National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1333 - 1259 Strategy

Chapter 1333: Chapter 1259 Strategy

Wan Quan looked at Jiang Yuan, feeling a sense of awe.

As fellow police officers, Wan Quan found it easy to conclude, with just a pool of blood and some gunshot marks, solving the case would be difficult.

But Jiang Yuan’s confident demeanor made Wan Quan doubt his own confidence.

This was Jiang Yuan, of the "Ningtai Jiang Yuan, presented by the entire Criminal Investigation Squad of Heshan City", the man whose name was engraved on the iron pot stew. When he said, "my suggestion," what else could Wan Quan say? Say, "I think"?

"What do we need to do?" Wan Quan changed his approach.

"Let’s narrow down the scope first. Sit." Jiang Yuan gestured for a few people to sit down and began questioning: "Where do you think the crime scene is? When the murder happened, roughly where was the car?"

"Hmm... I think either on the road or just after disembarking, because if it hadn’t boarded from abroad, they wouldn’t have sent the car here." Wan Quan said a bit and then stopped, glancing awkwardly at Jiang Yuan: "Of course, my reasoning might not be complete. If they killed someone abroad and then sent the car over, it could also be a solution. Actually, if it’s a stolen car, this possibility is even greater."

"Where did it disembark? Where did it board from abroad?"

"For this batch of cars, according to our understanding, it should have disembarked at Tianjin Port, transported over from Hong Kong." Wan Quan prepared a bit and gave an accurate response.

This kind of information is not difficult for customs to collect. Speaking of which, smuggling routes are open secrets; similar to drug routes; common car smuggling, in summary, is land border infiltration + coastal port smuggling + cross-border gray customs clearance. Overland transport from Myanmar and Laos enters Yun Guang, sea transport is from Vietnam to Fangcheng Port, or full route tours from Hong Kong and Macau, with a small amount entering over ice from Russia.

Most smuggling gangs follow established old routes in their cat-and-mouse games with the police. If one were to invent a new route, it could immediately expand into a large smuggling gang.

For the police, knowing the route doesn’t mean they can accurately find the illegal goods.

The crucial problem is that finding the goods doesn’t necessarily mean finding the people, and capturing minor lackeys doesn’t necessarily mean capturing the major ones; the more levels there are, the easier it is for links to break. Smuggling groups can treat henchmen as expendable, while they safely stay abroad, organizing waves of personnel to do the work.

For this reason, whether it’s drug cases or smuggling cases, there’s a preference for in-depth investigation followed by a sweeping crackdown.

"I think we can start with a simple screening." Jiang Yuan was getting more adept at this kind of small screening, partly because the technology he mastered was well-suited to it.

Wan Quan quickly nodded and started taking notes: "Go ahead."

Jiang Yuan: "First, from the perspective of the location, we can collect records of bodies in Tianjin Port and Hong Kong-Macau areas, checking if there are any bodies that died by gunshot for comparison."

Jiang Yuan: "Second, if someone died inside the smuggling group, there would always be some information, or it might not be confirmed death, just missing, or disappeared, no longer appearing. If we can compile the information, we can also create a list."

Wan Quan took notes but was greatly puzzled, saying: "I’m a bit confused, please don’t be upset, smuggling groups can handle bodies easily, throwing them into the deep sea, making them hard to find. We might have no results looking for bodies. Moreover, even if we do find a body or a missing person case, cracking this case will still be difficult."

"Feel free to discuss." Jiang Yuan started with a note and then said, "The two points I raised are actually to confirm the identity of the deceased. We, handling criminal cases, once we’ve confirmed the identity of the deceased, we have a foothold."

"A grip." Wan Quan seemed to half-understand.

Jiang Yuan smiled and nodded, continuing: "If we can’t find the body, forget it. But if it was a killing in nearshore waters or a port, there’s a chance the body remains. Actually, the most likely scenario was killing during boarding or disembarking because they died in a smuggling car, right?"

"That’s right." Wan Quan quickly agreed.

"Secondly, if we can’t find the body, searching for information about a person’s disappearance is also to confirm the information and narrow the scope. The smuggling group members are, after all, human. I believe if we have a list of missing persons and we try our best to confirm their identities, couldn’t we then have found a member of the smuggling group, possibly an important one."

Wan Quan was stunned at the last sentence: "Why an important one."

"If they weren’t important, they wouldn’t be worth shooting." Jiang Yuan half-joked: "In any event, find the person first, solve the homicide, then we’ll address the smuggling case as the investigation progresses."

Wan Quan could only nod; he seemed to understand now that Jiang Yuan was focused on solving the homicide and was not very interested in the smuggling case.

Nevertheless, Wan Quan remained proper, as he had been investigating this case for a long time without result; he might as well see if Ningtai Jiang Yuan truly lived up to the legend.

"The bloodstain itself is our most important evidence." Jiang Yuan adjusted his seating posture and said, "I suggest sending the blood to the ministry for Y-chromosome and family lineage testing."

The Y chromosome is only present in males and is inherited unchanged through the paternal line. In other words, the father’s Y chromosome is the same as the son’s, and even the grandfather’s and Great Ancestor’s are the same, shared among brothers and cousins.

Therefore, the advantage of Y chromosome comparison is that it doesn’t require the DNA of the suspect himself to be in the database; matching any male family member’s DNA will suffice. Although it can’t pinpoint which family member, it significantly narrows the scope. The famous Baiyin case was investigated from the 1980s to the 2010s, and in the end, it was solved when the criminal was identified by matching the Y chromosome of one of his uncles.

Family genealogy testing involves genetic lineage technology, using second-generation sequencing technology, and it requires big data, making it more complex. However, it can trace females and even find third or fourth-degree cousins. In ancient times, something like Zhao’s Orphan couldn’t escape.

Wan Quan, who usually dealt with smuggling cases, of course did not need DNA testing much, so he wasn’t very familiar with the laboratories associated with the ministry, somewhat embarrassedly said: "Directly send it to the ministry? We might have a slower channel..."

Jiang Yuan waved his hand and said, "I’ll make a call in a bit. Y chromosome and family genealogy tests are necessary; I’ve heard many coastal smuggling rings are family-based, and as long as we get a match, further filtering becomes easy."

"That’s a good approach." Wan Quan naturally fully agreed and continued to listen to Jiang Yuan’s arrangements, vaguely feeling a sense of ease in solving the case.