National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 304 - 304 272 Shrinking Rate

304: Chapter 272 Shrinking Rate 304: Chapter 272 Shrinking Rate The bones after being burnt were significantly different from the original fresh bones.

Jiang Yuan took the first bone out of the evidence box, which had already been incinerated to the point of vitrification, its curvature on the bone surface was gone, and moreover, there were several small bone fragments clinging to it, along with many remnants of coal particles and little nodules formed by some kind of inorganic material.

At first glance, this bone actually looked more like a bizarre craftwork, but upon closer observation, many details characteristic of a bone were distinguishable.

As a forensic doctor, Jiang Yuan could see much more, for example, this was a bone of a skull, the whiteness of the fragments was the result of being scorched at temperatures above 1,000 degrees…

And all organic material on the bone had been burned away, which meant that commonly used DNA technology was now ineffective.

Jiang Yuan silently took out the second bone.

This bone’s degree of burn was slightly less, roughly just past carbonization but not yet vitrified.

But still, all organic material was burned away, and DNA techniques were of no use whatsoever.

As for the remaining dozen or more bones that Jiang Yuan examined one by one, the situation was much the same.

The difficulty suddenly increased, which meant that traditional techniques like DNA analysis were completely useless, and the only thing to rely on was the most traditional Forensic Anthropology.

To look on the bright side, the quality of bones found in many graves or mass burial sites from massacres was also quite poor.

If one were to talk about difficulty, traditional Forensic Anthropology was always extremely challenging.

There was too much ambiguity, too much reliance on experience, too many regression formulas; there were many things that you simply couldn’t understand from reading books alone, not even the authors could explain them clearly, it required a master-apprentice transmission to comprehend.

This is akin to describing the feeling of mucus sticking to the back of your hand, the sensation of tears being wiped on it, the feeling of rice smeared on it, the sensation of water shield soup, and of beef broth.

Although human vocabulary has become very rich, accurately describing tactile sensations and assigning one-to-one correspondence is basically impossible.

The field of Forensic Anthropology deals precisely with these things.

What fresh bones feel like to the touch, what charred bones feel like, the difference between touching a skull and touching a facial bone, the difference between touching finger bones and toe bones…

Because Forensic Anthropology deals inherently with this kind of seemingly simple yet extremely meticulous knowledge, without hands-on guidance from a teacher, it can be very very difficult.

As far as Jiang Yuan knew, there were two renowned old forensic doctors in Shannan Province, who were often loaned out to ministries, or to provincial halls of other provinces, or traded away by the leadership of their own city bureaus or county bureaus.

If forensic doctors at the county level are somewhat scarce, then forensic doctors specializing in Forensic Anthropology are extremely rare not only nationally but also globally.

This primarily refers to those who perform well—the mediocre ones don’t count.

Jiang Yuan meticulously reviewed the forensic report made by the Changyang forensic doctor and internally scored it, estimating that this forensic doctor’s ability in Forensic Anthropology was around LV2.8 to LV3.2.

Their knowledge reserves were about on par with 320 Wang Zhongs.

This was already a very strong forensic expert.

Jiang Yuan estimated that it must have been done by one of the top 2 in Shannan Province.

Jiang Yuan flipped to the top of the forensic report and, sure enough, saw the name of the person who performed the identification: Zhang Fengtian.

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but say, “Since Zhang, the forensic doctor, has already done an identification, there’s no need for me to look at it again.”

As he said this, he picked up the bone and began to look at it a second time.

Yu Wenshu, noticing Jiang Yuan’s disingenuous tone, thus said, “Forensic doctor Zhang did provide an identification report, but it only confirmed that these are human remains.

The gender, age, and height are all unknown.

Our main investigative direction now is to find furnaces that can reach temperatures above 1,000 degrees—we have visited many places, but still, there are no leads…”

Incinerating a body certainly destroys a large amount of evidence, but the process of incineration itself actually creates new traces.

For instance, the method of incineration, the technique, the equipment, the fuel, and so on, are all questions.

Bones completely vitrified require high temperatures over 1,000 degrees, and carbonization needs 800.

Between 800 degrees and 1,000 degrees lies a threshold that ordinary civilian stoves cannot reach.

Jiang Yuan listened and nodded, “There are only skulls, sternums, and vertebrae here; indeed, it’s not easy to determine the gender, age, and height.”

Yu Wenshu was a bit disappointed but then said, “The coal pieces on top, and the agglomerated micro-particles, have all been sent for extraction tests by the trace evidence lab, but so far, there are no results.”

He was actually somewhat hopeful that Jiang Yuan could contribute something beyond forensic science.

After all, most of Jiang Yuan’s displayed ability to solve cases actually came from outside the realm of forensic science.

Jiang Yuan roughly guessed Yu Wenshu’s feelings but didn’t make any noise or show any acknowledgment.

Solving a case is different from many other tasks—it’s not something that can definitely be achieved just by following the expectations of the leadership or proceeding according to most people’s imaginations.

The kind of detective who thinks, “I have an idea, I just need a ‘CSI Team’,” is still far from actually solving the case.

“Forensic Doctor Zhang’s report was actually quite detailed.

The 5th, 6th, and 7th specimens all exhibited a trabecular bone structure surrounded by a ring of dense bone, with both the top and bottom surfaces relatively flat.

The edges appeared slightly raised compared to the middle, leading to the judgement that they are all fragments of vertebrae.

Among them, the 6th vertebra had a damaged transverse foramen on the posterior lateral side, indicating a cervical vertebra, with signs of lip-like rim proliferation…”

Jiang Yuan commented, then added, “Looking at this vertebra, that’s about all you can discern—the victim had cervical spondylosis, and it was somewhat serious…

Unfortunately, it’s not enough for screening purposes.”

These days, who doesn’t have some sort of cervical spondylosis?

However, the extent of proliferation at least suggests that the individual was of a fairly advanced age.

Wan Baoming then suggested, “Maybe we could start with an age range beginning at 30 years old?”

“That won’t do,” Yu Wenshu decisively rejected the idea.

“I’m not afraid of broadening the scope of our search, what I’m most afraid of is missing something.”

Jiang Yuan asked, “What kind of search is being carried out now?”

“One is for missing persons, and the other is checking incinerators—both without results,” Yu Wenshu sighed.

“We can’t even confirm the identity of the victim yet.”

If the identity of the victim could be confirmed, perhaps the case could be cracked through the victim’s social relationships, just like the recently solved Case 513.

If the special task force at the time hadn’t been misled by what was highly suspected to be a pattern of random killings and had changed their investigation direction, they might actually have unearthed the perpetrator through the social connections of the deceased.

Of course, either method would be extremely difficult.

The current case was no different, with only a few bone fragments to go by.

Trying to find the killer was almost certain to be like finding a needle in a haystack.

What Yu Wenshu was asking for was, in fact, just to determine the extent of that haystack.

It was possible to expand the search area, but it had to be within the limits of what human effort could achieve.

Moreover, it had to be within the limits that the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment’s resources could support.

“I need a few days to conduct a thorough study.

I can’t give a conclusion right now,” Jiang Yuan offered, which somewhat surprised Yu Wenshu.

“Uh…

Just for these few bone fragments, you need several days of study?” Yu Wenshu was somewhat hesitant.

Previously, forensic doctor Zhang Fengtian had actually only taken a day or two to review the same material.

If you look at something for too long, could you really see any more details?

Jiang Yuan countered, “Exactly because there are so few bone fragments, the information they can provide is limited, and most of the conclusions have actually already been made by Dr.

Zhang.

The key now lies in how to decipher the minute information so as to provide more clues…”

Yu Wenshu nodded in understanding, Jiang Yuan’s approach did seem quite clear-cut.

Jiang Yuan continued, “With vertebrae and sternum, in theory, it should be possible to determine age and height, and probably gender as well.

But these bones are burned so severely that the shrinkage rate is unknown, preventing Dr.

Zhang from making any deductions.”

Jiang Yuan looked at Yu Wenshu and explained, “After bones are burned, they shrink.

How much they shrink is the issue of shrinkage rate.

Currently, very few people have researched this.

There’s a foreigner named Herman who has done some work on it, stating that the shrinkage rate of burned bones is between 8% to 14%.

But he likely only tested up to 700 degrees Celsius, higher temperatures were not investigated by him, nor by anyone else.”

“With the shrinkage rate, the original size of the fresh bones can be calculated.

Then you can infer height, age, and gender.

But it’s not very accurate.

Ideally, you would create regression equations directly from the burned bones…”

Jiang Yuan’s voice trailed off slightly.

This task was going to be quite tedious.

Yu Wenshu was a bit stunned listening, “So, what do we do?”

“Can you get access to a body?

The kind for experiments?” Jiang Yuan inquired.

Yu Wenshu threw up his hands, “Even if I haven’t applied before, such a research project would take a very long time, won’t it?”

“That’s true,” Jiang Yuan sighed and asked, “Should I make an estimate?”

“An estimate?”

“I can calculate an estimated value, but it’s not reliable.

Whether to use it or not, you can decide for yourself,” Jiang Yuan said.

He already had a nearly accurate estimation from the system, but this kind of research was indeed scarce both domestically and internationally, and the estimated values varied.

Whether to adopt one or dismiss another was problematic.

That’s also why forensic anthropology is so difficult—it reaches a divergence at only LV3.

In other words, when it comes to this skill alone, forensic doctors around the world aren’t advancing and developing it to a high standard.

As the conversation reached this point, the several dozen people in the meeting room could sense that Jiang Yuan had some ideas but was not confident, which carried risks.

And these uncertainties and risks weren’t just about solving the case or the funding; they would also involve the manpower deployed for the search.

It was a big responsibility for Jiang Yuan to have potentially hundreds or even thousands of people run around based on his estimate, only to find out later that it was incorrect.

At the very least, Yu Wenshu needed to make the final decision.

Having understood, Yu Wenshu pondered briefly and then decisively said, “Alright.

Go ahead and make the estimate.

At this point, we might as well grasp at straws.

What’s your conclusion?”

“I’ll have it for you as early as tomorrow.

I’ll let you know once I’ve done the calculations,” Jiang Yuan said, then gathered the evidence boxes and took a laptop to a corner of the room.