National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 686 - 629: Evidence Collection Stage (Requesting Monthly Pass)

Chapter 686: Chapter 629: Evidence Collection Stage (Requesting Monthly Pass)

"Since it’s a current case, let’s start with this one," Jiang Yuan wasn’t too picky. Theoretically, the difficulty level of current cases is already quite low. As for whether this case is difficult or not, you only have the right to speak after a thorough investigation.

Since a thorough investigation has to be done anyway, it might as well be solved—this was Jiang Yuan’s straightforward thought. He didn’t want to waste too much energy on anything beyond the case, as long as there were no pitfalls in this one.

Huang Qiangmin accompanied him on this trip, and Chai Tong had been transferred away, so Jiang Yuan felt there should be no issues in this regard.

Wang Chuanxing and others stepped forward, distributed the case files, and spread them out on the long conference table for everyone to take and read.

Jiang Yuan also sat down, reached for the forensic report again, took the photographs, and read them one by one.

The level of forensics for this case was quite good; suspecting carbon monoxide poisoning, a heart blood sample was taken immediately.

Based on the concentration of carboxyhemoglobin in the heart blood, it’s not only possible to confirm that the victim died of carbon monoxide poisoning but also to deduce that the onset of the condition was not chronic poisoning but acute—had it been 50% concentration of carboxyhemoglobin, it might have indicated the former.

This also coincided with the scene.

The victim hadn’t even opened the car door, nor had any self-rescue measures been taken. This indicates that the deceased must have lost consciousness or the ability to control their limbs within a short period.

This, from another perspective, suggests that the victim had not been physically restrained.

At the same time, the victim’s expression was natural, their clothing intact, and the autopsy had not revealed any mechanical injuries—again proving that the victim was not under physical control when they died.

So the question arises: why would the victim, who wasn’t physically restrained, be poisoned to death by high concentrations of carbon monoxide in a closed vehicle?

As a forensic doctor, Jiang Yuan’s first thought was to use drugs to control.

The forensics team at the beginning had indeed performed some toxicological tests, but they only checked for common drugs. Beyond those, there are plenty of others that can cause unconsciousness.

Jiang Yuan wrote down the word "drugs" in his notebook.

Secondly, could it be the work of someone familiar?

However, the victim died from acute poisoning. If the perpetrator was in the same room with the victim, they would surely meet the same fate unless they were wearing a gas mask or something similar. Furthermore...

Despite this, Jiang Yuan still wrote down "insider job."

The reason for doing so was that it occurred to him that many people wear masks daily. Wearing a mask wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. If the killer wore a mask with activated carbon or another special, adsorptive type, it might have been possible to evade detection for a short time.

Finally, could someone have killed the person outside and then moved the body into the car?

Jiang Yuan flipped to photos of the car’s interior after the victim was removed. Excrement was strewn all over the driver’s seat. Without discussing elegance, the filth was left there before the victim’s death. In other words, her last moments must have occurred in that driver’s seat.

Even if the killer could move the body, they couldn’t have relocated the waste.

As for moving the body at the last minute, the conclusion brought by the concentration of carboxyhemoglobin in the earlier blood still stands: the victim died of acute poisoning, leaving no time for the killer to exploit any loopholes.

In summary...

Jiang Yuan put down his pen and paper and said, "Next, I plan to inspect that car. For the others, I think we should start by investigating two directions. One is the drugs aspect, which I want to examine more thoroughly. Could you, Zhou Da, please contact the lab about this?"

"No problem," Zhou had been a detective for a long time and quickly grasped what Jiang Yuan was thinking. Although he wasn’t entirely sold on this idea—after all, if one had access to unconventional drugs, they could simply poison the victim directly without the need for carbon monoxide, which would be redundant.

So, even though Zhou had considered this approach, he hadn’t bothered the lab with it.

However, now that more than 72 hours had passed, the golden period—or rather the bronze period—was well over, and it was only natural for Jiang Yuan to expand the scope of the investigation.

"The victim’s social circle should have been investigated, right? No results yet?" Jiang Yuan asked Zhou at this time.

Zhou shook his head and said, "No results so far. The victim’s marital relationship was stable, they have a child in junior high school. The family is financially comfortable, with several hundred thousand in savings, a three-bedroom apartment in Beijing, and two cars. Both sets of parents are still alive, they’re living... much better than me, at the very least."

"Anything else?"

"The victim was a state-owned enterprise employee; she had an average relationship with her coworkers at the unit—not particularly good or bad—as just an ordinary office staff member without any acute conflicts with those around her. As for relatives and friends, we’ve been verifying their statements one by one; they generally expressed shock. She also lent money to two relatives, one fifty thousand and the other thirty thousand. Then there are classmates and some clients; those might need more detailed investigation."

Jiang Yuan first expressed approval, saying, "Being able to find out this much in three days is pretty impressive."

Zhou chuckled and then took the initiative, "So shall we continue to follow the web of relationships?"

"Sure. You’ve been working hard." Jiang Yuan’s team, even when sent out on investigation, is best accompanied by local police, as they would struggle to get things done without knowledge of the area. Direct tasking, such as explicit arrests, wouldn’t be too greatly affected.

"The parking spot had no surveillance; what about the surroundings? Have you reached any conclusions?"

"None. We specifically checked several key related people, including the victim’s husband, son, and the debtors, and none were captured in the surveillance footage on the day. I also asked the owners of some of the cars in the vicinity, but there was nothing useful there."

"Alright then. Let’s leave it at that for now."

For Jiang Yuan, the case was essentially just beginning; no matter how many hypotheses there were, they all had to be investigated before anything could proceed.

After arranging and instructing on a few more things, Jiang Yuan directly said to Wang Chuanxing, "Chuanxing, you take charge of allocating the remaining personnel later. I’m going to take a look at the car."

"Yes." Wang Chuanxing was very pleased to comply since he was, in fact, from the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment. Although he wasn’t returning as a ’king,’ his spirits were quite high.

Jiang Yuan, accompanied by Mu Zhiyang, then went to the forensic science center to examine the car.

Wan Baoming at the forensic science center could now be considered an old acquaintance; knowing that Jiang Yuan was coming, he had someone clean the bathroom—having a way of cleaning up after corpses ensured the cleanliness of the bathroom!

Jiang Yuan didn’t need to be polite. Dressed properly, he went to inspect the car.

Vehicle examination room.

Upon entering, one could smell a strong odor.

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but look towards the two technicians in charge here. He saw them wearing deeply meaningful smiles.

"The body has been moved, but the piss and shit haven’t." Wan Baoming conveyed the current most tangible impact with the simplest of words.

Even as a forensic doctor, Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but frown.

"It’ll be better once it’s dry," one technician kindly counseled.

"I don’t want to come here a second time," Jiang Yuan sighed deeply and went forward to open the car door.

A pungent stench of feces assaulted his face; it smelled foul and was... toxic.

"Fingerprints and DNA have already been collected... get me a whiteboard." Jiang Yuan was mentally prepared and toughed it out.

One technician ran quickly and brought over a whiteboard, placing it in front of Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan hung a series of extracted fingerprint photos on the whiteboard, then, turning on the investigation light, leaned into the Mercedes-Benz C class to check fingerprints, DNA, and other information.

Pure trace examination during the investigation stage can only cover different areas and isn’t about teamwork.

And Jiang Yuan’s crime scene investigation skills had now reached level LV5; not using them would be a waste.

As for the outcome, even Jiang Yuan didn’t know.

In any case, relative to previous cold cases, this one felt more promising to Jiang Yuan.

The pressure with current cases wouldn’t be small, but that was for the higher-ups. Jiang Yuan himself just needed to solve the case.

Jiang Yuan was even more looking forward to using various liquids, solids, and other traces to do a simple crime scene reconstruction.

If he could deduce what happened at the crime scene, maybe he could understand the source of the carbon monoxide that killed the victim.