National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 688 - 631 Proactively Offering Help

Chapter 688: Chapter 631 Proactively Offering Help

"We stopped the ambulance right here."

Two paramedics from the ambulance stood at the crime scene, beginning to point things out.

The two individuals, one a part-time driver, the other strictly a paramedic for the rear compartment, both had certifications and were temporary workers. Summoned by the police for questioning numerous times, they felt a bit annoyed as well as uneasy.

Jiang Yuan, along with several others, looked around the parking space for a while before asking, "Did you check the surroundings? How far out did you go?"

"We’ve swept the area within a hundred meters that has a view of this parking spot. There’s no obvious sign of someone keeping watch." Xiao Liu understood what Jiang Yuan meant and immediately responded, eager to demonstrate his professionalism.

If someone had been waiting nearby for the victim, Yue Ling, to get in the car, they would likely have left some traces behind. Common signs included an abundance of cigarette butts, scuff marks from leather shoes, and sometimes a lot of snack wrappers, mineral water bottles, and even bottles of liquor.

In short, if a person spent the whole night awake, waiting here for the victim to drive to work, even if they only stood watch for one or two hours, they would need some kind of diversion. Human beings, after all, cannot truly sit still and stare at a scene without movement. The only people who can are the truly idle and dull-minded.

Therefore, when criminal investigators encounter cases with clear signs of someone lying in wait, they often search the surroundings. There’s no need to doubt the extent of some human’s boredom – from the top down: twirling hair, picking at dandruff, rubbing eyebrows, cleaning teeth, spitting, smoking, dusting off neck hair, picking at fingers, scratching walls with fingers, scratching the groin, scratching feet...

In short, when a person is idle, they really might do anything.

Xiao Liu and the team were seasoned detectives, and they had brought along several people to conduct the search. Even in Jiang Yuan’s view, their standard of work was passable.

Jiang Yuan temporarily moved on from this topic and continued to question the two paramedics, "When you arrived, was the person who called still there? Did he open the car door?"

"He was there, but he didn’t open the door," a paramedic recalled the scene.

Zhou, the chief of the second squadron, added while accompanying Jiang Yuan, "The caller was a neighbor from the same community as the victim. His car was parked behind and he called when he passed by and saw the victim’s condition. He didn’t open the door because he thought the victim was probably already gone. Also, he might have been afraid of getting involved in trouble. Nowadays, people are afraid to even help the elderly, let alone in a situation like the victim’s, who must have been in a ghastly state."

"Have you ruled out the caller as a suspect?"

"The caller and the victim did not know each other and had no financial dealings, um... we’ll check again." Zhou didn’t have any definite clues or targets, but upon hearing Jiang Yuan’s implication, he added the caller to the list of possible suspects.

Mu Zhiyang watched him write down the name and sighed, "Otherwise why wouldn’t the guy open the car door? If he had opened it, he would probably have been put directly on the suspect list."

Zhou quirked his mouth: "We can’t rule out without investigating. But I’ve talked to the one who reported the crime, and he doesn’t seem like it."

An old detective’s experience can often be more accurate than any instrument. Zhou explained his thoughts very clearly.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said, "Well, let’s continue forward. So, the car door wasn’t opened until after the paramedics arrived. Did anyone notice any particular smells?"

"The stench of urine and feces," the driver of the ambulance replied candidly.

"And then what did you do?"

"We stated all of this when we made our statements," they said.

"It’s a bother, but please go over it again. With such a major case, verifying procedures are necessary," Jiang Yuan said with feigned sincerity.

Out of respect for the murder case, the driver said, "We pried the door open, called out a few times, then checked the pulse and found that the person was already dead. Then we called the police, and dispatch instructed us to preserve the crime scene and not to let anyone touch the body. We did just that."

Seeing that Jiang Yuan and the others were listening intently, and with so many police officers present, the driver opened up, "We’ve encountered murder cases before and knew what to do."

"Then tell us, what did you do at the time?" Zhou, now grasping Jiang Yuan’s line of thought, simply took over the questioning.

"We just closed the car door back up, turned off the engine, as directed by the 110 emergency center. And then, when onlookers came over, we tried to keep them at bay, that’s about it," the driver explained.

"During that time, did anyone touch the car?"

"No one touched it after we called the police," answered the driver.

The police officers present all turned to look at the driver.

"No one touched it after you called the police; what about before? After you arrived on the scene, there were already people gathering around, right?" Zhou pressed.

The driver hesitated, then nodded, saying, "At that time we didn’t know the person was dead. We parked right beside and when we opened the door and called out, that’s when people came over to help. They were just being kind-hearted."

"Is it common for people to volunteer to help like this?"

The driver paused, then shook his head, "Not so common anymore, but it happened a lot when I first started working..."

"How many people volunteered to help?" Zhou asked.

"About three or four people, they thought it was a heart problem and wanted to move the person out; I thought it was a good idea too..."

"Did three or four people come up together to volunteer, or did some come before others?"

"Obviously, some came up first... Someone said it might be a heart attack and called for others to help move the body. I felt their carotid artery and said to forget it, the person was already cold."

Zhou exhaled and looked at Jiang Yuan with a slightly embarrassed expression.

Even though he was the one who asked, it was clear that the previous police officer had been negligent during the testimony recording.

Of course, saying this now was a bit like locking the stable after the horse had bolted. When the criminal police came to take testimonies, they had so many to do at once; there has to be a sense of priority. You can’t possibly question everyone who happens to pass by, even if they’re just walking their dog, about everything including their ancestors.

However, no matter how you look at it, it’s now proven that the recordings of the two emergency responders had flaws—key pieces of evidence were missing. If it were just an internal matter, it wouldn’t be much of an issue as new leads in the investigation could fill the gaps, and besides those in the team, hardly anyone else would know.

Jiang Yuan pretended not to notice Zhou’s expression and first asked the responder, "Do you know the name of the person who came up to help first?"

"I don’t know that." The driver said with a laugh, "Nowadays, those who volunteer to help really can be suspicious, eh?"

By the side, Wan Baoming, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, sighed deeply, "We are just the maintainers of order in an era."

This kind of talk usually seemed somewhat pretentious, but to those who had just dealt with a case of homicide and death, it sounded just right.

The slightly upset driver and responder both calmed down.

"He’s a man in his thirties or forties, a bit on the heavy side, nothing distinctive, round face, small eyes?" The responder gave a brief description.

Zhou calmly asked, "Did you take any photos or videos of the scene? Did you capture this person in any of them?"

"Well... Let me check." The responder took out his phone, flipping through the photo album while explaining, "I took a few photos once I got to the scene, just in case the doctor needed to see the situation when trying to save the person."

He offered the explanation, and the police listened.

Soon, the responder found a video with a few people who had helped with the rescue in it.

"I was worried something might come up, so I took a video at the time," the responder added.

Zhou nodded with slight annoyance. If they had discovered this clue on the day of the incident, they wouldn’t have needed to involve Jiang Yuan.

A police officer took over, screenshotting the person’s photo for facial recognition through the police database, instantly getting a result, and he read aloud:

"Tang Weili. Male, 34 years old, owns a hotpot restaurant... I can’t see any connection with the victim."

Zhou took the phone, looked at it for a while, frowned, and then said, "Call the victim’s husband over and ask him."

The group was currently outside the residential community where the victim lived, so Zhou led Jiang Yuan and a few detectives to the door.

The victim’s husband was at home, depressed. Seeing the group, he was even more surprised.

"Do you recognize this person?" Zhou showed the photo on the phone to the victim’s husband and said, "Tang Weili, does this name sound familiar to you?"

The victim’s husband was taken aback, looked at the photo again, and said dejectedly, "Did he kill Yue Ling?"

"It’s not yet clear. Do you know him?" Zhou pressed.

"I’ve heard the name." The victim’s husband sighed and said, "He’s Yue Ling’s ex-boyfriend, from over ten years ago."