National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 718 - 661

Chapter 718: 661

Cui Qishan had selected a social media dating case, or better said, a meet-up murder case, which belonged to a new era of tough cases.

First of all, such cases were characterized by a delay in discovery; when a victim travelled to a different place and couldn’t be contacted for several days, it was easy for friends to view it as normal. By the time a report was filed, a lot of time had already passed. Plus, the reports were usually filed at the departure location rather than where the crime occurred, complicating the police response.

Sometimes, they didn’t even know where the victim had actually gone, which posed an even higher level of difficulty.

Next, there was the issue of body identification. Disappearance and death were viewed with varying levels of concern, especially for victims of hookup meet-ups; it wasn’t out of the question to think they had eloped to the Qaidam Basin in the name of love. And for a killer with plenty of time in an unfamiliar place, there was a decent chance of hiding the body.

The key to solving the case mainly rested on technical investigation. With the implementation of real-name systems online, most people’s identities could be traced. Therefore, ordinary long-distance meet-ups leading to crimes of passion were generally solvable.

The trouble came with prepared criminals.

Non-registered SIM cards, coupled with fake identities, and whatever else, even though the police had whatever kind of barriers, whatever technical investigation methods, if the perpetrator resorted to using fake identities, did whatever else, and committed crimes on the move, it would be more challenging if they knew just a bit about counter-surveillance, like removing SIM cards, switching contact methods, and such—how then would the police respond?

Honestly speaking, there weren’t many strategies available to deal with this. This is also one of the reasons why human trafficking persisted, not solely because of economic factors but also due to the difficulty in cracking such crimes.

If encountering a case guaranteed solving, especially an easily solvable one, then its economic profitability would diminish on its own.

Besides that, meet-up murders were, to a certain extent, similar to random acts.

Hookup apps typically facilitated stranger interactions, and whom one encountered or managed to meet was largely a matter of chance. The murderer might have had a pattern, but cracking patterns usually happened in TV series; movies shied away from it due to the lengthy verification process.

For the police, solving such cases normally depended on how effective their technical means were. Fortunately, domestic software servers were well-controlled, and perpetrators generally didn’t possess high technical skills, but there’s always an exception to worry about...

Of course, Cui Qishan was now betting that his case wasn’t one of those exceptions.

The nine officers he had handpicked all had extensive experience in technical roles. They weren’t necessarily experts in technology, but they were well-acquainted with various technical methods and knew whom to approach in any given situation. They were also highly experienced detectives who could work independently or in a team, conducting investigations according to regulations, know how to gather evidence, and could withstand the stringent demands of the courts.

Essentially, the officers Cui Qishan sought were akin to detectives like Pang Jidong. Pang Jidong had learned so much about Legal Botany from Jiang Yuan; the purpose was merely to use that knowledge to solve cases.

Cui Qishan was optimistic about this, throwing himself and his detectives into their work with zeal.

He believed that, given the professional level of his special team, solving the social media dating cases wouldn’t be like catching fish in a barrel, but he was certain that progress would be steadily made.

Cui Qishan planned to restart the case from scratch.

Simultaneously, Tao Lu personally led a team to investigate the residents of Fang Xia Village.

Jiang Yuan, as usual, pulled out his footprint identification techniques and first categorized the footprints that had entered the bedroom.

The footprints left by police officers were eliminated first, followed by those from other villagers who had come to see the commotion; a dozen or so remained, increasing the number of possible suspects.

Liu Cheng, who was in charge of this area, said with a troubled frown, "Nowadays, people travel all over; the killer most likely took the opportunity to leave. At the beginning, they might have stayed in the village to avoid suspicion. It would have been easy to find them then, but after so much time has passed, if they’re still hanging around the village, I’d question their intelligence."

Liu Cheng seemed to be complaining, and in reality, he was complaining.

Asking him, with a crew of dozens, to check the addresses of over a thousand people...just making contact would be exhausting enough, and without venting, the work couldn’t be completed.

Tao Lu frowned and asked, "How many people were originally in the village and are no longer there now?"

"Definitely hundreds," Liu Cheng replied. "The number of people in the village is dwindling. Fang Xia Village is actually one of the better ones, with some middle-aged people remaining to lease land and orchards, engage in animal husbandry, or work for agricultural companies. Still, it’s mostly the young people who leave, and some elderly go to help with childcare..." As Liu Cheng spoke of the difficulties, his forehead creased with the hassle.

What started as an ordinary task, with the addition of such numbers, became anything but.

Contacting hundreds or even thousands of people to confirm their addresses and trying to summon them back, or, if that was impossible, sending someone to their location to make inquiries... Just thinking about all that was enough to make one’s skin crawl.

Tao Lu thought for a moment and said, "If we eliminate the elderly and the minors..."

Jiang Yuan was sitting on the other side of the table and now coughed twice, saying, "We can’t screen like this. Whether they were in the village at that time depends entirely on the records kept by the local police. I’ve seen the log, and it was recorded by the Liugouyan police station’s officers; we can’t rely on that."

Tao Lu was rebutted, but he wasn’t upset and straightforwardly admitted, "That’s true."

In fact, there are also secrets about entering the village. To prove who was in the village on that day is still playable at this stage of the case—when there are contradictions or doubts, at least they could verify and inquire. But now, more than two years later, they only had the records to rely on, and those records were unreliable...

Jiang Yuan didn’t give Tao Lu any emotional leeway as they still had to cooperate on nine bodies. He spoke directly, "The elderly and minors cannot be ruled out either. I looked at the photos of the corpses and the murderer used a long-handled axe with a long lever arm. Judging by the grip, even an elderly person or a minor could have smashed the victim’s head and face with sufficient force."

Jiang Yuan glanced at Tao Lu, saw he could accept this, and continued, "The elderly in Fang Xia Village have been farming for a long time and are strong. Even men in their fifties or sixties could use an axe to kill a whole family of victims and produce similar wounds."

"As for minors... Today’s minors grow up quickly. A 14-year-old might be 1.8 meters tall and weigh 180 pounds. They also shouldn’t be ruled out."

Tao Lu spread his hands: "So we have to face the whole village? That’s a huge task."

Comparing footprints is a simple matter, but the problem is, how to compare when people are outside?

Ask them to take a photo of their footprint? That seems clever in theory but is illegal in reality.

When facing a murder case, the most reliable and legal method is to call and ask for the person’s address and, with careful wording, invite them back to the village. If they’re unwilling, then send someone to collect evidence on site. Including footprints—best taken by the police themselves.

Liu Cheng’s complaint was about this. If it had been a task that could be completed, he wouldn’t have made such a fuss, but clearly, it was an impossible task, and without complaining, wouldn’t the case just be delayed on his watch?

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "You’re still worried about making a futile effort."

This was also a situation Jiang Yuan often encountered. Commanders faced with a plethora of clues couldn’t possibly invest all their energy into every single one—a saturated investigation might sound cool, but not when the bill comes due.

But this case was just in the initial stages of being reopened, and Tao Lu certainly couldn’t deploy his reserve forces just yet.

But Jiang Yuan was different, as the conclusions he drew usually had the endorsement of advanced skills.

So, from Jiang Yuan’s perspective, the input-output ratio was rather good.

Just on the identification of a single footprint, there was already a certain trust gap between them.

Tao Lu’s idea had been punctured, but he laughed it off, not taking it to heart, and said, "As long as you’re confident, in this case, you take the lead!"

He had already given Huang Qiangmin the advance payment, and if he didn’t trust Jiang Yuan at this point, it was like selling himself out.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said, "Then we’ll still target the whole village, including the victim’s relatives, according to the contact list. Next, we’ll categorize these people and investigate them in waves."

Liu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That’s more like it, it’s doable. Who should be picked for the first wave? Relatives of the victims living in the village?"

"The footprints inside the house have been trampled over too much, with many people coming and going, and later some villagers also entered. However, I can still summarize a range... at least 165 centimeters in height, male, over 130 pounds, right-handed, having an intimate relationship with the victims, and able to enter the bedroom..."

Jiang Yuan had already used skills such as footprint identification, tool identification, and bloodstain analysis in this first wave.

Liu Cheng didn’t understand, but was greatly encouraged, saying, "In that case, the number of people can be greatly reduced."

"It’s just that these are the first wave; if they don’t match, the numbers will increase again." Jiang Yuan couldn’t guarantee that the murderer wouldn’t have the ability to counter-investigate or coincidentally foil investigation efforts.

But for now, the scale of the investigation was still small, and it did not provoke Jiang Yuan’s sense of urgency.