National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 749 - 692: Cousin

Chapter 749: Chapter 692: Cousin

Coming over with Liu Cheng to deliver photos of the suspect’s footprints was Chen Guoning from the Zhengguang Bureau Forensic Science Center.

The two first placed the photos on Jiang Yuan’s office desk before Liu Cheng said, "From the footprints, we’ve narrowed the suspects down to a total of seven people. I had Chen broaden the search a little, to a total of twelve. Take a look and see if you can narrow it down further."

After speaking, Liu Cheng continued, "Chen, Chen Guoning is a veteran trace examiner at our Zhengguang Bureau, also adept at footprint analysis. His master is one of the pioneers of the Forensic Science Center. He also studied under the apprentices of the master of tracking, Ma Yulin. After he came back, in a single month, he caught several truckloads of criminals. It was considered legendary."

"Impressive. Nice to meet you, Director Chen..." When Jiang Yuan came to Beijing, he did bring some EQ to his work.

Chen Guoning, who seemed to be in his forties or fifties, smiled and said, "The impressive one is my master. If we’re talking about legends, that would be the senior Ma Yulin. My life’s biggest regret is not having met the old gentleman. I have consulted with several of Ma’s disciples along with my master, but according to my master, I’m a bit slow on the uptake, only half-baked, and still have a lot to learn from Captain Jiang."

With a few sentences, he dispelled the slight awkwardness in the office using stories of the old masters. Of course, it was still possible to detect a hint of dissatisfaction—after all, Jiang Yuan was going to sift through the list and photos that he had already filtered. If one were a bit more hot-tempered, it could even be said that Jiang Yuan was stepping on his neck to do the job.

But with the case of the "Corpse in the Rain," the stakes were too high. Now, with a behind-the-scenes mastermind like a case within a case, Chen Guoning indeed felt powerless. Under these circumstances, he could only let Jiang Yuan take the lead.

Moreover, given the capabilities Jiang Yuan had shown before, Chen Guoning even felt the need to defuse the atmosphere a bit.

Jiang Yuan was actually quite familiar with this kind of atmosphere.

Working on cold cases always had this issue: the cold case unit essentially filled in the gaps left by the current case team in cracking cases. Even without a single problem in the current case team’s work, the cold case unit’s efforts could still highlight imperfections in the current one.

Jiang Yuan simply smiled, accustomed to this. He could only say that half of the fee collected by Huang Qiangmin included bearing pressure.

"Footstep tracking is best performed with multiple sets of footprints," Jiang Yuan stated, offering a simple explanation.

The domestic footprint identification technology can be said to have all stemmed from Ma Yulin—a herdsman who started shepherding and carrying loads at the age of 12. He developed a forensic art entirely through his own observation, comparison, and contemplation.

For a long time, disciples who had learned from Ma Yulin set up numerous training classes across the country, nurturing China’s first batch of criminal police officers specialized in footprint identification.

In terms of self-taught success, even Jiang Yuan, who was endowed with a systematic knowledge, acknowledged there was still a gap in depth compared to comrade Ma Yulin.

Jiang Yuan surmised that to surpass the capabilities of ordinary individuals and to surpass forensics experts worldwide of his time, one would likely need to be at an LV8 level.

It’s imaginable that before the 1980s, mainly in the 60s and 70s, when the whole country was full of dirt and mud roads, Ma Yulin’s tracking techniques could almost be applied in various cases.

In contrast, today’s footprint identification has a more solid theoretical foundation and wider applications. However, as for practicality, it might not be as effective as in the past.

"Where do you plan to start, Captain Jiang?" Chen Guoning didn’t discuss technical details with Jiang Yuan. He had privately reviewed several of Jiang Yuan’s footprint identification cases and was not entirely sure to what extent Jiang Yuan could achieve.

In many instances, where Chen Guoning thought it was no longer possible to advance a case using footprint identification, Jiang Yuan could still make astounding judgments, which invariably turned out to be correct after the fact.

Today’s case also had that flavor, as Jiang Yuan had said. If there were multiple sets of footprints, Chen Guoning could also make more detailed judgments. But with just a single footprint, without stride and gait, the difficulty of making accurate assessments increased significantly.

Anyway, Chen Guoning had reached his own limit. For a serial murder cold case, he didn’t need reminding; he had already given it his utmost effort. To refine it further was beyond his capabilities.

"Let’s take a look first," Jiang Yuan said with a smile as he started to examine the photos.

Spending a minute or two on each, after looking through over a dozen photos, Jiang Yuan said, "You have the originals, right? Load them onto the computer for a closer look."

"I’ll have them uploaded to the server." Liu Cheng, who was sitting and feeling listless, immediately stood up to make a call.

Jiang Yuan then turned on the 55-inch screen hanging on the wall, waiting for the photos to be uploaded from the server so he could read the original images in detail.

After looking through two or three images, Jiang Yuan stopped and said, "We can focus our investigation on this one."

"Yang Wanjun?" Liu Cheng first checked the number on the photo and then confirmed the suspect, saying, "This is the victim Liu Zhiwu’s cousin, the son of his mother’s brother, so they’re close kin... Hmm, the height and weight are consistent, we’ll focus our investigation here."

Liu Cheng was essentially in the dark. Now that the case had reached this stage, all the information was new to him, and he hadn’t come into contact with it before.

In crimes like these where the perpetrators are close relatives, the motive often becomes more important and even harder to ascertain.

Liu Cheng first made a phone call instructing his subordinates to start the investigation, then turned back and asked, "Captain Jiang, is the footprint definitively matched to a single person? Or is it just a suspect?"

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and replied, "There is an eighty percent chance it’s from the same person, that’s what the footprints at the scene suggest. The main factors we can observe are the reaction pressure of the footprints, as well as the width of the pressure area and the angle of inclination. Judging from these criteria, it matches up with Yang Wanjun’s."

Liu Cheng hurriedly clarified, "I was thinking, since Liu Zhiwu worked as a project manager for a renovation company and may have offended many people, we still haven’t completely sorted out his work-related contacts."

Right now, Liu Cheng just didn’t feel secure enough; his list of suspects didn’t seem long enough for a detective to be confident.

Chen Guoning was staring at the screen, studying the points Jiang Yuan had just mentioned, when he heard Liu Cheng’s words and couldn’t help saying, "Didn’t you say there was a sacrificial ceremony? Would a client pay respects to him?"

Liu Cheng was taken aback, then chuckled, "It could be someone with a guilty conscience. Right, we’ll start by looking into Yang Wanjun."

Having said that, Liu Cheng left the office to make arrangements.

Theoretically, a crime suspect without a criminal record could provide a wealth of information if questioned directly at their home; many people can’t withstand an in-person interrogation by the police. In the case of minor incidents, this is how it’s usually handled. The collection of evidence in advance is something left for the big cases.

In other words, even for a case like today’s, where the detectives feel confident they could intimidate a confession out of a suspect with sheer presence, it’s still preferable to gather evidence first if possible.

This is like at the card table, where a strong mental game is no match for the stroke of luck that blesses a novice.

Jiang Yuan and Chen Guoning worked together to write up and sign the forensic report, then headed downstairs.

By that time, the office was becoming more lively.

"Director Liu." Jiang Yuan saw Liu Jinghui and Li Haochen crouched in a corner looking at a screen as soon as he descended the stairs.

"Oh, Jiang Yuan is here," Liu Jinghui said with a listless expression.

"Any progress on the case?" Jiang Yuan was somewhat familiar with that look on Liu Jinghui’s face.

Liu Jinghui nodded and said, "After Liu Zhiwu’s death, Yang Wanjun became the first heir to Liu Zhiwu’s mother’s estate."

"Eh, for the money?"

"Real estate worth 3 million, at most 4 million, so can’t be too sure," Liu Jinghui said with a grimace. "That’s all his mother had in terms of real estate, with no more than 200,000 in cash assets."

"A house worth 4 million is still quite something, many people wouldn’t earn that much in a lifetime," Li Haochen remarked seriously. "Yang Wanjun’s employment is unstable; he barely manages to stick to any job for half a year, hardly earning 100,000 in a year. His father’s residential property back home isn’t worth a million. His aunt’s apartment is his only path to owning a home in Beijing."

"Does he have technical skills?" Jiang Yuan asked the crucial question.

To capture the process of He Wei committing the crime, or even just the process of dumping the body, a certain level of equipment and technical know-how was necessary. Furthermore, their communication afterward using foreign software was not something an average person could manage.

"We’re not sure yet. But Yang Wanjun is something of a photography enthusiast and has worked for several e-commerce startups," Liu Cheng interjected upon returning, his expression one of elation. From his perspective, as long as the case was solved, whether the method of resolution was elegant or not didn’t matter in the slightest.