National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 786 - 729: Arriving Shortly

Chapter 786: Chapter 729: Arriving Shortly

Liu Jinghui rushed out of the car, took a couple of strides to gain momentum, then scaled the slope with the help of his waist, and within a few steps, he clung to a tree as thick as Xiao Ming’s thigh. Leaning forward, he could now see the body dumping site.

The crime scene was very small, a slope formed by a clump of trees and bushes, with three bundles of dismembered body parts spread over an area of about ten square meters. There was also nowhere easy to stand around it.

Jiang Yuan and another scene investigator were both tied with safety ropes and had been lowered from a higher part of the slope.

Of course, the terrain was not so treacherous, but this was also for safety considerations—to prevent someone from falling and landing directly onto the corpses.

Director Chu and Tao Lu, among others, also followed in their cars but did not climb up. They just stood down in a relatively flat area at the bottom.

"We can’t take this case lightly. We still need to establish a special task force for it. If necessary, we could ask the municipal bureau to coordinate and set up a task force in its name," Director Chu said as he looked up at the thicket, frowning deeply.

Tao Lu hurriedly reassured him, saying, "It won’t come to that. Otherwise, I’ll transfer a brigade to set up the framework of the task force first."

"But just setting up the framework won’t do. We cannot delay the newly emerging murder cases for the sake of solving accumulated cases. It’s just the start of the investigation, and we can’t just stop the investigation now..." Director Chu would not normally pay such close attention to murder cases, but this time, he had no choice. After thinking it over, he added, "Both sides are of utmost importance. We do need to focus on the Zhang Lizhen case, but for the new murder cases, you can bring a brigade over if you like. But just setting up the framework is useless. You need to have the mindset of solving the case."

"We definitely hope to solve the case," Tao Lu stated, then quickly admitted his apprehension, saying, "Dismemberment cases are always more complex, and the bodies here are also highly decomposed. The difficulty of solving this case is not less than the Zhang Lizhen case. Normally, it might require several brigades working together. The main issue is that now all technical resources are biased towards the investigation, so it’s not very realistic to predict how long it will take to solve the case."

"This is a homicide case..." Director Chu was reluctant to procrastinate, and he expressed his unease, "Today is just the first day of the investigation. If more bodies appear later on, we might need to split our forces..."

Tao Lu’s face also changed slightly. He naturally had thought of such a possibility but did not like to dwell on it.

For his criminal investigation brigade, handling two or three homicide cases at the same time was actually no problem. During busy periods, by slightly managing priorities, most murder cases do not require many people.

So, whether it is difficult or not really depends on the case itself.

Like now, the entire district’s manpower, thousands of people, are scouring the forest all over the city for the investigation, which leaves very limited resources for a second case.

If the second case was simply a crime of passion, it would be simple. In theory, a few officers could just follow the trail and get results. What requires the most support is the people who prepare the case files, conduct interrogations, and organize the evidence and materials. A full-strength brigade could comb through the case in a few days.

But this case involves dismemberment, and the complexity changes instantly.

Which kind-hearted person would dismember a corpse? Once dismembered, it means the anti-forensics radar is activated. There’s no difference in intention, just in capability.

Even an ordinary person, if they process the body carefully, dismember it properly, and then throw it to such a remote place, just a bit of luck and several weeks or months could pass by, the body would be heavily decomposed—if luck is even better and it reaches skeletonization, they might just get away with it.

But no matter what, according to the theory of the golden 24, 48, 72 hours, at this time we dare not blindly guess that the killer is an idiot. Thinking this way, in the end, it’s very easy to be blindsided ourselves.

So, facing a dismemberment case, it makes sense to throw two or three brigades into it right away, with several laboratories ready to work overtime day and night.

And all these were lessons learned from countless predecessors’ blood and tears. For Tao Lu to break these principles, it wasn’t just courage that he needed, but also the consideration of whether it was worth it and how he could manage the aftermath.

"If it doesn’t work, then we’ll borrow troops," suggested the Director, his thoughts more far-reaching than Tao Lu’s, much like at the beginning. This was only the first day of the investigation, and they were already short-staffed and considering asking for assistance. It meant that there would definitely not be enough manpower during the investigation process. Instead of getting to a point where they were desperate and at the mercy of others, it would be better to raise the issue now and retain some leeway.

However, since Tao Lu was the one who had to execute the plan, the Director couldn’t just start by saying he was inadequate, so he gave Tao Lu the right to agree.

Tao Lu sighed, "In that case... I’ll discuss it with Jiang Yuan as well."

The more strained the manpower, the more dependent they became on Jiang Yuan; thus, Tao Lu could make use of him to stall a little longer.

Director Chu hummed in agreement, "Jiang Yuan will certainly be a bit more confident. It’s good for a soldier on the front lines to be brave and fearless. When we are holding down the rear, we need to protect the soldiers at the front as well as provide as many reinforcements and support as possible."

Tao Lu nodded gently like an adorable sika deer, almost as if he were using the antlers on his head to nuzzle the Director.

No one gets their official position by picking it up off the ground!

At the platform scene.

Jiang Yuan had completed the initial survey and photography and began to move the body piece by piece, under the recording of the camera.

Liu Jinghui came up to assist and asked Jiang Yuan, "Can you make out anything?"

"The victim seems to be female. Young. There are signs of cutting and burning on the face, which suggests the victim and the perpetrator likely knew each other and had an emotional connection. Moreover, the perpetrator has strong psychological quality, acts cautiously. Just now, I noticed that the limbs were wrapped in newspapers, covered by a sheet on the outside, and finally enclosed in a snakeskin bag – the wrapping was very tight, hardly anything would have leaked during transport..." Jiang Yuan explained.

Liu Jinghui paused, then asked, "What was the transportation?"

"Probably a motorcycle," Jiang Yuan had already inspected the traces underneath the body earlier and found the tire marks of a motorcycle – not an easy find. After several rainfalls, only the tire prints on the slope had been preserved. It would require at least a Level 3 crime scene investigator to detect and confirm such traces.

Liu Jinghui nodded, "Pretty much what I was thinking... But driving a motorbike on such mountain roads is not easy; the driver must be very skilled in this kind of mountain driving, likely a local resident, right?"

"That’s possible," Jiang Yuan recalled the tire marks he had seen, "Judging by the wear and type of tire, it seems to be a regular motorcycle, not meant for mountains, but likely with a good amount of horsepower."

He was certified in Level 3 vehicle trace identification; though the tire marks weren’t fresh, they were still usable.

"Another point, not many households have newspapers these days," Liu Jinghui flipped through one, adding, "When we get back, we should carefully extract this newspaper and see if it has any information..."

As Liu Jinghui spoke, Mu Zhiyang below was swiftly taking notes.

"Let’s transport the body back first," Jiang Yuan got up and looked around, "I’ll follow shortly."