National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 732 - 675: Stirring Up the Situation

Chapter 732: Chapter 675: Stirring Up the Situation

Hearing that paint had been found, Tao Lu and the others grew even more excited.

Tao Lu came from a detective background and didn’t know much about criminal science, but he knew one thing: whenever there was paint evidence in the samples, the laboratory hardly ever failed. They would always have something to say, and their findings were widely accepted in court.

This was because paint evidence had an extremely wide range of applications, with the most common being automotive paint. In road traffic accidents, vehicle paint evidence was often used to identify suspect vehicles and determine whether a collision had played a key role. In addition, marine paint, architectural paint, spray paint, and so on, also frequently appeared in cases.

The complex composition of paint might be troublesome in industry, but in criminal identification, it turned out to be very useful. There were an absurd number of testing methods, such as microscopic examination, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Py-GC/MS testing—if only officials’ loyalty could be tested with so many techniques, integrity would have become the norm long ago.

The police department’s own Trace Evidence Laboratory also didn’t dare to slack, working overtime to help them jump the queue.

In just one day’s time, the test report was delivered to Tao Lu’s desk.

Tao Lu quickly skimmed through the test report, his face already beaming with a triumphant smile.

Upon hearing the news, members of the special case team filled Tao Lu’s office in no time.

The smiling Director of the Testing Center passed the report around and explained on behalf of everyone, "The white particles are indeed paint, and they come from a Foton microvan. We used multiple methods to verify this, but the report shows the test was done with the most reliable infrared spectrometer, where you can see an absorption peak at 1724, along with ones at 1601 and 1583..."

A few veteran detectives nodded "hmm, hmm," like they were appeasing their wives, not really listening to the Director’s thorough explanation, but each stretched their necks to look at the report, as though they understood it.

The Director of the Testing Center’s expression turned resentful in an instant, "I’ve told you the ultimate conclusion..."

"For microvans, should we start by checking the vehicle’s travel history? Just to be safe, should we also talk to residents in the vicinity? Such a vehicle would be quite conspicuous in a residential area," said Cui Qishan, looking at the report, his emotions already on the rise, "The time frame is broad, but that shouldn’t be a problem."

Nowadays, by entering a vehicle’s license plate number into the police system, one could see its lengthy travel history, which was mainly completed by surveillance and constituted the application of big data, sparing the detectives the trouble of blindly following vehicles.

Even if a vehicle concealed its license plate, the police could still trace its movements through fuzzy searches.

Liu Cheng on the side said, "We should be able to find nearby vehicles of similarity, not sure how many there might be, but the workload isn’t much if we search one by one."

"There’s an issue, though. Having van paint on the bones doesn’t mean the van had to drive to the open space. The van might be the primary scene, and the open space where the body was dumped, but another mode of transport could’ve been used in between."

That statement was key, and it cooled the detectives’ enthusiasm quite a bit.

Tao Lu turned his head and saw that the sobering reminder came from Xiao Si, who had recently joined the special case group organized by Cui Qishan.

Liu Jinghui cleared his throat and said, "It’s indeed possible that the van was parked somewhere else, but I think it’s quite likely that it did go to the open space. Otherwise, transporting six bodies would have been a huge hassle. Even if the killer didn’t know at first, after transporting one or two bodies, he would’ve given up that method."

"Microvans are about three meters, maybe three meters twenty in length, yeah? Many places in the city are off-limits for them. This open space, at least during the day, couldn’t be accessed, and coming here at night, in the dark, isn’t easy either, plus it’s conspicuous," countered Xiao Si, who had put a lot of time into this case and had his own way of thinking, not easily persuaded by others.

Liu Jinghui carefully weighed his words then smiled again, "We can’t entirely rule out that possibility, but moving bodies isn’t easy either. Right after death, bodies are extremely heavy, to the point that the murderer had to dismember them; we’ve all seen how messy decaying bodies can get. Even once they’re reduced to bones, there often still are things attached. Moving the bodies from one vehicle to another, the killer would just be making things harder for himself."

"And there will be a lot of evidence left in the car, which will be difficult to clean," Tao Lu nodded to Liu Jinghui and said, "Let’s not consider the issue of transport for now. Director Liu, please continue. Oh, Jiang Yuan’s here. Captain Jiang, please have a seat over here."

He effectively negated Xiao Si’s line of thought.

Seeing Jiang Yuan, Tao Lu revealed a genuine smile. The case was showing promise, and it was all thanks to Jiang Yuan’s efforts.

As a detective, by following the questioning procedure, he was able to clearly grasp the situation at the scene. The young forensic doctors present had already excitedly described Jiang Yuan’s findings several times over.

If this case were solved, this moment would be fondly remembered by everyone for a long time.

Jiang Yuan greeted everyone with a smile and instead of taking a seat, he said, "I’ve looked over the electronic version of the report. Please, continue."

Before anyone else could speak, Xiao Si refused to give up and said, "I admit the likelihood of switching vehicles isn’t high, but we should still consider that possibility. Also, the paint we found might not be from the exterior of the vehicle, but rather, its interior, right? If that’s the case, couldn’t the perpetrator have simply used Foton’s paint to touch up another vehicle? I’m not trying to be contradictory for the sake of it, but it’s feasible that a repair shop might use their paint to spray on other cars, since Foton vehicles are relatively cheap."

The brows of Tao Lu and the others furrowed tightly.

To say Xiao Si was being argumentative, his point was still valid and had to be considered.

After pausing for a moment, Liu Jinghui said, "The core breakthrough now is this vehicle. We should first search for Foton-branded vans, checking all that have driven past this vacant lot in their trajectories. If we still find nothing, then we’ll consider the scenario Xiao Si mentioned."

With this reasoning, everyone’s thoughts immediately became clear.

Cui Qishan grabbed Xiao Si and laughed, "You almost had us sidetracked."

Xiao Si spread his hands, no longer insisting on agreement.

Liu Jinghui coughed twice and said, "I have a shortcut we can try."

Tao Lu immediately looked over. While there was no budget cap on this case, he still felt uneasy due to his own lack of funds. A shortcut was particularly suitable for him.

Liu Jinghui continued, "I thought of this while reading the transcripts. Several residents near this vacant lot frequently report and call the police. Also, due to reasons related to demolition, they are quite sensitive to construction vehicles and trucks, often mentioned in police reports. Perhaps we can check and compare records from two years ago. We might just find a license plate number."

Tao Lu slapped his thigh and turned around, saying, "Liu, this task is yours."

Liu Cheng quickly accepted. This method was practical and cost-effective, requiring just a couple of people to check the records. It might just become the breakthrough in the case, a godsend. Even if they found nothing, what was the workload for two people anyway?

Cui Qishan wanted to raise his hand but didn’t do so in time. As he left the room, he still felt a hint of regret and said to Xiao Si, "You could have just called out earlier. They’re all like captains, too embarrassed to compete with you. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t get the chance; Tao doesn’t like you anyway."

Xiao Si shook his head and said, "In the ’Poop Poker Group’, I’m essentially the troublemaker. How could they let me touch such a piece of cake?"

Cui Qishan was stunned for a moment, staring at Xiao Si for a while before saying, "If it really were a ’Poop Poker’, you couldn’t stir it."