clearly exceeded the normal time limit. We have already started our investigation," the captain of the Image Investigation Brigade said with a smile, introducing this idea concerning the time limit.
It sounds simple; it’s just about setting a normal time between two points before and after the body disposal site, and then checking whether vehicles passing through these two points have significantly exceeded the time limit.
Since there are no surveillance videos at the body disposal site itself, but disposing of a body takes time—even if it’s a two-person job, getting out of the car, walking to the riverside, navigating the riverbank, and then carrying body parts the size of watermelons back and forth would take at least a quarter of an hour. If one is slow or working alone, spending twenty minutes is the least one can expect.
This provided a starting point for the Image Investigation Brigade’s inquiry.
But in reality, it’s not that easy to execute, because it’s not easy to find two appropriate points. The surveillance cameras near the disposal site are few, and even fewer provide clear footage. Additionally, there are intersections in between, so in actuality, the calculation involves more than just two points.
However, by adopting this approach, the Image Investigation Brigade ultimately identified several suspect vehicles. Now all that remained was to pay a visit, ask why they took longer than usual, and inspect for any stains on the vehicles, which might lead them to the murderer.
"Well done!" Yu Wenshu did not stint on his praise, applauding the efforts multiple times, soothing the Image Reconnaissance Brigade captain who had been up all night before turning to the others.
"We’ve also discovered something on our end," Wan Baoming hastened to say: "After tracing the fibers found on the victim, we identified three types of woven bags. One of them has concentrated sales in our Changyang City, and this particular kind is a coated product. Most of the bags we found had intact coating, so there’s good reason to believe that these bags were used for the first or at most second time."
"Can you track down the users?" Yu Wenshu was a bit surprised, as woven bags are very common. Comparedly, if the murderer was carrying a body in an LV bag, it would be easier to investigate.
Wan Baoming said, "Tracking down the users directly is not possible, but we’ve now defined a scope. I think a visitation and inquiry, in conjunction with missing person information, could be worthwhile."
"Good," Yu Wenshu nodded. Exactly how to proceed would be for Jiang Yuan’an to arrange later; Yu Wenshu was just getting an update on the progress.
Following this, Ma Jiyang’s Criminal Records Team and Cao Chujun’s Knife Team also reported their findings.
Yu Wenshu listened and nodded repeatedly, and when everyone had finished, he remarked with some surprise, "All these leads you’ve got seem quite promising."
"Yes, the current trends are all quite positive," the group seemed to realize this as well.
"Multiple fronts advancing together... alright, that’s also good. Worthy of a team led by Jiang Yuan. Fine, as long as Jiang Yuan’s Special Case Team can keep moving forward, I support it."
Yu Wenshu’s words brought relief to everyone present.
After hearing each other, Ma Jiyang smiled and said, "Before, we always worried about a lack of clues; now we have so many progressing clues that we’re somewhat at a loss."
Ordinarily, for a special case team to solve a case, no matter how many ideas or leads are proposed, if even one or two can be pursued without reaching a dead-end, they would be grateful.
Most special case teams follow a lead until they realize they can’t pursue it any further, at which point they have to stop, and without new leads, take a brainstorming approach to figure out new leads and continue the investigation. They’re waiting on leads rather than leads waiting on them.
In the end, the key to whether a special case team can keep going is whether they have any leads. As long as there are leads, the current system ensures that homicide special case teams will continue operating persistently, no matter how difficult the pursuit is—unless, of course, it involves politics.
However, an abundance of leads is another kind of burden. Investigating every single lead means costs spiral upward rapidly.
In more ordinary homicide cases, it’s common to discard some leads and focus on the most promising. This is what Captain Ma and the others were worried about.
If they start to downsize, their type of door-to-door inquiries would certainly be the first to be cut.
Yu Wenshu did not make such a decision, in part because he didn’t want to interfere with Jiang Yuan’s judgment, and also because this case involved dismemberment.
Usually, dismemberment cases tend to have fewer clues. An abundance of leads is rare and considered a rarity. Moreover, there is still some distance to go before the case is solved; penny-pinching is not a priority, at least not in this kind of case.
"Alright, everyone back to work, I’m waiting for your good news," Yu Wenshu said as he stood up and showed the captains out.
Once outside, the captains exchanged glances, their expressions turning serious.
No matter how many fronts are opened up, at the decisive moment of solving the case, only one front can achieve the breakthrough!
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