National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 664 - 608 Slippers

Chapter 664: Chapter 608 Slippers

"It’s not easy to leave no footprints at a crime scene,"

Jiang Yuan flipped through the photos, speaking as if in casual conversation.

The attending officer nodded, "Exactly, which is why we’re speculating whether the killer wrapped something around their shoes, perhaps?"

He drew out his words, looking at Jiang Yuan as if seeking an answer.

Jiang Yuan looked at the photos and replied, "Doesn’t seem like it. There are no abnormal footprints either. If they used plastic bags or newspapers to wrap around the shoes, there would still be some trace of it on the ground."

"Oh... I see. Then Wang Zhong’s assessment wasn’t too off the mark," the officer chuckled, deciding to trust Wang Zhong’s judgment.

Liu Wenkai also recalled this case, saying, "When we investigated, this household only had signs of intrusion on the main door. No other entry or exit points were found at the scene. Besides the messy clothes in the room, the stolen items were mainly cash and jewelry. More expensive electronics, including computers and alcohol, weren’t taken, so at first, we even suspected an inside job."

"Indeed, was the one who called the police a teenager?" Jiang Yuan expressed agreement. Teenagers are exactly at the age where they challenge the world and authority—and the law itself is part of that world and authority.

Liu Wenkai nodded and said, "If it was done by the son of the Shen family, one should be able to trace the cash and the disposal of so much gold and silver jewelry... but no clues were found."

Jiang Yuan slowly nodded.

Even though the means of the police in ordinary cases are relatively limited, it all depends on whom you’re comparing with.

A mere student would have tremendous difficulty merely hiding that amount of money, not to mention laundering it. It’s hard to believe there wouldn’t be any whispers about it.

"So it goes to say, every crime is meticulously crafted by the perpetrator," Jiang Yuan mused, finding the case intriguing.

Liu Wenkai chuckled and nodded, "It’s like a woman; every woman has her gentle and cute side. An ordinary girl also has her unique beauty. Every hostess at a venue is different, regardless of whether it’s a low-price or high-end place."

Jiang Yuan looked up at Liu Wenkai and said, "Your translation of my words... somewhat twists them... Let’s focus on the case. We should double-check the situation of the person who reported the crime, see if anything has changed after half a year."

If it really was an inside job, the teenager’s spending in the past six months would have likely increased. Even if it didn’t show in daily life, checking his WeChat, shopping records, ticket purchases, and accommodation bookings should reveal something.

If not, then inside theft might not warrant much consideration.

Without needing instructions from Liu Wenkai, the officer in charge of the case acknowledged and went to check.

Jiang Yuan thus set this case aside to look at other cases.

Extraordinary conclusions require extraordinary evidence.

Inside theft is the most conventional judgment. Even if the previous officers had followed this lead, Jiang Yuan would still have to check again once it was in his hands. Because ruling out this conclusion meant that one had entered into an unconventional line of judgment.

This is also why big hospitals prefer patients to undergo tests again. When patients come to major hospitals, they often have already eliminated common ailments. To arrive at an unconventional diagnosis, one naturally needs more supporting evidence.

The officers brought other case files to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan felt that working on deduction was somewhat taxing, so he picked cases involving fingerprints to tackle first.

The comfortable thing about these cases is that other conditions had been sorted by others, allowing one to focus solely on the technical aspects.

The forensic technicians in Ningtai County were still Yan Ge and Wang Zhong, whose skills remained the same. Facing various minor cases, they weren’t necessarily able to match fingerprints...

Jiang Yuan chose to work on fingerprints with a difficulty of Level 1.5 and above.

Fingerprints below that level of difficulty could likely be processed by Yan Ge and Wang Zhong, so Jiang Yuan didn’t spend much time researching them.

With two cases involving over a dozen fingerprints, if the difficulty matched Wang Zhong’s capabilities, it would take him about an hour or two to process them.

Jiang Yuan, on the other hand, including the time to boot up the computer and software, took only fifteen minutes in total to complete the comparison.

"Bring them in for questioning," Jiang Yuan matched a suspect to one case and felt that it was probably about right.

With such minor cases, it would usually become clear after an interrogation whether the person brought in was actually involved or an outside party. There was no need to make it overly complicated.

Liu Wenkai cheerfully agreed and arranged for someone to carry out the task.

Jiang Yuan continued to work on a case involving footprints, following a similar process.

The second squad was in high spirits, starting to appreciate the benefits of a standardized approach.

Jiang Yuan smiled, feeling quite happy himself.

Compared to running around early and late outside, spending nights on end smoking and staking out, or the exhausting effort involved in making arrests, sitting in front of a computer and catching criminals was quite nice.

Moreover, the cases handled by the second squad were considered significant and severe relative to the county bureau’s regular cases. Even a common burglary, for example, starts with a sentence of three years imprisonment. If the perpetrator was a habitual offender, or a repeat offender, it wasn’t unusual for the sentence to be increased by a couple of years with an additional charge.

Three to five years might not sound like much, but in terms of Criminal Law, it is quite severe and poses a significant deterrence to ordinary criminals.

Jiang Yuan finished working on five cases in one breath, and seeing that it was almost time to get off work, he stood up and stretched, laughing, "That’ll be it for today, I’m going to play with Dazhuang for a while."

"Sure, sure." Liu Wenkai agreed quickly and personally went out to send Jiang Yuan down to the police dog squadron.

In the training field of the police dog squadron, Dazhuang was exercising.

Suddenly, catching Jiang Yuan’s scent, Dazhuang, in the midst of running an obstacle course, twisted in mid-air and looked towards the direction Jiang Yuan was coming from.

Jiang Yuan waved from afar, grinning cheerfully.

Li Li also saw him, wiped off sweat, greeted him, and laughed, "Shall I give you two brothers some time to play?"

"Thanks, sis." Jiang Yuan took the leash.

Dazhuang "woofed" back in response, as if to say thanks.

Li Li gave Dazhuang a stern look, her expression mirroring his.

Jiang Yuan, leading Dazhuang, ran side by side with the dog for a few laps.

After warming up a bit, Jiang Yuan then took Dazhuang for a leisurely stroll. Police dogs only eat once a day, so for today, the food quota was already used up.

Dazhuang knew this, but he was still thrilled that Jiang Yuan was there to play with him.

Whether it’s Level 5 or Level 6 dog food, it didn’t matter much if they couldn’t get it... slurp...

When Jiang Yuan finally left, Dazhuang drooled as he watched his retreating figure.

Li Li watched with a sense of helplessness, first wiped Dazhuang’s mouth, then said, "You really are hopeless, it’s just dog food after all... slurp..."

...

The next day.

The officer responsible for "Jinding Mingyuan" came back to report, "No evidence was found that the person who reported the crime was stealing from themselves."

This meant that the simplest way to start the case was ruled out.

"In that case... both the husband and wife of this family, they don’t have any issues either?" Jiang Yuan had reviewed the case file, but still wanted to confirm.

The responsible officer nodded, saying, "I also investigated the couple’s situation, that’s why it took so long. By all appearances, because this family are people affected by housing demolition, they are not short of money. Their net worth far exceeds this sum, there are no strange incomes recently, and... neither can obtain any benefit from this theft, they seem like ordinary people..."

"There were no other people’s footprints in the room..." Jiang Yuan’s mind first thought of the hidden thief in the ceiling. If it were the residence of ancient people, a thief could move high and low, not touching the ground, avoiding detection.

Obviously, conditions in Jinding Mingyuan did not allow for that.

Jiang Yuan actually had an idea in mind, and upon confirming this detail, he revisited the photos of the case again, took out a few of them, and said, "It looks like the perpetrator must have worn the shoes of this family."

The photo he took out was of the family’s shoe cabinet.

Jiang Yuan pointed to a pair of slippers in it, saying, "Regarding the living habits of this family, the slippers should be worn indiscriminately, without being specific to one person. So, all the footprints inside the house are from the family’s shoes, but a careful analysis reveals that the same footprint has multiple shapes..."

At this point, Jiang Yuan picked out a pair of blue slippers and said, "All the other shoes are worn by the family of three, three types of footprints, but this pair of blue men’s slippers has four."

"What about guests?" The responsible officer suddenly thought of this puzzle.

"Maybe, but it’s less likely. There are many relatively fresh footprints of this blue slipper at the scene." Jiang Yuan shrugged and said, "Now we’re at a standstill, so let’s first see what we can find from this pair of slippers."

The clarity of footprints found inside was not very good to begin with. It was all because the family’s room was large enough, and additionally, the boy was lazy enough at home to not sweep or mop the floor.

But no matter how you look at it, to solve the case based solely on such footprints was going to be challenging. They must find those blue slippers to continue pursuing this lead.

"I’ll go find these slippers," the responsible officer said without much ado, ready to leave with his team.

Jiang Yuan reminded him, "When you get them back, we will collect DNA, so pay attention to not contaminating the evidence. Do not make a phone call in advance; take the DNA of the husband and wife from the scene."

"Okay," the responsible officer acknowledged.

Liu Wenkai was a bit concerned as he asked, "It’s been half a year, can we still obtain the perpetrator’s DNA?"

"We’ll see. If he didn’t wear socks at the time and the shoes weren’t washed, then there’s a good chance of finding something. If he did wear socks... if he sweated, he should have left something behind..." Jiang Yuan analyzed in detail.

Liu Wenkai curled his lip, "House slippers not washed for half a year? These people’s habits are really filthy."

"How often do you wash your slippers at home?" Jiang Yuan suddenly became curious.

"Slippers... I don’t seem to have specifically washed them before," Liu Wenkai hesitated and then fell into deep thought.