National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 418 - 418 385 Changes

418: Chapter 385 Changes 418: Chapter 385 Changes Dinner time.

In the office of Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad, smoke curled in the air, and only a few crabapple flowers bloomed recklessly, exuding a somewhat cheap fragrance.

Everyone was silently flipping through case files.

The files had been delivered that afternoon, and since then, no one had entered or left the office.

The core of cracking cold cases lay in examining the case files.

If one couldn’t understand the files, there was no talking about solving cold cases.

Take the current case for example: no crime scene, no eyewitnesses, the bodies were all decomposed, and the identity of the second victim couldn’t even be found, let alone the rest of the body beyond the arms…

It was indeed tough for Luyang City’s Criminal Police team, and no blame could be placed on them.

Under such conditions, Luyang City’s Criminal Police team had actually identified several leads to follow.

If not, they would have already given up.

Unfortunately, the leads did not lead to a breakthrough and were always cut short after a short distance.

In fact, any clue that doesn’t directly lead to the truth has this problem.

It’s normal for a trail to go cold, but such clues are the most taxing in terms of manpower and resources.

Luyang City’s Criminal Police team was dragged down by the National Highway 805 body-dumping case for almost two and a half years, with at least two or three months of full commitment, but they were not able to solve it.

Liu Jinghui, who’d spent years on the outside, felt a pang of pain after reviewing all the case files.

He couldn’t help but sigh, “Luyang has really lost out on this one.

Your Chief Chai must have escaped from the mess, right?”

Meng Chengbiao, who had experienced similar situations, still smiled and said, “Escaped might be a bit much.

He wasn’t in charge of criminal investigations before, but it’s certain that Luyang hasn’t achieved any results in the past few years.”

“No wonder,” Wang Chuanxing and others shook their heads.

They were all out to carve their careers, and not achieving results was something intolerable.

“Does anyone have any thoughts?” Jiang Yuan had already finished reviewing the files and, seeing that everyone was about to start chitchatting, decided to initiate a discussion.

Everyone looked at each other, and it was Liu Jinghui who said, “Shall I throw out a stone to attract jade?”

“Go ahead,” Jiang Yuan nodded.

“Let me ask first, are the wounds on the two bodies inflicted by the same knife?

Is this conclusion correct?” Liu Jinghui looked towards Jiang Yuan.

This was within the realm of Forensic Clinical Medicine, and the previous Medical Examiner Zhai was a forensic doctor from the provincial department.

Liu Jinghui was very familiar with him, but based on current experience, Liu Jinghui trusted Jiang Yuan’s judgment more.

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly and said, “From the photos, the tool used to sever the arms of the second body, as well as the one that killed the first victim, is likely a knife that is very thin at the front and thicker towards the back, and the increase in thickness is not very even.

It can be determined that it is the same murder weapon.”

“If that’s the case,” Liu Jinghui said seriously, “it means the killer used the same knife to kill two people over the span of a year, without discarding it in between.

This is something worth pondering.”

Including Jiang Yuan, everyone had expressions of waiting, showing no intention to think it over.

Liu Jinghui took a sip of tea, giving it some time, before continuing, “If you ask me, there are some reasons I could think of, let me share them.

First, this murder weapon might have additional value, such as being a family heirloom or a cherished belonging of the killer, perhaps even an antique.

Second, the second victim might have been at the first crime scene of the first victim, or picked up the murder weapon, leading to their own death.”

Jiang Yuan’s eyebrows twitched as he said, “You’re suggesting that it’s possible the killer isn’t one person, but that two people used the same murder weapon?”

“It’s just a possibility.

Can you determine if the person wielding the knife is the same?” Liu Jinghui asked Jiang Yuan expectantly.

“I cannot make that judgment with the current status,” even with a Level 6 tool mark identification and Level 3 in Forensic Clinical Medicine, Jiang Yuan couldn’t determine whether the same person was the perpetrator on the nearly decomposed bodies, mainly because the perpetrator’s method had no distinctive characteristics and there was too little information.

Liu Jinghui nodded and continued, “In that case, the third possibility becomes more likely, that the killer may not care much about being found out or may not worry about the murder weapon being discovered, or perhaps they needed to use this murder weapon frequently, which is why they did not replace it.”

“Isn’t ‘not worrying about the murder weapon being found’ and ‘frequently needing to use the murder weapon’ supposed to represent two different possibilities?” Jiang Yuan asked.

Liu Jinghui’s eyes blinked as he said, “It’s also possible that he frequently needs to use the murder weapon, so much so that he can’t worry enough about it.”

Jiang Yuan fell silent for a moment, finally grasping the hint that Liu Jinghui had implied.

The police officers present all understood as well.

Meng Chengbiao, growing impatient with their cryptic conversation, asked, “Does that mean there are more bodies?

That the killer didn’t just murder one person?”

“What do you think?” Liu Jinghui countered.

“That’s a pretty bold idea.” Meng Chengbiao didn’t directly answer, picking up a cigarette from the table, placing it in his mouth, and began to ponder.

Liu Jinghui continued, “It’s just a theory, and whether it can be verified remains to be seen.

However, since the murderer has killed two people already, the second of whom was dismembered leaving only an arm, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be two more victims.”

Tang Jia asked, “Then how do we find the other bodies?”

“No idea, both bodies were found by chance,” Liu Jinghui replied.

“The first body was dug up alongside National Highway 805 during construction, and the scene was severely disturbed.

The second body, or rather, the arm, was wrestled from a stray dog by a passerby…

Actually, both bodies appearing near the highway is quite peculiar as well.”

Pausing briefly, Liu Jinghui added, “The occupation of the first body, deceased Li Yuan, was also quite unique.

She had a history of prostitution and, at the time of her disappearance, there was a high probability she was still engaged in the business.

This is a high-risk community.”

Liu Jinghui didn’t explicitly say ‘serial killer’, but that was essentially what he was getting at.

Of course, domestically this term isn’t favored, and descriptors such as ‘serial murderer’ are easier for people to understand.

“Captain Jiang, I’ve said all that I needed to,” said Liu Jinghui.

His words were speculative, but if they followed his analysis in the investigation, there was a chance of making progress.

Especially if his idea about additional bodies was to be believed, because once verified, it would surely yield a wealth of information.

Of course, there was still a possibility that they would come up empty-handed.

Jiang Yuan gave an “Mm” in acknowledgment.

After all, for Liu Jinghui to propose a new and valuable investigative direction simply by examining the files was no small feat.

When it came to deductive reasoning, Jiang Yuan was no match for Liu Jinghui.

After his brief reflection, Jiang Yuan said, “I won’t comment on the information we can all see in the files, but there’s one detail I believe needs correction.

This concerns the time of death for victim number one, which I think should be modified.”

“How so?” Liu Jinghui and the others were instantly intrigued.

If the time of death was amended, then the direction and content of the investigation in Luyang City would naturally change.

At present, change was definitely a good thing.

If they continued following the evidence provided by Luyang City, the chances of solving the case would significantly decrease.

Jiang Yuan was employing Level 6 death time estimation.

He pulled out a few photos, pointed at the maggots depicted, and said, “I think the time of death could be pushed back by two months, making it around four months rather than Luyang’s assessment of six months.”

Liu Jinghui quickly grabbed the file and started looking through it again.