National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 748 - 691 Screening

Chapter 748: Chapter 691 Screening

The footprints of the worshipper Jiang Yuan had found near the burial site weren’t particularly unusual. The person of average height and age, slightly lighter in weight but still within the tens of millions of ordinary weights, couldn’t directly point to Old Nine’s identity.

However, the act of worship exposed much more.

It indicated that Old Nine had an emotional connection with the buried victim, regardless of whether it was love, hate, grievances, or human suffering. In short, the act of worship completely dragged the case back from a serial murder to an ordinary homicide.

The scariest aspect of a serial killer is actually their antisocial nature. If you have a serial killer who desires nothing, that is the most helpless situation, and most of those who do as they please are also very difficult to investigate. Even if the police manage to connect with their thought process, it doesn’t necessarily lead to effective investigation.

Crimes of passion are much better. Despite it seeming like a person may know many others, in reality, the social limit of a normal person is about 500, with around 150 that one maintains contact with. This is known as the Dunbar’s 150 rule.

And from the detectives’ point of view, surely these 150 people can’t all be enemies.

The number of people who harbor love and hate intense enough to result in murder is naturally even fewer.

Thus, upon hearing Jiang Yuan’s discovery, without the need for Director Liu to remind them, the detectives frequently involved in cases could easily conceive a variety of ways to solve the case.

Tao Lu directly drove to the scene.

Liu Jinghui, Li Haochen, Cui Xiaohu, and others followed suit.

Upon arriving, the group quickly ascended the mountain. Tao Lu, walking a bit behind, said as they walked, "I was initially thinking of letting Jiang Yuan go all out, calmly inspect the scene, and then allocate resources to restart the grand battle. I never dreamed that Old Nine would engage in some sort of worship... Now I’m worried it’s the work of nearby villagers, which would be a false alarm."

"Even without this act of worship, following the social network to investigate is the correct approach," Director Liu smoothed out, "If Jiang Yuan says it’s a suspect, then the likelihood is still pretty high."

Liu Cheng from the side remarked, "There aren’t many people left in the nearby villages, and there are no graveyards ahead. However, we sent people to inquire whether anyone was buried here."

Many villagers in different places would quietly bury their dead, but in Beijing, this was less common. Liu Cheng was just being cautious.

Tao Lu nodded; such basic procedures didn’t require his arrangement.

As they continued and began to sweat slightly from the climb, they reached the burial site. From afar, they could see the police tape and drones flying overhead, resources that Ningtai County lacked. In the Zhengguang Bureau, these were common practices, but in the county, even if purchased, they were seldom used.

Up close, Jiang Yuan was busy inside a gravesite, clad in a white lab coat and rain boots.

Next to him were several jars each containing insects and larvae among other small creatures.

"The body has been sent away, and I’ve done a preliminary check. The body is nearing skeletonization, but remnants of clothing are still present. Furthermore, the victim’s personal items contained keys and jewelry, primarily made of metal... Further ahead is the worship site, also guarded by colleagues..."

Jiang Yuan gave a brief explanation, also allowing Tao Lu and the others to see for themselves.

After looking, Tao Lu was immediately much more at ease.

The worship site was located off the path and surrounded by secondary forest. Judging by the thickness of the trees, they were at least twenty to thirty years old; it was normal to think that there were no graves beneath.

"Can the identity be confirmed? Can DNA and fingerprints be retrieved?" Tao Lu promptly turned and asked Jiang Yuan, "It needs to be matched clearly with the victims reported by He Wei."

"DNA should be no problem. As for fingerprints, the skin on the hands is gone, not sure if they can be retrieved from the keys," replied Jiang Yuan, his tone quite relaxed. These were simple tasks; any LV1 could handle them, and an LV2 could do them quite well.

Meanwhile, Director Liu and Li Haochen had started sifting through the victim’s interpersonal relationships upon confirming the site of the worship.

Although they didn’t have a complete and detailed list, a person’s significant interest connections are limited, as are the possible motives of love and hate.

Liu Jinghui had been a criminal investigator for many years, and upon seeing the identity of a victim, he could immediately call to mind a few vulnerable relationships, most of which would typically match the case.

Such as marital relationships, debt relationships, couples, adulterers...

What could be a bit troublesome were those intimate relationships marred by years of resentment; however, to the criminal investigators, they didn’t need to be so meticulous. In the face of such malicious cases, it was a given that they would review all close relationships thoroughly.

Therefore, there were people who meticulously planned crimes, hoping to distance themselves from them. Some even designed quite clever schemes, showing a lack of deep understanding of the judicial system. Police investigations were largely about overwhelming force; there were hardly any investigators who would seriously haggle for ages just to exclude a few suspects from the list.

Liu Jinghui was no different; he was capable of crafting very intricate investigation processes, but there was no need for it.

Given the current staffing of the Zhengguang Bureau, handing them a narrowed-down list was like cutting down the opportunities for the younger officers to distinguish themselves, which could be considered unethical.

Even Cui Qishan, a middle-aged squadron leader, volunteered, saying, "Should I take people to sweep through the woods here?"

"Well... sigh, go ahead," Tao Lu reluctantly agreed.

Think of it as a thorough cleaning; more workload, but at least it’s done more cleanly.

After Jiang Yuan completed the autopsy, it was almost the next day.

By the afternoon, when Jiang Yuan woke up and returned to the task force, he saw in the large conference room a long list hanging, continuously crossed out, checkmarked, starred...

"How’s it going? Is the progress smooth?" Jiang Yuan knew this was a repeat check, using Xu Ke’s words from before, it was like having so much wealth that they were burning through it.

Liu Cheng, busy and sweating, yet in good spirits, replied, "We’ve nearly finished scouting out the relationships around the victim. However, we have yet to find a definite suspect; we’ve just listed some possible suspects..."

"What does Director Liu say?" Jiang Yuan asked.

Liu Cheng looked towards Liu Jinghui and Li Haochen not far away and said, "Director Liu and they are having quite a heated discussion; it’s a clash of different theories."

That meant they were each sticking to their guns and could not reach an agreement.

Jiang Yuan understood and, looking at the list on the whiteboard ahead, asked, "Haven’t you brought people in for questioning yet?"

Just like some people who flirt online with flourish, but when it comes down to offline encounters, they lower their heads, bashfully hiding themselves. Criminal suspects who are evasive aren’t scary. By pulling them in one by one for questioning, the suspects might very well reveal themselves.

However, Liu Cheng shook his head, saying, "The total number is still quite high; we have at least dozens of remaining suspects. The victim, Liu Zhiwu, was a project manager at a renovation company which handled many projects, and there were quite a few instances of under-the-table dealings, so there’s no shortage of people involved in financial disputes. Tao thinks we need to secure some evidence before we can arrest anyone. Otherwise, if the suspect destroys the evidence, this case will get ugly."

It all came down to different considerations from different positions.

It was inherently difficult to prove someone as the mastermind behind the scenes; if Laojiu could scrub the evidence clean, the prosecution phase would be extremely unappealing.

"You’ve filtered through the footprints and only have a few people left?" Jiang Yuan asked.

Liu Cheng hurriedly replied, "We’ve widened the weight range a bit, considering that over the course of a year, one’s weight might change. We’ve nearly exhausted all other methods."

Jiang Yuan immediately said, "If it’s just a few people, that’s not too many for footprint comparison. Why don’t you collect their footprints for me, and I’ll compare them one by one. If they prove identical, we can basically confirm the suspect."

"Is that possible?" Liu Cheng, who had dealt with footprint analysis, knew it mainly helped narrow down the range; instances where it could directly establish identity were very rare.

Jiang Yuan just nodded. He had rested enough and was ready to begin intensive work at any moment. The scope of application for footprint analysis had just expanded!