National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 679 - 622: Recognition

Chapter 679: Chapter 622: Recognition

"It really is this tricycle."

In the yard, everyone circled around the electric tricycle that had just been delivered.

Its red and blue colors, the Paul Z brand with a sky and black cloud motif, the front fork missing some paint, but the indentations were the same. The frame of the rear bin also had identical features, the tires seemed to have been changed twice, but similar scratches could be found on the other two hubs too.

The traffic police department had issued a preliminary appraisal report at top speed. In fact, in the county with over a thousand freight electric tricycles, to have about a hundred or so of the same color and model was already a lot, it’s just that in murder cases, such caution is necessary.

What surprised everyone wasn’t the sharp eyes of the traffic police and local police station colleagues, nor the improved tracking abilities of the office of imaging. It was Mu Zhiyang, who had activated this series of functions and applied them.

"Six years, and this tricycle probably hadn’t even been repainted once. Any normal person could find it. But then it fell into little Mu’s hands."

"It was Mu Zhiyang who asked the traffic police and local police station to find it."

"When it’s time to write the report, he’s certainly one of those who ought to be mentioned first."

"Not even a scratch on it, and he gets such a big merit for it?"

Some familiar officers were wandering around Mu Zhiyang and the electric tricycle, muttering in his ear.

Mu Zhiyang, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, posed like he was reincarnated into a model of the electric tricycle, albeit one not good at flirting or showing off.

He didn’t care about what others were saying. In the criminal police force, many are foul-mouthed when smoking, but what matters is that he had indeed accomplished this task.

Even when he was doing it, Mu Zhiyang himself wasn’t sure, but now that it was done, he was the número uno shepherd...so to speak.

"Just a bit of inspiration, along with a long time of effort and persistence."

When a newcomer approached, Mu Zhiyang said casually with a smile.

The newcomer was Wang Chuanxing.

Wang Chuanxing was brimming with jealousy, sizing up Mu Zhiyang from top to bottom, unable to resist saying, "Who would have thought..."

In terms of educational background, he was multiples ahead of Mu Zhiyang, in terms of status, he came from the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment, in terms of professional skills, he was good at PPT, writing documents and reports, capable of fieldwork, and knew how to command and coordinate operations...

Wang Chuanxing had never imagined that the one to stand out this time would be Mu Zhiyang.

"Captain Wang, out on fieldwork?" Mu Zhiyang greeted with a broad smile.

Wang Chuanxing simply grunted, adjusted his mood, and said, "Let’s go verify a few jobs of this vehicle’s owner."

The current owner of the electric tricycle was the fourth owner, with the one who found it being the second owner. Since phone numbers were left during the vehicle’s sale, people were easily found.

And most crucially, the evidence that this electric tricycle could provide was the location where the second owner had found it.

According to the second owner, he spotted the tricycle underneath the Jiufu Department Store. The key was in the ignition at the time, and the doors were left open, he was momentarily tempted...

The police didn’t care about these details; they were interested in the location itself.

In the realm of body dumping, there’s a theory that a normal person, willing to carry a corpse solo, won’t do so farther than 100 meters.

Certainly, the place where the killer disposed of the body couldn’t be the parking lot of Jiufu Department Store, but normally, it wouldn’t be far from there.

With this in mind, they drew a circle, narrowing down the area that needed to be searched.

Behind Jiufu Department Store, adjacent to a small alley, was a small park that came into the police’s view.

The vegetation was lush in the small park, with lawns and woods and winding walking paths, but few visitors. Ningtai County wasn’t short of leisurely places to stroll, with the riverside path along Ningtai River offering better scenery and more convenience. What Ningtai lacked were industry and commerce, vibrant places to play and opportunities to make more money.

This place was quite suitable for burying a body.

Drones were deployed, and the police canine unit was called in.

A slope was designated as a key area for a thorough search, and several small woods were also sniffed out by Dazhuang.

Sulei also came to observe the site.

For her, the dramatically cordoned-off scene, with police dogs sniffing around and several technicians digging holes, was quite interesting.

Plain botany surely didn’t offer such scenes.

"What if nothing’s found?" Sulei turned to Jiang Yuan and asked as she watched the crowd of dozens blocked there.

Jiang Yuan did not even think before replying, "Nothing special, just business as usual."

"Business as usual? So much effort from so many people turns out to be for nothing, and it’s just dismissed as normal? I bet your colleagues would be angry," Sulei instinctively disliked the idea of coming back empty-handed.

Jiang Yuan spread his hands, "That’s the nature of our job, coming back empty-handed is nothing new. If we really can’t find the body, I can’t just lie down in there to apologize."

Sulei thought Jiang Yuan’s point made sense, but as she watched Mu Zhiyang directing confidently up on the slope, she suddenly chuckled and said, "We could bury the most pretentious one."

Jiang Yuan followed Sulei’s gaze towards Mu Zhiyang, who was still waving and smiling.

Woof woof woof!

Dazhuang barked sharply and began to paw at the ground.

Several officers immediately went over.

Some small bones were unearthed from the soil.

Jiang Yuan, who was a little far away, trotted over, put on gloves, and after the photographing was done, he picked them up and said, "These are definitely human bones, notify Captain Huang, and give Meng Chengbiao a heads-up."

Having found the body, the pace of the interrogation was different. The nature of the questions asked caused tension between the two suspects, facing a choice between confessing or not was not so easy anymore.

The most important thing was that the police were able to complete the chain of evidence during the investigative phase.

In other cases, things might be simpler, but when it comes to a murder investigation, the requirements for the chain of evidence are extremely strict. If they really couldn’t find the body, or the body couldn’t be linked to the murderer, the process would be stuck right at the submission for examination.

Jiang Yuan personally took on the task, exhuming all the skeletal remains that had been reduced to bones, ensuring that nothing was overlooked, before collecting samples of nearby insects and plants, and only then did he rise and remove his gloves.

For a long while, Sulei watched from the side. Seeing that Jiang Yuan had finished, she couldn’t help expressing regret, "It’s a pity I couldn’t be of any help."

"How could you not be? Didn’t you also uncover a body earlier?" Jiang Yuan replied with a smile.

Sulei was at a loss for words and said, "Was that body really the start of a case?"

"Of course. As one case ends here, another just begins there," Jiang Yuan said in a very natural manner.

Sulei slightly shivered looking at the skeletal remains and shook her head, "None of this is easy."

"You’ll get used to it. You can think of it as Professor Mu’s work, someone has to seek justice for the body," Jiang Yuan said in a light-hearted tone, speaking more casually.

The surrounding police officers felt much the same.

When a murder case remained unsolved, the atmosphere in the station was as if they were attending a beauty pageant for fishing ladies. If they were lucky and solved it quickly, then they could relax, like becoming a seeded contestant and simply following protocol until the end, which was always good.

But if they couldn’t solve it quickly, the mood would become increasingly oppressive. Furthermore, as the process went on, it was like constantly raising the stakes, and in the end, if they still couldn’t solve the case despite exhausting all means, it could break a person.

"I’m going to perform the autopsy now," Jiang Yuan told Sulei, patted the Rottweiler on its head, then led his team to carry the skeletal remains to the hearse and departed for the mortuary.

The autopsy room.

On each side lay a body, one dead for six years, the other for six months, both having turned to skeletons, but the one dead for six months had not decomposed as thoroughly, its stark white bones somehow shinier.

Medical Examiner Wang Lan, who had come to assist from Qinghe City, helped Wu Jun and Jiang Yuan arrange the corpses in an orderly fashion.

Sampling, sampling, and more sampling...

Since entering the room, Jiang Yuan had been busy at work.

One body needed to be identified as Liu Hongbing, who had died while collecting clothes. The other’s identity was to be discovered.

In reality, the requirements for both were the same, only the difficulty differed.

To confirm that the first body was Liu Hongbing was easy; a paternity test would suffice. The second body was more challenging. If no clues could be found from missing person cases dating back six months and the DNA didn’t match, then the process would need to involve forensic anthropology, perhaps even skull restoration techniques.

The overall autopsy process could be considered somewhat easy.

Without a forensic anthropology assessment, Jiang Yuan had already examined the shoulder joint issue for the first body. It was evident that all three edges of the scapula showed varying degrees of wear, clearly from exerting significant force in earlier years and improper use of the body.

Such a condition, if not given proper attention, could lead to issues like periarthritis before the age of sixty, and inevitable shoulder and neck pain in later years.

All these morphological features also matched Liu Hongbing’s professional nature and lifestyle...

As they examined the second body, information about the first body was relayed over.

"Captain Jiang, the first batch of samples processed by the DNA lab compared Liu Hongbing’s son’s DNA with the first body’s samples, and they do not support that the sample is the biological father," said the call from Tang Jia, with Jiang Yuan listening on speakerphone, causing a chill in the autopsy room.

The few medical examiners looked at each other, each taking a few seconds to think, then silently resumed their work without a word.

Jiang Yuan cleared his throat and asked, "The hair left by Liu Hongbing’s family when they reported him missing, has it been compared?"

"The DNA from the hair is still being processed," Tang Jia replied. "They said the blood sample results come back faster."

"Well, let’s not rush, we’ll discuss it when we have the results from comparing the hair and such," Jiang Yuan said.

"Understood," Tang Jia responded, then asked in a low voice, "Could there have been a mishap somewhere?"

"Perhaps. Let’s wait and see."

After Jiang Yuan hung up the phone, he picked up the first body’s scapula again, examining it over and over, and recalled Liu Hongbing’s photos in his mind, "It still seems to match well. The height and age are right, and the occupational injury matches."

The scapula is a triangular bone, resembling a spade. Ancient people used scapulae as hoes.

In the north, when buying meat, the triangular bone that is sold along with the shinbone by butchers is also the scapula.

Its function and other aspects have been studied very thoroughly; Jiang Yuan had many bases for his judgment.

Wang Lan coughed twice and said, "Let’s move on to something else. It’s common to face more problems when things are already going bad."

No one in the autopsy room voiced a response; they continued with the second body. Just about when they were wrapping up, Tang Jia called back, her voice noticeably happier:

"Captain Jiang, it’s a match. The DNA extracted from the hair left by Liu Hongbing’s family during the report matched the skeletal remains found in the park, confirming they belong to Liu Hongbing."

Jiang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "A match is good. I’ll call Captain Huang. You all prepare the report."

"What about the previous DNA report?" asked Tang Jia.

"It won’t affect the case, just organize it into the report as well," Jiang Yuan answered.

"But isn’t that contradictory?"

"It only does not support the notion that Liu Hongbing is his son’s biological father, which does not contradict the conclusion of the second report," Jiang Yuan said before hanging up the call.

The other detectives present had different expressions, but all regarded the situation as nothing out of the ordinary.