National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1056 - 989: Restraint

Chapter 1056: Chapter 989: Restraint

"A murder cold case? Which case is it?"

Tao Lu immediately became interested upon hearing the type. Even though he was well aware that investigating cold case homicides cost money, and it would cost even more to engage Jiang Yuan and his team, he was still willing and even eager to spend the money.

To any police department, solving a cold case homicide is like fulfilling a mission. Solving one is like adding a piece to the puzzle of their mission.

Jiang Yuan hesitated for a moment and didn’t mention the case right away. Instead, he offered a word of caution first: "I’m not entirely certain at the moment, just that while reviewing fingerprints, one looked familiar. Although there was a match later, it was also an incomplete fingerprint and not a decisive one, so whether this case will be officially reopened is still in question."

Jiang Yuan continued to explain, "I might need about a day to confirm a few things and might need to look for the individuals related to the case, to interrogate the involved parties. I thought I’d give a heads up."

Jiang Yuan said all this in one breath, and not just Tao Lu, but even Song Tiancheng’s expression became extremely serious.

This was Jiang Yuan speaking. When he decided whether to take the Duanda Group case, he did not say as much. Look at Duanda Group now; their stock has risen by 20%...

"Which case is it?" Tao Lu asked, while already starting to build a defensive wall in his mind.

"The Jianmen Court murder case," Jiang Yuan said after mentally preparing the two leaders, honestly revealing the name of the case.

As criminal investigators, they enjoy keeping secrets, but secrets can’t be too big, as they can be lethal.

Tao Lu and Song Tiancheng exchanged glances, their eyes quickly met and then averted, both unwilling to reveal their inner thoughts.

"Are you... confident about it?" Tao Lu felt his mind was in disarray today. Earlier, when Jiang Yuan mentioned Zhang Weili, he couldn’t recall who that was, and now, as Jiang Yuan mentioned the Jianmen Court murder case, he had too good a memory of it, causing his ability to form coherent speech to collapse again.

The Jianmen Court murder case was a homicide from the late 90s. Jianmen Court was just an address, nothing special, but the key was the noble status of the victim.

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Regarding the fingerprint, I’m ninety percent sure it’s a match. I’ll need to research it a bit more later. However..."

"A fingerprint match doesn’t necessarily mean the case will be solved!" Tao Lu burst the bubble with a statement.

Jiang Yuan nodded: "That’s true."

Tao Lu’s frown deepened than before.

Song Tiancheng also had a grim look on his face.

How to solve a cold case that has been stagnant for over 20 years?

In fact, the solving of historical cold cases has a fixed pattern or, rather, requires certain preconditions.

Firstly, there has to be a new discovery. The most common new discoveries come in three types: one is the technological revolution, such as the development of DNA technology, which has solved many historical rape cases and significantly reduced the incidence of such crimes.

The second is accidental findings, commonly those that result from pulling up a radish and bringing out the soil with it, various criminals contributing information about their accomplices in order to secure a reduced sentence, and so on. The fingerprint Jiang Yuan discovered this time also falls into this category.

The third type comes from family members or related parties’ investigations. The South Medical University rape and murder case that spread online was cracked by patient comparison by former classmates, and the advancements in Tsinghua University’s Zhu Ling case relied on the efforts of fellow university students of the victim.

However, among these three preconditions, the most risky is the accidental finding.

Because accidental findings often do not provide conclusive evidence; most of the time, what the police get are leads that they need to find a way to turn into evidence.

Especially with cold cases from twenty or thirty years ago, without evidence, relying solely on someone’s word poses too great a risk to the suspect and is a significant threat to the entire society.

If someone could be convicted based solely on one’s testimony, then who doesn’t have an arch-enemy they detest all their life, who wouldn’t wait for a dying opportunity.

It’s quite common for unsolved murder cases to be reopened when new leads emerge.

But the risks associated with the Jianmen Court homicide are far from ordinary.

Tao Lu couldn’t help saying: "Jiang Yuan, if that’s the case, I wouldn’t recommend reopening the special case, at least, we can’t just restart it outright."

Jiang Yuan was not surprised, he simply looked up at Song Tiancheng.

The expression on Song Tiancheng’s face remained unchanged, as if he hadn’t heard a word.

Tao Lu emphasized: "I know you are confident, but this isn’t just about solving a case. Let me tell you a story, then you’ll understand. You might not have thought of it, but from start to finish, there has not been a single major suspect in the Jianmen Court homicide case. The criminal investigation team hasn’t apprehended any suspected individuals."

Jiang Yuan could not help but sit up straighter.

Honestly, it’s possible for such a case to remain unsolved, but it’s extremely abnormal to not have even a single major suspect.

Especially when a case has been at a standstill for a long time, the more typical scenario is to arrest a bunch of people for concentrated interrogations or something similar to gather leads.

Jiang Yuan himself has frequently employed similar strategies, capturing some related criminals and using their connections to gather leads, and whenever he applies this strategy, he does so on a grand scale.

"Was there no investigation sweep for the Jianmen Court homicide?" Jiang Yuan was quite surprised.

"There was a small-scale investigation, but no large-scale sweep, there weren’t enough leads at the time," Tao Lu said seriously. "At that time, there were a relatively high number of homicide cases overall. The... family of the victim requested to avoid disturbing the public; we couldn’t just conduct a large search across the city because of this."

Jiang Yuan: "Ultimately, it depends on what the police think, right? If the police needed to conduct a large sweep, couldn’t they do it?"

"Naturally, they could." Tao Lu replied softly. "At that time, truly, there wasn’t a basis for a large-scale sweep, but for a case of this level, gathering leads through an investigation sweep is also a strategy. But at that time, this strategy was vetoed."

"What about the opinion of the special case team at the time?"

"I’m not clear on the specific details, but under the circumstances back then, a large-scale sweep wouldn’t have been much help. But no matter what, the special case team didn’t exhaust all possible methods!"

Seeing that their conversation had reached this point, Song Tiancheng then said, "I agree with Tao’s viewpoint. Back then, the victim’s family was very restrained. Of course, the police also conducted as thorough an investigation as possible and invested a substantial amount of resources, but the emotions of the victim’s family needed to be considered; we cannot rashly reopen the special case. It would be a second injury to the victim’s family and also detrimental to our work."

"I understand," Jiang Yuan truly understood. For such a case, it’s understandable if it was solved without much action. If it wasn’t solved and not all methods were exhausted, it could only mean that the victim’s family was indeed very restrained.

In such a scenario, if the police hastily initiate a special case and fail to solve it, or if the investigation drags on, it would absolutely be a deeply etched experience for the victim’s family.

Taking into account the identity of the victim, if you hurt him, the chances of him just letting it go with a laugh are not high.

"Then how about we start with a preliminary investigation round?" Jiang Yuan himself was also prepared to start on a small scale; now it was simply a matter of procedure.

Tao Lu immediately nodded, saying, "We could start with the interrogation, you’ve found a suspect’s fingerprint, let’s first bring him in separately. You can use anyone from my team as you wish."

"Just add them directly to my Cold Case Squad," Jiang Yuan said bluntly. "We need a formal reason. My own team isn’t familiar with Beijing, it’s more convenient to have local detectives lead the way."

Tao Lu gave Jiang Yuan a deep look and said, "No problem adding them to your team, just make sure you don’t take them away with you."

"No way, who would leave the prestigious Zhengguang Bureau for the countryside?"

"Naturally, no one wants to go to the countryside, but Ningtai is different," Tao Lu said, without dwelling on the matter further. "Whoever you fancy, add them to the team; I’ll take my time investigating the Duanda case; let’s each handle our part!"