National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 816 - 758 Our Way

Chapter 816: Chapter 758 Our Way

Dog DNA technology developed a bit later than human DNA technology.

Essentially, it involved determining which genetic markers were stable and could be used for comparison and testing. Around the early 2000s, the Ministry’s Evidence Identification Center began with cattle DNA identification, mainly to address the question, "Why do you claim this cow belongs to you?"

The ancient practice of marking cattle and horses eventually proved less reliable than paternity testing for cows, especially when someone intended to lead your cow away or even steal it, there was doubt whether it still bore any markings.

As for dog DNA testing, a notable case happened in Estonia where a young woman was bitten to death by a dog in a village. Forensic doctors used dog hair and saliva stains collected from the woman’s clothing to test six dogs from nearby households, eventually identifying the suspect dog.

Today, dog DNA testing has become very simple and convenient, with the technology’s development now focusing on rapid DNA screening. Mainly, these are quick-test kits used by market regulatory authorities, typically capable of rapidly detecting genes from dogs, foxes, minks, cats, ducks, rats, and the like.

This means taking a swab from an uncertain meat product, inserting it into the kit, and in a matter of minutes, you’ll know if it contains meat from dogs, foxes, minks, cats, ducks, rats, and so on.

The old saying "selling dog meat under the guise of lamb" has ancient origins, and in modern times... Europe has had the scandal of 16 countries involving horse meat sold as beef. The variety of meats detectable by DNA test kits illustrates another less amusing phenomenon: the meats on the market have a reason to be suspected of adulteration, which might come from cats, foxes, minks...

In addition, raccoon dogs, also members of the canid family, have often been used to pass as dog meat.

In summary, most of the DNA cases involving dogs handled by the Evidence Identification Center are economic in nature. Therefore, suddenly becoming involved in a murder case, especially a significant one, understandably excites the technicians.

Before Jiang Yuan completed the autopsy, the technician from the Evidence Identification Center brought the report personally from afar.

"Uh, the dog corpse you’re going to examine belongs to a Belgian Malinois," exclaimed the technician joyfully as he asked for directions on his way in and met Jiang Yuan and others.

"Ah... Captain Lou has arrived. What a hassle for you to deliver it in person." Zhan Kan was dealing with skull restoration, which was giving him a headache, yet he came to greet and took the opportunity to introduce Doctor Jiang.

"We’re so familiar by now that there’s no need for handshakes, ha... Doctor Jiang, hello, I am Lou Fengguo..." Lou Fengguo approached, eyeing Jiang Yuan like a front-row fan at a concert.

With the report in hand, much like a concert ticket, Jiang Yuan took it with repeated thanks and read through it.

Lou Fengguo explained by his side, "The Belgian Malinois is a common working dog. However, they are prone to getting into trouble, especially excitable, suitable for lengthy working hours, but as pets, they easily cause mishaps—particularly mixed-breeds. The Malinois temperament is already unstable, and mixing breeds only worsens this instability."

Jiang Yuan, listening attentively, asked, "What about this one?"

"Purebred," Lou Fengguo pointed at a chart in the report, adding, "Belgian Malinois aren’t expensive. Purebreds usually go for a couple thousand, depending on how you obtain them. In cities, they are troublesome to keep, eating a lot, requiring long walks, and they shed."

"But they’re very suitable as police dogs or for working, aren’t they?" Zhan Kan didn’t want to deal with skulls anymore and moved over to join the conversation.

Lou Fengguo nodded affirmatively, "Definitely, Belgian Malinois are strong workers, can climb trees, scale walls, with exceptional leaping ability. A police Malinois can easily ascend a second-floor building, with keen alertness and a ferocious bite. Moreover, as pets, their lengthy excitable periods are a drawback, but for working dogs, it’s perfect."

"Can their DNA lead us to their owner or someone related?" Jiang Yuan took the dog’s DNA with the goal of solving the case.

Lou Fengguo became excited at this point, the hairs on his arms standing, as he eagerly awaited Jiang Yuan’s question.

"For others, it might just be waiting for you to bring in the DNA for comparison. The Belgian Malinois’s lineage is quite complicated," Lou Fengguo chuckled confidently: "But in this area, I do have some insights."

"Hmm... Do you want to join our special investigation team?" Jiang Yuan’s inquiry was exactly what Lou Fengguo wanted to hear, although the directness caught Lou Fengguo by surprise.

Lou Fengguo couldn’t help touching his short hair, "You don’t even ask about the technology I’m prepared to use?"

"I don’t know much about DNA identification," Jiang Yuan confessed, then after thinking about it, and realizing the other party wasn’t just a dismissive leader, added, "What technology are you planning to use?"

"Different bloodlines of dogs definitely possess some stable genetic DNA. Our domestic dogs have simpler origins. Frankly speaking, people in the circles call me ’Dog Understanding Emperor’," Lou Fengguo boasted with pride.

Probably there is indeed some pride in those points.

In a place with the spirit and people of Beijing, Lou Fengguo daring to call himself an emperor suggests that he must be at least Level 3 in understanding dogs. If not just from an enthusiast’s community, Lou Fengguo’s degree of understanding might even go higher.

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but think of his first skill acquired, Level 5 Dog Feeding Skill, this legacy from the victim Chen Manli. Without any professional training, just pure passion and talent, she was completely self-taught to reach Level 5.

Jiang Yuan estimated that if he entered a DNA lab, his DNA identification skill level at best would be about Level 0.8, and possibly only Level 0.4.

This subject is notoriously easy to learn yet hard to master, with the most basic operation similar to self-administered nucleic acid testing. Advance just slightly, and it becomes academically challenging—the equipment and its manufacturer, particularly which country and company produced it, must be scrutinized for consistent results.

The treatment of test samples is even more demanding, from the solution used for soaking to the homogenization plans, optimal temperatures, enzymes, and the variety of solutions added multiple times, especially the primers, with complexity that wouldn’t be exaggerated even at Level 5.

Although DNA identification is similar for different organisms, as Lou Fengguo mentioned, tracing a dog’s origin and determining its stable hereditary traits significantly increases the difficulty.

"Therefore, I’ll leave the task of finding the dog to you," Jiang Yuan made the decision swiftly.

Lou Fengguo was a bit unaccustomed and couldn’t help but ask, "Don’t you even want to do an assessment?"

Jiang Yuan glanced at him, began to put his gloves back on to prepare for the continuation of the autopsy, and asked, "Do you really understand dogs? Can you trace the bloodline and origin of this dog through the existing remains of its skeleton?"

Lou Fengguo immediately said, "Tracing its bloodline is not a problem, but to trace its origin, we might need a bit of luck..."

"That’ll be enough," Jiang Yuan interrupted Lou Fengguo.

Lou Fengguo: "That’s enough?"

"Yes, this case is being followed from top to bottom. I am a Ningtai person, and I don’t really have the authority to manage you all..."

"How could that be? With Captain Jiang’s current reputation..."

Jiang Yuan waved his hand, "What I mean is, this case is not cheap, it involves a lot, it’s not only the Zhengguang Bureau that is watching, everyone is paying attention; I don’t need to manage everyone one by one, and I don’t have the time..."

"Captain Jiang, don’t just say scary things," Zhan Kan quickly interrupted Jiang Yuan, "I feel a bit cold just listening to that."

Jiang Yuan uttered an "Oh" and switched to a gentler tone, "Team Leader Lou, welcome to the task force. Just try to do things as well as you can. Everything you do is being watched by Tao and his team."

...

Not only was Tao Lu watching, Qi Changye and his colleagues were growing increasingly anxious.

After putting in 24 hours of personal effort, Qi Changye could hardly wait to get to the autopsy center.

The words ’autopsy center’ embedded in the wall looked dusty and, from a distance, it seemed like just any ordinary building, but in Beijing, nothing is ordinary.

Bodies had to gather in numbers, at least enough to play a half table of mahjong, in order to form a scale that would attract attention.

Before entering the door, Qi Changye also scratched his hair to make it look as messy as if it were covering a thinking skull.

"Captain Jiang..." Qi Changye entered the door, his voice was wailing.

Hearing the shrill voice, Jiang Yuan first took a serious look at the skeleton on the autopsy table, making sure it wasn’t the one calling out, before turning to look at Qi Changye, "Director Qi, I haven’t finished my autopsy...is there another body?"

"I wouldn’t dare, ah... I don’t know," Qi Changye sighed, then added, "We interrogated all day yesterday and encountered some problems."

"What kind of problems?"

"Nobody really knows what’s going on with these bodies." Qi Changye spoke with a mix of solemnity and perplexity, "I was there that day, watching them come down this path."

Jiang Yuan frowned slightly upon hearing this. Indeed, from Qi Changye’s perspective, the bodies were most likely left over from a previous spy case, and there should normally have been some whispers of information...

"Did the killer escape?" Jiang Yuan ventured a guess.

"Everyone got away? That’s hardly likely." Qi Changye also agreed with Liu Jinghui’s hypothesis that several individuals were required for such a method of burying bodies.

Moreover, based on Qi Changye’s feeling, if it took four or five people to form a team to bury bodies, then the team couldn’t just consist of four or five people because things might happen among them, injuries might occur, leave might be taken, and if they were short-staffed, either the remaining members had to take on all tasks, or new members had to be added.

Adding new members was the most likely scenario, so there should be quite a few informants.

Furthermore, given the sequence of the spy case, the levels of these informants probably weren’t high. Operations are generally prioritized below intelligence inside the organization, so it wouldn’t make sense for all the informants to have fled when many had been captured.

After a moment of silence, Qi Changye asked in a low voice, "Did you find my person of interest?"

"Not yet, no matches." Jiang Yuan spread his hands and then added, "But the bodies buried underground, it’s not possible to find them all."

"This...ah..." Qi Changye sighed heavily.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan coughed twice and said, "If things aren’t going smoothly on your end, why not try our methods?"