National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 818 - 760: Simple and Complex

Chapter 818: Chapter 760: Simple and Complex

Early morning.

The reinforcements borrowed from Ningtai County arrived at the Zhengguang Bureau’s Criminal Police Squad’s building, seated in a coach bus.

Under the blue sky and white clouds, the building of the Zhengguang Bureau stood solemn and serious, its very straight appearance exuding a strong atmosphere.

Wu Junhao and Liu Wenkai walked side by side, casually chatting while taking in the sight of the Criminal Police Brigade’s building.

"This building of the Zhengguang Bureau, though it looks smaller than our new one, has a pretty good design, especially the yard—it’s so big. Not like ours, you cross a small parking lot and you’re already at the road," Liu Wenkai commented on the differences he observed.

Wu Junhao just smiled and said, "Our new building, maybe we owe a bit of that to Zhengguang Bureau too, seeing as we’re sort of related now. Say something nice."

"Got it. Back when I used to bust Johns, some guys didn’t even know the girl’s real name; they’d just point at her hair and say, ’I paid for that hairdo, how can we not be related?’ It’s the same thing," Liu Wenkai said with earnest.

Wu Junhao laughed, giving Liu Wenkai’s thin frame a hearty slap: "I quite miss your nonsense."

It had only been a month since Wu Junhao returned to the Criminal Police Detachment to sort out the team, and he really hadn’t had the chance to have a good chat with Liu Wenkai.

Liu Wenkai gasped from the slap and replied with nostalgia, "Thanks for caring, Big Wu."

Wu Junhao was transferred back to Ningtai County Criminal Police Detachment to be the captain of the first squad, and was also given the title of deputy detachment leader. Although it didn’t mean much practically, it sounded good.

Though Big Wu didn’t really sound that great.

"Let’s just stick with the old titles. Don’t want anyone getting confused," Wu Junhao said, rubbing Liu Wenkai’s shoulder.

Liu Wenkai grinned in pain, "No confusion there, everyone in our brigade knows Big Wu likes to treat us to meat-filled flatbread."

"That’s called Roujiamo."

"If it’s Big Wu treating, naturally we should call it a flatbread. Just like in big companies, the girls they hire to sing and dance should be called an ’entertainment troupe.’"

...

Conference room.

The squad leader Tao Lu organized a meeting to introduce the police officers from the special case team to the reinforcements from Ningtai County.

The officers applauded politely out of respect for Jiang Yuan.

Naturally, the ones clapping most vigorously were Qi Changye and his squad members. Without any help, it wasn’t just the pressure on their spirits that was a concern; they were about to be worked to death.

"Let’s talk about the case," Tao Lu said without too much small talk.

The life of detectives was simple, somewhat like soldiers in constant battle. They always march to the front, occasionally coming back for repairs, sometimes fighting through the night, engaging in annihilating battles, breaking encirclements, pursuing fugitives...

Pre-battle socializing wasn’t that meaningful; camaraderie was built on the front lines.

Qi Changye cleared his throat and said, "Let’s start with the status of our review of old cases. The ’Half-Ton Case’ is essentially a commercial espionage incident, which began with the discovery that the origin and registration of half-ton goods didn’t match. Subsequent investigations revealed that this started out as a case of commercial espionage, then the case gradually became more complex, involving some domestic and international organizations..."

"Reopening this case was based on the disappearance of a special informer..."

"The problem now is that we’ve re-interrogated related suspects, but haven’t received any useful information, which is a rather difficult situation to explain..."

After finishing in one breath, Qi Changye grabbed a cup and guzzled down some water.

The technicians from the forensic investigation center, who had conducted the on-site examination, started to explain the situation at the scene.

When he finished, Tao Lu naturally looked at Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan smiled and first turned to Wu Junhao and Liu Wenkai and said, "Captain Wu, Captain Liu, do you have any thoughts?"

"None," Wu Junhao replied immediately. In Ningtai County, he wasn’t responsible for brainstorming.

Liu Wenkai cleared his throat and said, "I’ve only just come into contact with this case. Could I know what directions our current investigation is taking?"

"Currently, our investigation has several directions," Qi Changye, the direct person in charge of this case, began to offer some ideas. "Firstly, we’re looking into the accessories of the first victim, hoping to locate the source of her accessories to confirm her identity."

"Secondly, we’re also doing our best to investigate the clothing found on several bodies. Additionally, there might be textiles used for transporting the corpses discovered in the grave, which we’ve asked the lab to test."

"Third, the issue of transport. The burial site is quite far from the urban area, so transportation would have been necessary to get here. Since a lot of time has passed, the video surveillance is definitely gone. We’ve tried collecting information on some traffic violators from that time and gathered some information on involved vehicles, as well as questioned some persons of interest. However, we haven’t found anything on this front so far."

"Fourth, the collection and comparison of DNA and other samples. We’re trying to collect and expand information on related individuals, but so far, we have no news."

Even though Qi Changye talked about many things, he sounded somewhat discouraged yet faintly resilient.

From a police perspective, the chances of getting a favorable outcome from reopening this old case had already become quite slim.

In fact, if a cold case were performing this way, it probably shouldn’t have been reopened.

Most cold cases are like this.

Because of the passage of time, the once readily available information and evidence are no longer accessible, and current leads can’t be confirmed...

It was the discovery of multiple bodies that forced Qi Changye to persevere.

More precisely, it forced Qi Changye and his colleagues to persevere.

At this moment, many people’s attention fell on Jiang Yuan.

Clearly, conventional thinking was hardly enough to crack the case. This wasn’t difficult to judge for any police station, anywhere; unearthing bodies from years ago in the wilderness is always a challenging case.

Having six bodies instead of one didn’t make the case much easier to solve; it only added to the pressure out of thin air.

Under the gaze of everyone, Jiang Yuan straightened up and said, "The autopsy on the six bodies is complete, let me briefly outline the findings."

"Out of the six bodies, there are two female bodies and four male bodies."

"The first and the third are female. The first victim’s time of death was about 8 years ago, with various accessories on the body, approximately 22 years old, and 1.7 meters tall. Zhan Kan is performing Skull Restoration Skill on her, but it’s estimated that it will take two to three months to complete."

"The third victim was also young, 23, not over 24 years old. She’s been dead for about six years. There were clothing remnants in the grave, but no match has been found yet. Her teeth had two crowns, but we haven’t traced their origin either."

"Among the four male bodies, the fifth and the sixth died more than five years ago, and both the second and the fourth also died more than six years ago. Although it can’t be confirmed, except for the first body who died eight years ago, the remaining five seem to have died five to six years ago, one after another."

"As for the cause of death, at first glance, it seems to have been primarily stabbing, with currently four different sharp weapons identified, used on the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth victims. There weren’t any clear sharp instrument traces on the second body..."

"Several of the bodies have old fractures, but none had internal fixations like steel plates or iron nails."

Jiang Yuan then performed occupational and lifestyle analysis on several of the bodies. This was based on a simple analysis of the conditions of the bodies’ bones and injuries, not very in-depth.

Although a forensic doctor can make certain judgments based on the impact of the victim’s lifestyle on their bones—such as those with tennis elbow could be presumed to have enjoyed playing tennis, squash, or badminton, or the work might involve painting, sculpting, or they might’ve had a poor posture while typing or writing...

It was still possible to make some judgments based on different bone conditions, but not all skeletons could yield positive identification.

Some people, they might not have exercised, had hobbies, worked much, or ever had injuries or illnesses...

Such people, unless they were found with their ID cards, would be very difficult to identify.

And there were others who might have been injured or even had surgery, but without distinctive injuries or marked internal fixation devices, it was virtually fruitless; such former injuries offered little help in identifying their bodies after death.

Tao Lu listened with a frown, while Qi Changye was even more disappointed, his brow deeply furrowed.

After a while, Qi Changye said, "That said, we still lack breakthrough clues..."

"It’s going to be quite difficult to solve this case with a simple approach," Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement.

Qi Changye subconsciously nodded, then quickly realized something was off and asked, "Is there a more complex method?"

"Hmm, there are a few approaches to consider. Let’s discuss and see which direction of investigation seems most appropriate," Jiang Yuan opened his notebook, ready to begin.

Everyone in the meeting room instinctively settled in their seats.

Only Cui Qishan couldn’t help saying, "Do we need to choose a direction? Of course, we should utilize all forces! Investigate every possible lead."

"We don’t need to start like that." Jiang Yuan smiled at Cui Qishan, then continued, "Let me start with the first strategy. Victim number three had two crowns installed, namely... left three and left five. If they were installed in Beijing, there should be X-ray images that we can compare. Additionally, she seems to have had two wisdom teeth removed, which could also be traceable through X-ray images."

Qi Changye nodded as he listened, "So, should we visit all the clinics and hospitals in Beijing to look for X-rays that match these two crowns?"

"Yes, it will be a lot of work, we have used similar strategies in past cases," Jiang Yuan said, pointing out potential issues, "But if the victim had her dental work done elsewhere, this plan would be a waste of effort."

Qi Changye couldn’t help but frown. The possibility of a fruitless effort was indeed hard to accept.

"The second strategy is to backtrack from the perspective of dogs, which Lou Fengguo, who is knowledgeable about dogs... will explain to everyone in a moment," Jiang Yuan gestured to the back.

Lou Fengguo stood up to salute, then sat back down.

"The third plan involves providing a more precise time of death for some of the bodies, accurate to the month, and perhaps to the week for one or two, but with a larger margin of error. Investigations could proceed from this angle," said Jiang Yuan, reluctant to proceed in this way, speaking rapidly.

Qi Changye sensed the reluctance and asked, "Is it difficult to ascertain the timing? How are you planning to do it?"

Jiang Yuan explained, "Firstly, we can use ultraviolet spectrophotometry for an initial determination. After measuring the values, we use a regression equation and look up tables, but the error is significant. Personally, I suggest using the profile of microbial communities; there are existing PMI prediction models... but it requires grinding bone powder, and handling the samples is quite cumbersome. Most samples’ margin of error would exceed 34 days, and if we’re lucky, we could get a conclusion within a week or two of error..."

Qi Changye, feeling overwhelmed, simply asked, "What do you think about the feasibility of this strategy?"

"Let’s put it aside for now."

"The fourth is the Skull Restoration Skill. This one will take even longer; if I do it, it could take two to three weeks to finish one, and that’s being quick. Moreover, there’s no guarantee of a match."

"And the fifth?" Qi Changye was uncertain, his desire for a solid lead was evident, but now faced with even a few possible strategies, the choice was difficult.

Jiang Yuan said, "The fifth is similar to the first, since the victims had broken bones. We can look for X-rays of the same areas. This only requires visiting hospitals, which is easier given their databases are quite good now, much easier than looking for dental clinics."

"Do you favor the fifth approach?" Qi Changye inferred somewhat.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Cui Qishan with a smile and said, "I think we can pick several investigative directions, I’ll follow up on the fifth. The rest, you guys decide how to divvy it up?"

A thick sense of tension quickly dissipated.