National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 609 - 554: Returning Home

Chapter 609: Chapter 554: Returning Home

"No cooing... no bubbling..."

The birds outside the window sang in a very orderly manner, and the air seemed to have a sweet taste. The Devil’s Ivy by the bed was like waking from a dream, its leaves a shiny green, as if trembling slightly.

Jiang Yuan slept until he naturally woke up, curled up in his blanket, not wanting to get out of bed for a while.

It wasn’t until the bird calls stopped that Jiang Yuan lazily got up and went downstairs for breakfast.

Breakfast was still the aromatic beef soup.

The chef recognized Jiang Yuan and was even more cordial, making it all the more regrettable.

"Over here." Huang Qiangmin had arrived a bit earlier and waved to Jiang Yuan when he saw him.

"Director Huang," Jiang Yuan said as he sat down with his soup.

"I’m heading back today," Huang Qiangmin said cheerfully. "The motor pool needs to be taken back; leaving it here just doesn’t feel right. I’ll also take the opportunity to deal with recent work."

Huang Qiangmin specifically explained his schedule to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan wished him a smooth journey and then asked, "So, I’ll just continue working on cases in Luo Jin City?"

"Sure, it’s up to you. Anyway, now it’s one case at a time. Just give me a heads up in advance," Huang Qiangmin said with a chuckle.

The package deal had been favorable, but there was no need for it now.

Huang Qiangmin had seen many police bureaus and after working under Jiang Yuan’s leadership, he would always remember the experience.

Quick and accurate case solving, a large amount of objective evidence, a tight chain of evidence, and a no-nonsense style were all advantages in Jiang Yuan’s criminal investigations.

In the current environment, only Jiang Yuan had the luxury of choosing his team; there was no need to worry about not being valued.

"However... the case of the chef from Hai Di Lao here hasn’t yielded any results yet; are you starting a new case?" Huang Qiangmin was still somewhat worried.

His concern was not that the case couldn’t be solved, but that Jiang Yuan would face increasing pressure during the investigation.

The previous day’s investigation had been all thunder and no rain, with suspects brought in for questioning virtually cleared of suspicion, bringing the case to a self-doubting phase.

Logically speaking, the first day of investigation is the most hopeful for yielding results. If not a single clue is found on the first day, the subsequent days will be even more difficult.

After drinking half a bowl of beef soup, Jiang Yuan casually reminisced about the photos of the crime scene and the site he had seen in person—the bloodstains had been cleaned, and the rental apartment was once again fully occupied, including the single room where someone had died, now inhabited by a vigorous young man—no matter how one looked at it, the likelihood of an acquaintance committing the crime was very high.

"Currently, with no other clues or evidence, persisting in the investigation seems to be the most reasonable plan," Jiang Yuan shook his head.

There should be no easy case for a homicide cold case.

This logic, it’s presumed, was understood by everyone at the Luo Jin City Bureau. However, understanding is one thing, but the real effort to be put into reality is another.

Applied to everyone’s work and study—if one reads and studies tirelessly every day, continually increasing the pressure and investment, then you’re told there will be a payoff in the end, but every test yields no improvement in scores or rankings, how many people can keep it up?

Fanatics are forever, "Forever Air Force, forever in love" only with anglers. Ordinary people still need feedback.

"If you start a new case, Luo Jin City has to do the investigation, and they don’t have people to spare for you," Huang Qiangmin’s main concern was this.

Jiang Yuan had of course considered this and said, "Initially, not many people are needed for the investigation. If more manpower is required later, I am thinking of transferring people from the Cold Case Squad."

His Cold Case Squad’s staff were also mostly on loan; they were currently spread out working on various cases, essentially wrapping up previous cases—a case solving is just the precursor part for a case—just organizing the files is enough to annoy anyone. From submitting evidence to the prosecution phase, cooperation is always needed.

The most critical point is that many of Jiang Yuan’s cases are death penalty ones, and these suspects almost always opt for an appeal, even if just to delay the process.

From the appeal to the death penalty review, there are both easy and immensely frustrating cases.

But no matter what, criminal police’s main job is still to solve cases, and even more so for the policemen on Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team.

Huang Qiangmin didn’t mind at all, nodded, and said, "As long as you can use it, that’s fine. Let me know if there’s any new development in the case. The same goes for Luo Jin City. Don’t agree to any other conditions with them. The central ministry has enough cases as it is. There’s no need to stay too long in Luo Jin. They’re about to run out of steam."

The resources of a police station are limited, and no bureau can keep solving murder cases non-stop. Moreover, solving cases requires the support of various departments. In the current environment, relying on the criminal police team to work alone is definitely unfeasible.

Jiang Yuan is a technician, which ultimately means he utilizes resources heavily. Especially with trace evidence like this, it’s something you wouldn’t even consider in the old Ningtai County Bureau. Even if you take it to a provincial capital city like Changyang City or Luo Jin City, it wouldn’t be very easy.

Jiang Yuan is now working on three major cases for Luo Jin City, and the Luojin City Bureau is also under pressure.

After eating two bowls of beef soup, Jiang Yuan went downstairs to send Huang Qiangmin to his car, watching as a line of more than a dozen vehicles left in procession.

This time, the leaders of the Luojin City Bureau did not see him off, pretending not to know about Huang Qiangmin’s departure.

Huang Qiangmin himself did not care about these formalities, as he was definitely going to return after transporting the supplies, considering it only a temporary leave.

Jiang Yuan called Pang Jidong before getting into his car to head to the funeral parlor.

Case 913, a drowning case.

This was a murder case Jiang Yuan had chosen for Pang Jidong.

Drowning can be said to be the most widespread and common application of forensic botany.

Because drowning is always accompanied by fluid in the victim’s lungs. This fluid contains not only plankton but also algae.

Sometimes, even simple contact with water can contaminate with algae components. Even at a wet crime scene, such as a pond or swimming pool, various types of algae are present.

All of these can be used as evidence.

Solving cases through algal evidence has been applied for many years in modern criminal investigation and is an early application of forensic botany. To Jiang Yuan, it felt very suitable to educate Pang Jidong as an introduction.

When they arrived at the funeral parlor, the first task was to examine the lung samples left previously.

The previous forensic doctor had done an excellent job, not only analyzing stomach contents and lung tissue but also taking samples from the bone marrow.

This was quite a professional approach. Because if a victim dies from drowning, they would usually inhale or swallow a lot of water violently, and natural water bodies inevitably contain diatoms. Diatoms are smaller than typical algae and can enter all organs of the body, including the bone marrow, along with the bloodstream.

Furthermore, if the victim is already dead and the heart has stopped beating, diatoms will not be transported to the organs. Therefore, you will not find diatoms in the internal organs, or you might find only a very small amount. The latter is due to the presence of diatomaceous earth, resulting in some toothpaste, metal polishing, or other environmental contacts with diatoms.

In short, if a large number of diatoms are found in the internal organs, the victim undoubtedly died from drowning. Due to the high insularity of bone marrow, its evidentiary power is the strongest, and it eliminates the issue of diatomaceous earth.

It means that if there are diatoms in the bone marrow, the person died from drowning – this is the gold standard of forensic evidence for drowning.

Not only that, the diatom community in the bone marrow and the diatom community of the water body where drowning occurred also match. They are slightly fewer in number, but the main species are essentially consistent.

Yes, just like pollen maps, algae don’t operate in isolation. A single algal species is hard to prove anything, but algal communities or diatom communities have a higher level of evidentiary power.

"Very good, very good," Jiang Yuan said, looking at the container of algal evidence with great satisfaction.

The label on the bottle recorded the case number, the victim’s name, the date and place of the sample collection, and other information about the evidence.

"Typical forensic doctors wouldn’t go to such trouble," Jiang Yuan remarked, pointing to the bottle containing the algae extracted from the bone marrow.

"I’m quite interested in forensic botany too," Lu Jie, the forensic doctor from Luo Jin City, quickly replied.

It was because he knew a bit about it that he was more attentive to Jiang Yuan.

"It’s not easy to extract diatoms from bone marrow, is it?" Jiang Yuan asked with a smile.

"Yeah, it’s dissolved out with strong acid, and it’s pretty dangerous," Lu Jie also responded with a nod and a smile.

Pang Jidong, seeing everyone laughing and in good spirits, couldn’t help but join in with a laugh and asked, "Does this mean the case will be easier to handle?"

"Of course not," Jiang Yuan still smiling, said, "The previous evidence was very thorough, which indicates that it was hard to solve the case with the existing evidence. And since the evidence was collected well, it means that finding new evidence won’t be easy."