National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 608 - 553: Life’s Reactions

Chapter 608: Chapter 553: Life’s Reactions

"Hmm... the cook from Haidilao, I remember that,"

"This case wasn’t solved, and my family booked a meal at Haidilao, I was too embarrassed to go,"

"Me too, later I found out that the staff there had all been replaced, many quit, their turnover rate was much higher than at other branches,"

"Isn’t it... Jiang Yuan just got back, right? Has the case been solved?"

"Almost, Pang Jidong brought back a group of people for questioning,"

A few detectives sat in the office, chatting with great enthusiasm. They might not be familiar with every homicide case at the bureau, but if there were unresolved homicide cases, they had at least heard of them.

Because when a homicide case was about to become a cold case, it would mean that the situation had grown desperate. At that time, many detective teams would be pulled in, and naturally, they would become aware of relevant information.

Furthermore, compared to the already scarce number of homicide cases, unresolved cases were even fewer. In recent years, the officers of the bureau had, more or less, some understanding of the unsolved homicide cases.

And such cases being solved naturally led to discussion.

In fact, looking at various police bureaus, if not for actions organized by ministries and provincial departments, solving cold cases on their own had a certain uniqueness and element of chance.

The most common scenario was when the crime suspects committed other crimes and were subsequently caught. Cooler than that was when a certain detective stuck with a case and finally waited for clues, leading to its resolution.

Solving cold cases through actions organized by higher authorities, part of it was the benefit of resource integration, another part was simply throwing more resources at the problem.

Starting from scratch to solve cold cases within one’s own jurisdiction was exceedingly rare.

Instead, there were a few cases like Jiang Yuan’s, where colleagues from other police departments, for some reason or other, incidentally solved cases from this locale.

Of course, from any perspective, Jiang Yuan’s ability to solve cases far exceeded the normal level, to the point where it made the discussions among the ordinary detectives seem even more calm and measured.

"Let’s go, it’s time to set off," a team leader who had just returned from a meeting waved his hand, summoning his subordinates.

"The Haidilao cook case?"

The detectives had already discussed all the gossip in the office, and they immediately guessed it right.

The team leader grunted in affirmation and said, "The list of names has doubled. We’ve been assigned more than 20 people to handle it more carefully. Director Xu said, past oversights are to be forgiven. But this time, if anyone lets a suspect slip through again, they’ll have their hide peeled, their bones ground to dust, and that dust sprinkled in their eyes."

"Understood," the detectives felt no stir in their hearts. It was just a threat, not the first they’d encountered.

However, if there had been issues with the previous screening, they indeed had to be extra careful this time.

So someone asked, "The direction of the investigation hasn’t changed, Jiang Yuan also thinks it was someone known to the victim?"

"Right."

"But we’ve already checked twice following a familiar perpetrator theory, the likelihood of a suspect slipping through is really low."

"That’s why Director Xu also said, past oversights are forgiven, provided they weren’t intentional. But this time, we have to be on guard."

"Is it really a case of the skilled being bold?"

The team leader hummed twice and said, "He used Bloodstain Analysis to reconstruct the scene, demonstrated it to the leaders. I’ve seen it, it’s flawless. I believe the most likely scenario is that it was done by someone familiar."

A few detectives furrowed their brows.

Omissions during screening weren’t too rare; even the culprit in the Baiyin case slipped through the police’s vigilant screening several times.

But there was always a reason for someone slipping through, and it indicated that the perpetrator certainly had some tricks up their sleeve, which necessitated further consideration.

The morgue.

Jiang Yuan, alongside a Luo Jin City forensic doctor, pulled the body out of the ice coffin.

He wasn’t planning on performing an autopsy, so he didn’t request for the body to be defrosted in advance, focusing primarily on inspecting the body surface.

The cause of death of the victim was quite clear, and no abnormalities were found during the first autopsy, so there was no need for Jiang Yuan to perform a second autopsy.

Autopsies are destructive examinations and are not meant to be conducted excessively. A typical case was the four autopsies of a woman surnamed Huang, were, due to various demands by relatives, the fourth autopsy conducted by a ministry forensic doctor revealed only a half-decayed body, naturally yielding no further results.

Jiang Yuan also focused on examining the wounds, measured them with a ruler, and cross-referenced the autopsy report once more, saying, "The murderer should be a male, not weak, with a height between 170 to 180 centimeters."

This was determined by the angle of the chopping motions. When it comes to something as crucial as chopping someone, people generally don’t jump up to do it, nor do they squat down, so height can be inferred from the angle of attack.

However, since the murder weapon hasn’t been found yet, its length could only be estimated, and as a result, the range of possible heights was quite broad.

Jiang Yuan’s estimation was already relatively clear.

However, the height range provided by the murderer wasn’t very helpful, a male between 170 cm to 180 cm—such a height measurement was almost useless for narrowing down the population.

The forensic doctor from Luo Jin City stood obediently to the side, not at all disrespectful due to Jiang Yuan’s seemingly pointless assessment.

Legal Botany, eh? Barely any serious forensic doctors work in that field. From another perspective, if someone has reached that level of expertise, is there any wall left in the world of forensic science? Jiang Yuan’s head could shatter that wall upon impact.

"The victim was likely killed by the first axe strike." Jiang Yuan examined the wound again, swinging his arms twice in the air, and said, "The angle of the chop, with no blood splatter on the body, also suggests they knew how to handle an axe."

If the murderer had been splattered with blood, the blood spatter on the walls would be incomplete.

The forensic doctor from Luo Jin City nodded in agreement.

"Looking at it this way, there was a certain interval of time between the first and second axe strikes, and the murderer’s emotions were probably not particularly agitated," Jiang Yuan carefully examined the wounds and provided the most valuable judgment of the day.

Part of his judgment was based on Bloodstain Analysis.

The forensic doctor from Luo Jin City did not have this expertise and could only listen.

"There’s only the first axe’s blood spatter on the wall; I used to think there might be a difference with the location of the second axe strike, but now it seems there’s no problem," said Jiang Yuan, and the forensic doctor from Luo Jin City immediately understood.

It was just like the story of the Three Kingdoms murder Jiang Yuan told Pang Jidong: the presence of blood spatter indicated that the victim was alive when they were struck. In professional forensic terms, this is called a vital reaction.

When the second axe hit, the victim had no vital reaction. There are two possibilities for this: either the strike was off-target, missing the major blood vessels, or time had passed, and the victim’s heart and internal organs had stopped functioning, eliminating any vital reaction.

Jiang Yuan’s assessment was that time had passed.

In that case, the murderer paused for a very short time after the first axe strike before delivering the second, the third...

A murderer killing in the heat of passion generally wouldn’t act like this.

A typical crime of passion murderer is like the madmen seen on the streets, wielding a knife frantically. Normal people in their right minds do not commit murder; only those who have completely lost their sanity in rage will do so.

Therefore, the murderer in a crime of passion should be haphazardly hacking away with the axe.

In this case, however, the perpetrator paused for the duration it took for the vital reaction to cease, that is until the person was completely dead, before swinging the second axe.

What was the murderer doing during this time?

Either observing or talking.

It’s not like they would throw an axe and then pull out a phone to start reading a novel.

"Could there be resentment or a financial dispute between the murderer and the victim?" pondered the forensic doctor.

Jiang Yuan nodded.

The forensic doctor from Luo Jin City frowned and said, "But we’ve checked their acquaintances twice; if there was any resentment or financial dispute, how could it not be found?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head, uninterested in speculating without concrete evidence.

"Alright. Push the body back," said Jiang Yuan, seeing that the victim had no further information to leave behind, only allowing for its return to the morgue.

Driven back by Mu Zhiyang, the yard of the Luojin City Criminal Police Detachment was now quiet.

Most of the detectives had already set out to carry out a search and inquiry operation.

After more than a year, many people on the list had left their original addresses. Some had even moved to different cities or returned to their hometowns.

Not only was it taxing to get in touch, but questioning them face-to-face was even more difficult.

If it were a minor case, the detectives might have just made a phone call, but for a murder cold case like this, phone inquiries were absolutely prohibited, and personnel had to be sent out to conduct the interviews.

At such times, the detective detachment was as empty as a company during holidays.

But Jiang Yuan didn’t seem too worried. He returned to the temporary office and called over Pang Jidong, ready to rally the troops, and said, "Captain Pang, while we conduct the search, why not work on another case during the wait?"

"Another chef case?" guessed Pang Jidong, trying to figure out Jiang Yuan’s mind.

Jiang Yuan smiled, "It doesn’t have to be a chef specifically. This case isn’t closed yet. For the new case, let’s prioritize finding someone in Legal Botany."

Pang Jidong felt a knot form in his stomach, "Aren’t you worried about the results of the search? Should we reconsider our investigative approach during this time?"

"It’ll turn out to be an inside job again, and if we really can’t find anything upon further search, I’ll introduce an expert to you," Jiang Yuan thought of Xu Taining and didn’t immediately mention it, so as not to face premature opposition from Luojin City Bureau.