National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 791 - 734: A Thorough Investigation of 5 Kilometers

Chapter 791: Chapter 734: A Thorough Investigation of 5 Kilometers

Director Chu stepped over the roadside shrubs, navigated past the droppings of a large upright ape, and stood before the victim. He examined the wounds on the corpse closely before straightening up and letting out a long sigh.

"Such a young kid, is there any identification?" Director Chu asked.

"There’s an ID in the backpack. Sixteen years old, from Beijing, a high school sophomore at a key school in the city, no criminal record, parents are both senior intellectuals, still married..." Jiang Yuan had just finished checking the backpack. It was the fastest he had ever managed to establish the identity of a corpse.

The key points Jiang Yuan outlined also implied certain exclusions. For example, being a key school student with no criminal record suggests most of the time is spent studying, making it unlikely to come into contact with industries related to gambling and drugs that are prone to gun-related crimes and often force desperate actions.

In an absolutely discriminatory way, those who club hop and loiter around KTVs all day would find it hard not to come across gambling and drugs. If one worked in related fields, just doing well for three years could easily become an underworld reserve.

Director Chu nodded and proceeded to the most pressing question, "Was the victim shot with a standard-issue firearm? Can we determine the type of gun?"

"We haven’t found the bullet yet. The wound is a through-and-through with a starburst exit wound, typical of rifling marks. Considering the power, it’s likely a standard-issue gun," Jiang Yuan pondered for a few seconds before adding, "No soot ring, no stippling, it was a distant shot. According to the forensic doctor, the shooting distance was over one meter."

"This case..." Director Chu was truly overwhelmed and asked with a sigh of resignation, "Can it be combined with the Zhang Lizhen case?"

"Not at the moment," Jiang Yuan answered decisively. "At least for now, there are no connections."

"Alright, then we have another gun-related case. What are your thoughts? Should we coordinate the handling, or should I set up a separate task force?" Director Chu, having had little past interaction with Jiang Yuan, was worried he might not understand and explained, "If we set up a separate task force, the jurisdiction here would have to be ceded to them, and if they need to conduct searches or investigations, you’ll have to discuss the jurisdictional issues..."

If they were to handle it through coordination, it would mean taking on both cases simultaneously, which is also difficult. It was a choice between bureaucratic wrangling and taking on responsibility.

Jiang Yuan, of course, chose the latter. Being a sort of mercenary, he was bound to lose in any bureaucratic wrangling.

Director Chu was not surprised and nodded, "Then I’ll report this to the higher-ups right away. You guys hurry up with the investigation."

The priority level of gun-related cases is very high, however, the number of gun-related cases is not as few as many might think, not to the extent that they demand immediate attention from the highest authorities. For instance, as some publicly available data revealed, from May of 2020 to March of 2021, a total of 24,000 firearm and explosive cases were cracked nationwide, 113 gangs were taken down, 314 dens dismantled, and 24,000 criminal suspects arrested. Another public notice reported, as part of a special crackdown on firearm and explosive crime, the 24th round of concentrated arrests captured 1,724 suspects, destroyed 52 dens, and seized 3,975 firearms and 111,000 bullets.

In Beijing alone, in the first half of 2019, 18 gun-related cases were cracked, with more than 170 illegal firearms, over 650 imitation guns, over 33,000 bullets, and over 30 used artillery shells (landmines) confiscated. There were also more than 140 people detained for public security reasons and over 30 criminally detained.

A logical deduction would be that if gun-related cases were indeed rare enough to cause an uproar every time one occurred, then there would be no need for the various types of special operations against gun-related crime.

Tao Lu and others also surveyed the scene in turn, while Jiang Yuan continued with the crime scene investigation.

Following the lead of the higher-ups, Cui Qishan, after shaking his head helplessly at his own team, turned to Tao Lu and said, "Chief Tao, I’m not sure if Captain Jiang is skilled in gun-related cases. Should we bring in a weapons expert?"

This was a totally reasonable suggestion since ordinary police officers rarely handle gun-related cases.

After all, with only fifty or so gun-related cases a year in Beijing and even fewer shootings, the frequency is similar to that of unnatural deaths in small county towns. Just as a single forensic doctor can handle these deaths in small towns, the Beijing Bureau could technically have one person manage all the gun-related cases.

Tao Lu hesitated for a moment before turning to ask Huang Qiangmin for his opinion.

Huang Qiangmin offhandedly said, "Since Jiang Yuan hasn’t called for backup, he probably doesn’t need it at the moment. Of course, having someone come over to take a look wouldn’t hurt..."

If it were up to Huang Qiangmin to decide, he would fully defer to Jiang Yuan on technical aspects. But looking at it from another angle, he was concerned about overburdening Jiang Yuan, so he thought it might be good to have an expert come over to consult.

Tao Lu nodded and continued to watch Jiang Yuan work. There was a sense of urgency, but not so urgent that he couldn’t wait even a moment.

Jiang Yuan was taking a step-by-step approach to processing the evidence.

In handling gun-related cases, the first step is usually to search for bullets, shell casings, and firearms. These three pieces of evidence have direct physical contact with the perpetrator and are key to obtaining related information. Most gun-related cases are solved based on these items.

When luck was on their side, the murderer would leave the gun at the scene, with the shell casing beside it and the bullet lodged inside the victim. This was a case of everything coming down to luck — the victim probably wouldn’t see it that way, but he was no longer in a position to express an opinion.

As for the current case, Jiang Yuan didn’t see any firearms at the scene, so he just sent people to search the surrounding area. They were also trying to find the primary crime scene and any possible shell casings.

Based on the traces at the crime scene, after being shot, the victim probably didn’t realize what had happened right away and subconsciously moved forward, but soon became physically drained and suffered a loss of consciousness. Therefore, he took his backpack off his back, held it in front of his chest, and sat down on the spot, then took out his water bottle to drink, after which he lost too much blood and fell into shock and died.

This process must have been relatively quick. Referencing the bleeding time at a pig slaughter scene, a human’s ability to struggle and move isn’t that much stronger. As for specific data, there’s generally no experimental data available.

Over a dozen criminal investigators and police officers fanned out to search for the gun and bullets.

In theory, they could follow the blood trail to the scene, but in reality, in the forest during this season, it was difficult for humans to discern bloodstains. Considering the potential influence of the perpetrator on the location of the firearm and the shell casings, forcibly searching for blood wasn’t very meaningful. Moreover, the bullet might have passed through the victim’s body, and it was hard to say where exactly it had ended up.

Jiang Yuan focused his main effort on the shooting traces.

There are two types of shooting traces. One is the bullet’s impact trace, which includes the point of entry, the exit wound, and the bullet’s trajectory. For instance, the star-shaped exit wound that Jiang Yuan emphasized earlier could provide information about the type of firearm used, and the trajectory could likely provide the positional relationship during the conflict.

However, because of the victim’s movements at the last moment, determining the bullet’s trajectory via the wound channel in his body wasn’t very convenient.

Jiang Yuan briefly looked over it and then put this part of the work on hold, waiting for the others to return from their investigation to compile all the information.

Next, Jiang Yuan began to deal with the second type of shooting traces, which are shooting residues. This part includes traces left on the clothes and abrasion rings from wiping and nicking.

This is a concept rarely encountered by the average person in China, which is when a bullet spins into the skin, the dirty substances attached to the bullet, such as metal filings, grease, nasal mucus, soil, etc., rub against the edge of the entry wound, scraping out a brownish-black ring about one millimeter wide, generally circular. Once dried, it becomes extremely noticeable.

If there was a sufficient database, information from the wiping ring alone could potentially solve the case.

Jiang Yuan was engrossed in his study while Liu Jinghui finished his observation and climbed down from the tree.

Liu Jinghui pondered for a moment, then pulled over Xu Taining and asked, "Director Xu, have we conducted a thorough investigation in this vicinity? To what extent can we be thorough?"

"It’s average," Xu Taining said.

An average level meant a few people per square kilometer. Since the drone teams were composed of multiple personnel as integrated squads, in practice, there were a handful of police officers per square kilometer.

Liu Jinghui nodded and said, "Can we conduct a strict search of the surrounding area, centered on this place?"

"How large an area?"

"Within a radius of 5 kilometers that can be reached on foot? At least 3 kilometers."

Xu Taining did some calculations and realized that the area wasn’t small and then said, "A detailed search within 3 kilometers should be possible."

"My main concern is that the victim didn’t walk far after being shot, and the belongings around him were intact, which indicates that the murderer’s motive wasn’t robbery. Furthermore, the victim was a teenager, unlikely to have provoked death to this extent, at least not in a manner that would have resulted in being shot dead at once. Thus, the murderer’s intention doesn’t seem to be to kill. If the murderer wasn’t after money or a life, an accidental shooting becomes highly likely," Liu Jinghui explained quietly.

"You mentioned earlier, a hunting accident?"

"Very likely, or it could even have been a stray bullet that the murderer never realized. Of course, the probability is still quite low. But no matter what, the perpetrator is either a licensed hunter or an illegal one. If licensed, I’ll have Wang Chuanxing and his team investigate; if illegal, it might be connected to the Zhang Lizhen case, could be a group of people!" Liu Jinghui’s reasoning was tight, and Xu Taining listened with a serious expression.

"Alright. Then let’s do a detailed search within 5 kilometers," Xu Taining quickly ordered.