National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 709 - 652: The Law is Vast and Infinite

Chapter 709: Chapter 652: The Law is Vast and Infinite

Liu Huimin was 48 years old and going through menopause, which made her temperamental and difficult to speak with, but she worked hard. That was the impression she left on the property management staff and her colleagues.

She had been working well at her job, but then she suddenly resigned, leaving a slight impression on her supervisor. However, it was just a slight impression.

In Beijing, people come and go frequently, especially for ordinary positions in property management that aren’t held by locals. There are all sorts of reasons for resigning. Some cleaning ladies might leave to take care of their children at home, others to build houses in their hometowns, some because they’re getting too old, others if a family member falls ill, and some quit simply because they’re tired.

Liu Huimin didn’t explain the reason for her resignation. The manager did try to retain her by offering an additional 200 yuan in salary, but she didn’t agree and that was the end of it.

As for Liu Huimin’s whereabouts, the manager had no idea whatsoever.

But to the police, Liu Huimin wasn’t hard to find. Although she took a coach back home without using her ID card, and her mobile phone was turned off—making her location untraceable—she hadn’t explained her situation to friends and relatives, nor could she have. Meanwhile, her friends and relatives maintained the good habit of posting on social media and TikTok.

So, under posts like "Sister Four came home to visit, we all made dumplings together", "Auntie Four brought Niuniu a toy, she really loves it", and "Sister Four visited after three years, the family joyfully reunited", Liu Huimin, who didn’t want to appear on camera, was nevertheless seen.

The police didn’t even need to use technical means, as Liu Huimin’s geographical location was clearly marked underneath the posts.

For the police, solving complex cases in simple ways is routine. Compared to employing criminal investigation techniques, having two young officers scroll through the suspect’s social media is much simpler and cost-effective—and they don’t have back pain.

Of course, the breakthrough in this case involved Legal Botany, which was quite an upscale example. Consequently, when Liu Huimin was brought in, people were quite interested.

Inside the command center, some even watched the interrogation with their hands clasped behind their backs.

Jiang Yuan didn’t crowd inside; instead, he and his team went near the Shannan Province office in Beijing, ordered several local dishes, and a big pot of rice, and polished it all off together.

Beijing’s restaurants are of high quality, and there’s a lot of delicious food if one is willing to spend money. However, exotic dishes share one problem: they are exciting to try, but one can soon tire of them with repeated eating.

Jiang Yuan had been in Beijing for ten days, and his taste buds were starting to rebel. The case had been at a critical stage previously and he hadn’t been able to find time to go out; now that there was a lull, he didn’t waste it for a moment.

It wasn’t just Jiang Yuan, Mu Zhiyang and others were also getting a bit fed up. Now that they were full, they took a deep breath and smacked their lips, saying, "Actually, if you think about it, this restaurant’s Shan Nan cuisine isn’t that authentic..."

"It’s good enough. The ingredients and water here are all different, how could it possibly taste exactly the same?" Wang Chuanxing said, covering his mouth with a napkin and picking his teeth, "You can tell when you go to Xinjiang. Something as simple as grilled meat tastes so good there no matter what, but back here, all kinds of strange flavors emerge, and none of them have that Xinjiang taste."

"That’s true. Especially since we’ve been eating at the Beijing Division’s cafeteria recently. After all, a cafeteria is still just a cafeteria," Mu Zhiyang sighed.

"I’ll ask my dad to send some stuff over later," Jiang Yuan casually suggested a solution, immediately winning everyone’s agreement.

Nowadays, Mu Zhiyang and the others don’t talk about money with Jiang Yuan; there’s no need, they just enjoy whatever is offered.

In the afternoon.

Not long after Jiang Yuan and the others returned to the division, Liu Huimin began to confess.

She detailed her crime and, like most murderers, attempted to rationalize her actions:

"I spoke to her nicely at the time. I said, ’Girl, taking a cucumber or a handful of scallions from our garden occasionally is no problem. But you can’t just come and pick things every few days...’ She wouldn’t listen, and later she even started cursing—saying really nasty stuff. So I thought to myself, I’m no spring chicken, I can’t just let her curse at me like that. I happened to be holding a hoe, and I just... gave her a hit..."

For motives like this, or so-called reasons, Liu Cheng and others were unimpressed.

Passion killings are often like this: if people actually took the time to analyze the pros and cons, they wouldn’t kill. Instead, it is the most primal, foolish impulses that lead people to commit the most primal, foolish acts.

Liu Cheng handed the interrogation transcript to Jiang Yuan, then said, "According to Liu Huimin’s statement, it was a crime of passion. She didn’t know how to dispose of the body, so in the end, she committed murder and dismemberment in a corner of the rooftop and used water for watering flowers and cleaning supplies provided by the property management to clean the ground... The body was left on the rooftop for nearly two days. Eventually, she transported it out using a cleaning cart and then personally rode her electric scooter to throw the body into the property’s large garbage bin."

"But there are two things that don’t add up. One is the message on the mobile phone; if the victim was killed accidentally, then there’s no way they would have planned a sudden trip. Another thing is the bloody clothes we found. They seem to be in the style of young women’s clothing. Liu Huimin is 48 years old and has a cleaner’s uniform to wear..." Jiang Yuan quickly read through the interrogation transcript and raised his doubts.

Liu Cheng nodded, "Tao from the division also has a similar opinion. Our guess... there must have been an accomplice involved."

Jiang Yuan slowly nodded, "Very likely."

The difficulty of murder and dismemberment goes without saying. Dismembering a body on the rooftop itself is not a very safe situation. Having someone to help watch makes it a lot more reasonable.

Furthermore, disposing of a body is also a huge amount of work. To give a very apt example, when people in the north buy pork or mutton during the New Year and bring home half a pig or a whole sheep, it’s a lot of trouble and incredibly cumbersome. Multiply that by three or four times, and that’s about the difficulty of disposing of a body.

Even if dismemberment only makes the disposal of the body more manageable, the physical exertion of moving a body weighing over 100 pounds around four or five times is still very tiring.

"Do you have a direction now?" As Liu Cheng appeared nonchalant, Jiang Yuan asked.

Liu Cheng nodded, "Liu Huimin couldn’t justify her actions, and she’s clenching her teeth and refusing to talk. So we checked her close relatives, and it turns out her daughter has also recently resigned."

Mu Zhiyang, who was beside them, was startled and couldn’t help but say, "This woman dragged her own daughter into this?"

"It’s not clear yet whether it’s a joint murder or she acted alone and then helped dispose of the body," Liu Cheng said, then shook his head, continuing, "Her daughter is a college graduate from last year and found a clerical job at a small company in Zhengguang District. She had no connection with the victim. Whether it’s participating in the murder or something else, it must have been to help her mother."

"If she only helped dispose of the body, then it’s destruction of evidence, and she might get a suspended sentence," Wang Chuanxing paused before saying, "But after this, she won’t be able to get a proof of a clean criminal record."

"What’s that to worry about? However, when it comes to dismemberment and disposal of the body, forget about a suspended sentence!" Liu Cheng spoke on behalf of the police’s perspective, then added, "We’ve gone to make an arrest, she’ll be back soon. Once they interrogate her over there, then we’ll bring in Liu Huimin again."

Indeed, when Liu Huimin was brought up for interrogation the second time, the outwardly calm woman was immediately broken by the interrogating officer:

"Your daughter has been arrested and has confessed to the crime!"

Those watching outside the interrogation room couldn’t help but sigh.

Once the interrogation was over, Chief Tao Lu of the brigade rushed over and immediately asked, "Did you clear up the situation with the blood-stained clothes?"

This was also an important link in the chain of evidence and had to be connected.

Liu Cheng nodded, "Liu Huimin washed her daughter’s bloody clothes that she wore during the dismemberment and instructed her to throw them in the trash can while she stayed behind to handle the loose ends. However, her daughter, eager to create an alibi, hurried to work at the company, intending to dispose of them in a trash can near the company, thinking it was less likely to be discovered. But then she ran into a colleague and was persuaded to put them in a clothing donation bin."

"Hmph," Tao Lu snorted with a hint of disdain and simply said, "The net of justice is wide and far-reaching."

With just that remark, Tao Lu’s gaze turned toward Jiang Yuan, and his face broke into a smile as he said, "This time we owe it to Jiang Yuan’s expertise in Legal Botany... I didn’t expect... no, I should say, we’ve all learned something."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Beijing is a bustling metropolis filled with exciting lives, as well as all sorts of bizarre cases caused by humans. But to really talk about solving cases, to employ forensic techniques as advanced and cutting-edge as Legal Botany was still very rare.

New technologies mean new methods for solving cases. Everyone understood this clearly.

Before Jiang Yuan could express modesty, Tao Lu was already warmly embracing him, grinning as he said, "I’ll host dinner tonight to celebrate our success at the Zhengguang Bureau’s traditional victory feast. No more words, you’re one of us at Zhengguang now!"