National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 618 - 562 Outskirts

Chapter 618: Chapter 562 Outskirts

The next morning, Jiang Yuan continued to come to work, and when it was about time, he went to report to Huang Qiangmin’s office.

When he arrived, he found Wu Junhao was already sitting inside.

"What a coincidence," Jiang Yuan greeted with a smile.

"I specially waited for you," Wu Junhao wiped his bald head without disguise, "Lately, things are really a mess. I’m not good at pacifying people, yet I can’t avoid it."

Wu Junhao had the look of a straightforward, no-nonsense man, and his squad members had all been trained to adopt the same demeanor. When Huang Qiangmin was the squadron leader, all Wu Junhao needed to focus on was training and following orders. Even the skinniest rookies would become robust and bald after two years under Wu’s regime.

Back then, whenever someone felt a bit unhappy, they would just go to the gym and work it off with a clanging workout, which would clear their minds.

Therefore, when they were faced with problems that required a softer touch, all they got was Wu Junhao’s disingenuous consolation.

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Wu Junhao comforting people, but then he composed himself and said seriously, "I’m considering starting with the Jingyang Line triple murder case."

Huang Qiangmin and Wu Junhao both looked at Jiang Yuan and then at each other.

Huang Qiangmin cleared his throat twice before saying, "I mean finding an influential case would suffice, like the one we went to Luyang for before..."

"A case with provincial influence probably won’t affect Director Chai’s decision; at most, he’ll delay it," Jiang Yuan said, "We might as well handle a case that has national impact. Since they are all cold cases, it’s hard to say which one is tougher."

"The Jingyang Line triple murder case is one that’s been flagged by the ministry, with experts involved," Huang Qiangmin trusted Jiang Yuan immensely, but now, with his old subordinates in mind, he hoped for the highest success rate possible.

Of course, Huang Qiangmin’s reminder was just that—a reminder. He had long stopped interfering in Jiang Yuan’s choice of cases.

Jiang Yuan reaffirmed, "I think there is still room to work."

Huang Qiangmin then looked towards Wu Junhao.

"I’ll do whatever Captain Jiang says," Wu Junhao wasn’t one for showing off originality, and with Jiang Yuan taking the lead, he had no objections.

"All right then," Huang Qiangmin nodded and asked Jiang Yuan, "What do you need now?"

"Let’s start with reviewing the case files," Jiang Yuan said, the information he could see from the backend was too limited for a likely breakthrough.

Huang Qiangmin thought for a moment and suggested, "Cui Xiaohu would be a good choice, he has been wanting to work a case with you. If you say it’s the Jingyang Line triple murder case, he will definitely support you."

The Jingyang Line referred to the railway from Beijing to Changyang City. The three consecutive cases of people lying on the tracks immediately drew widespread attention as the crime scenes and jurisdictions changed, involving several units, none of which made a breakthrough, further amplifying the cases’ impact.

In the following twenty years, various provinces and ministries included this case in their clearance operation. The Shannan Provincial Department also participated, and as other cases were cleared, the "Jingyang Line triple murder case" garnered increasing attention.

Of course, its difficulty was also quite apparent.

Cui Xiaohu, hearing of Jiang Yuan’s interest in the triple murder case, flew over that very day.

They agreed to meet in Qingbai City, with Cui Xiaohu bringing Li Haochen and Jiang Yuan arriving with several cars of people.

"If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re about to make an arrest," Cui Xiaohu joked upon seeing so many people, which entailed no small expense.

Jiang Yuan laughed, then asked, "Have you sorted things out? Can I view the case files?"

Qingbai City was another prefecture-level city in Shannan Province, but it rarely interacted with Jiang Yuan and his team, who usually just passed through and occasionally came to Qingbai City to make arrests.

Of course, with Jiang Yuan’s reputation in the province, Qingbai City welcomed them warmly. But for certain official duties, Cui Xiaohu’s status was more useful.

Cui Xiaohu confidently nodded, then joined another convoy headed straight for the Qingbai City Criminal Police Squad.

Everyone did their networking and resting as necessary, while Jiang Yuan went straight to the archives, beginning to page through the case files one by one.

The so-called Jingyang Line triple murder case did not refer to three bodies found at once but rather to three bodies that appeared separately at different locations over time.

The first body was found 22 years before, with the killer’s methods being crude and obvious signs of restraint on the victim’s limbs. However, it didn’t attract much attention from the police at the time. The era of resolving all murder cases had not yet been proclaimed.

Soon, the second body appeared, and there was a significant change, with very little blood at the scene. This raised great caution among the crime scene investigators.

If one has never killed a person, they generally can’t appreciate the issue of the amount of blood shed by a living person compared to a dead one. This also puzzles many—wouldn’t there be a lot of blood at a dismemberment scene?

In fact, murder scenes can have lots of blood, but dismemberment scenes often do not.

The Jingyang Line triple-murder case can serve as proof—when a train struck and mangled the bodies, there was surprisingly little blood on the rails.

What drew the most attention from the police was the third victim.

The third victim appeared four months later at night; a night train plowed straight into it, scattering flesh and blood at the scene.

It indicated the victim was alive, and this time, the forensic doctor specifically conducted an examination, only to discover that the killer had used ether.

The three cases involved three different places and two different railway bureaus, along with the killer’s obvious escalation of crime. These factors resulted in the police devoting a considerable amount of effort to the case.

At that time, there was a serial killer in another province, who had murdered 64 people. Neither the Shannan Provincial Department nor the ministries wanted to make the same mistake and let another serial killer emerge. Therefore, when the three cases were consolidated, they caused a sensation.

The fact that they remained unsolved also had a sensational impact.

Other provinces had similar cases that appeared one after another, and all levels of departments went to great lengths to investigate and solve them—except for the Jingyang Line triple-murder case, which, despite two sensational waves of attention, remained unresolved.

Twice stirring a sensation naturally made the Jingyang Line triple-murder case stand out. Later, the case was reopened once more without results, only adding another layer of mystique.

"Are all the evidences here? Can I see them?" Jiang Yuan asked the evidence room officer.

After receiving an affirmative answer, Jiang Yuan went inside for a look.

The officer from the evidence room helped out and observed Jiang Yuan’s actions with some curiosity.

Such old and difficult cases, even with a low chance of successful challenge, still held significant allure.

Jiang Yuan looked through them for an entire afternoon.

After leaving the evidence room, Huang Qiangmin and Wu Junhao had been anxiously waiting.

"How is it?" Wu Junhao immediately stood up and asked as Jiang Yuan came out.

Jiang Yuan shook his head with a smile, "No clues."

"So..." Wu Junhao hesitated.

Jiang Yuan smiled, "You should have expected this before coming here. With such a notorious case, difficulty was certain."

"Yeah..." Wu Junhao, knowing he was being impatient, shook his head helplessly.

Huang Qiangmin looked at Jiang Yuan and nodded silently, noting that Jiang Yuan had already begun to show the makings of a great leader in such short time.

"Let’s go, get some food," Jiang Yuan said, pulling Wu Junhao out the door with him.

Wu Junhao obviously wasn’t very spirited, letting out a sigh and following Jiang Yuan. As they were about to leave, he said, "If it really doesn’t work out, we can stop bustling about. We’re no strangers to hardship. We can endure, and if all else fails, I’ll just transfer out."

"What if Director Chai won’t let you go?" scoffed Huang Qiangmin. It wasn’t just Wu Junhao getting pushed around. Offending the big boss and still hoping to transfer? That was wishful thinking.

Before Wu Junhao could say anything more, Jiang Yuan cleared his throat and said, "It hasn’t come to that yet. I’ve looked at the evidence in the case. There’s a lot of it. We’ll just have to grind it out slowly."

"How do we grind it out slowly?"

"Consistent effort is enough," Jiang Yuan thought, with the multitude of techniques in his mind, to start elevating the evidence level day by day. Surely they would find more evidence.

While pondering this, Jiang Yuan then gave an example, "I see they’ve found quite a bit of peripheral evidence. We can start by looking for eyewitnesses in the next few days. If we can’t find any, we’ll look for people who were around the area. There are plenty of methods, don’t rush."