National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 620 - 564: Time of Death

Chapter 620: Chapter 564: Time of Death

Knock knock.

In the early morning, two police officers, led by a staff member of the Qingtong Factory, knocked on the door of the experts’ building.

"Director Yang, two officers would like to ask about the details of a past case," the staff member introduced.

Director Yang had retired almost ten years ago, but he still dressed as though he was going to work, wearing a shirt that was neatly ironed with the sleeves rolled up to reveal the metal watch on his wrist.

Holding a rolled-up newspaper, he gently tapped it on his other hand and said, "Then come in."

The two officers looked at each other, apologized, and then entered.

The factory worker smiled and said, "I’ll wait outside," and didn’t enter.

Director Yang’s living room still had the style of the old era, with a large, plush leather sofa, a wide-screen television, and a low coffee table set between the sofa and the TV...

"Would you like some tea?" Director Yang asked.

"No, thank you," the police officers declined with a wave of the hand, then continued, "Director Yang, we are here to investigate the Jingyang Line triple murder case. On April 18th and 19th of that year, do you remember anything that can help us?"

"It’s been nearly 20 years, how can I remember what I did that day?" Director Yang shook his head in response and asked, "Do you remember what you did that day?"

"I was still in elementary school then," the leading officer laughed.

Taken aback, Director Yang sighed deeply, "Time really flies."

"Director Yang, is your wife here? We have a few questions, it would be better to ask you separately," they proposed.

"Oh, she’s at my son’s place, looking after my grandson," Director Yang shook his head, asking, "What does this have to do with her anyway?"

"We suspect that the couple who was walking nearby at that time were you and your wife. We wanted to ask both of you," the police officer said, hinting at their reasoning, seeing that Director Yang was not very cooperative.

Compared to assessing a single person, it’s relatively easier to match the age, height, and gender of two people and find them on various lists.

Jiang Yuan didn’t just have the records of several factory personnel and most of their families; he also referred to the transcripts from previous investigations.

The triple murder case was too complex and wide in scope. The previous investigators had made thousands of transcripts with over ten thousand names listed. Jiang Yuan used footprints to screen and narrow down the list, and then the Bald Strike Team, along with the Qingbai City Bureau, brought over about twenty or so people for comparison. Finally, they went door-to-door.

Director Yang, unaware of the machinations behind the scenes, was stunned for a moment, "My wife and I took a walk together, how would you know that? There were no cameras back then."

"So it was indeed you and your wife who took the walk together, right?" the officer smiled, still not disclosing the source of their information.

After deep thought, Director Yang asked, "Is someone accusing me?"

The officers chuckled at his guess but still did not reveal the reason, simply asking, "Can you confirm which day you went for a walk outside?"

"I’ve already told you I can’t remember clearly, you go first, then I’ll try to recall," he replied.

"Director Yang, the day of the incident, there was a fatal train track accident, the Jingyang Line triple murder case. How could you not remember?" the police officer reminded him.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Director Yang grew serious, pondered his words, and said, "I wasn’t trying to hide anything, but... there’s nothing wrong with saying it now. My wife and I did indeed pass through the area where the incident occurred. However, we passed by in the afternoon, which does not coincide with the time when the victims were found at night."

"What were you doing at the time?" the officer asked.

"I knew it..." Director Yang said: "Back then, my wife and I opened a small retail space secretly in the nearby market. It wasn’t illegal, we just didn’t want people to know. That afternoon, we were going to check on the store and collect some of the day’s earnings."

The two officers fell silent for a moment, as this was a new development for them.

However, this result was not bad; new information and leads were always better than none.

Regaining their focus, the two proceeded with their questioning.

...

Series of interview reports accumulated in this manner, eventually making their way back to the office at Qingbai City Bureau.

The City Bureau had specially cleared out a large office, which still appeared quite crammed.

Despite this, the officers’ enthusiasm was steadily growing.

"There really are some new leads," they noted.

"Things that were difficult to discuss 20 years ago are now coming to light."

"The key is, I didn’t expect we could actually use footprints to find someone," they realized.

"That’s Ningtai Jiang Yuan’s trademark move," they acknowledged.

In the small office next door, Zhang Shizhong was similarly invigorated. He had transferred from a criminal detective to a cybercop several years ago, but as he reminisced, it was clear that the stories from his time as a detective were more thrilling.

"There might really be a chance," Zhang Shizhong murmured, feeling a surge of confidence as he listened to the report below.

He had not expected that Jiang Yuan could locate a pedestrian from 20 years ago who had never been found.

Although it was not yet a breakthrough in the case and there was no direct evidence pointing to the murderer, this start was still quite astonishing.

"Captain Jiang is back," a chatting officer reminded him.

Zhang Shizhong looked out the window and saw Jiang Yuan getting out of the car accompanied not only by Huang Qiangmin but also a senior police officer in plain clothes.

Before long, Jiang Yuan led them up.

"Let me introduce you, this is Senior Inspector Liu Jinghui," Jiang Yuan stepped aside to make room.

Zhang Shizhong immediately remembered and said eagerly, "Director Liu, I know of you. We often hear about the cases you’ve solved; they’re even used as study materials for us."

Liu Jinghui, listening to the familiar small talk, smiled and said, "If we’re talking about achievements, Jiang Yuan is right here. How’s the case progressing?"

"It’s going according to plan," said Jiang Yuan, who had already briefed Liu Jinghui about his "little-by-little" plan during the ride.

"Alright, I’ll review the case files first," said Liu Jinghui, who naturally didn’t have a clue either and decided to read the materials first.

Jiang Yuan thus set Liu Jinghui free to review the case on his own and began to ponder which pawn to push today.

Jiang Yuan’s choice was...

Time of Death Identification Level 6.

A Level 6 identification of the time of death was already quite excessive, and with an additional temporary skill boost of +1, without the need for advanced mathematical skills, one could tell that this was Level 7.

To be honest, Jiang Yuan hadn’t really experienced Level 7 skills before.

Seeing that there was no task to push a pawn today, Jiang Yuan left Liu Jinghui to his work, activated the skill, and started examining photos.

This time, he was looking at the photos of the corpse from the second case.

The first and third victims in the triple corpse case had been alive when struck dead. Only the victim in the second case was dead when hit.

A victim already deceased meant that they had been killed before, and the time of death became a key point.

However, unlike a standard corpse, the second victim had been shattered by a train while already dead, which made determining the time of death very challenging.

The reports Jiang Yuan saw indicated a time of death range spanning 20 hours, pretty much just short of writing "in the past two days" inside.

Even with a Level 7 assessment of time of death, Jiang Yuan did not feel it was going to be particularly easy.

This was purely difficult territory.

Actually, if the time since death had been a bit longer, say a week or more, the requirements for pinpointing the time of death would have been lower, making a 20-hour span or even a two-day timeframe not too excessive.

But the issue was that the corpse hadn’t been dead for very long, which significantly increased the difficulty of the assessment.

Jiang Yuan took out the photos one by one, flipping through them over and over.

In the photos, there was the shattered skull of the corpse, intestines scattered over the ballast, ghastly white bone fragments, and peeled-back skin...

Jiang Yuan inspected them with extreme attention to detail.

When the second body was discovered, the triple corpse case had yet to be identified, and the remains were eventually cremated, leaving only photos to examine.

Of course, even if the bodies had been preserved until now, they would not have been of much use. At most, only the bones would have been available for inspection.

And back in those days, forensic doctors who kept bones were few.

"How’s it going?"

After an indeterminate amount of time, a weary Liu Jinghui from reading files came over.

"Died 6 to 8 hours before," Jiang Yuan put down the photos and said. "It’s hard to get any closer than that."

Liu Jinghui raised an eyebrow. "That’s already quite accurate, but the difference between dying 6 to 8 hours ago and about a day ago is substantial," he remarked.

"How so?"

"Transporting a body weighing around 100 pounds onto the railroad tracks isn’t easy. If the victim was killed only six or seven hours earlier, it means the murderer would have had to start disposing of the body immediately, that kind of psychological state... the method for disposing of the body would also be difficult to handle..." Liu Jinghui stroked his chin, deep in thought.