National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 834 - 775 Consolidation

Chapter 834: Chapter 775 Consolidation

"Looking at the plants from the excavation site, the luggage containing antiques was buried between one and two years ago. If we preliminarily set the time around last October, we just need to confirm the prior rough location, and the case could make significant progress."

Jiang Yuan stood out and started integrating the case details with technology.

Suddenly, the direction of everyone’s conversation shifted.

Pang Jidong asked, "Can your road surveillance data be kept for so long?"

"No," Cui Qishan replied and added, "Some main road facial recognition checkpoints might work, but we have to determine which road section first and then see whether the suspect drove, biked, or walked."

"What about trying satellites?" The botanist who had just pulled up satellite images immediately opened his computer, browsed several websites, and pondered, "We could try our luck with some satellite data, like WorldView-3, Worldview-4, Beijing-3, which all have a resolution of 0.3 meters; it should be able to recognize people."

"Just so happens the satellite passed by when the suspect did? That’s too coincidental."

"The frequency of some satellites is very high, many passes a day, especially here in Beijing. Also, there are a lot of satellites. Besides those mentioned, there are at least a dozen commercial optical satellites like GeoEye, KOMPSAT-3A with 0.4 meters, and even more with 0.5 meters like Pleiades, Gaofen-1..." the botanist listed with expertise.

Cui Qishan’s interest was piqued, "Can it really be done like that? This is much clearer than Baidu’s satellite maps."

The botanists all laughed.

Pang Jidong coughed, saying, "Don’t buy extra satellite data. Use the remote sensing satellite resources available at Zhengguang Bureau; if not affordable, forget it, they’re expensive."

Tao Lu sensitively said, "We are handling an antiques case... Satellites are too high-end, unnecessary, completely unnecessary."

The botanist who had just recited a list of satellite names frowned, "Aren’t police stations quite wealthy now?"

"That doesn’t mean we should spend money on lottery tickets."

"Buying more wouldn’t be like buying lottery tickets. In fact, if you are willing to spend the money, you could even avoid buying data altogether. Just pay the satellite company to locate this suspect for you. That way, you would save millions on satellite data resources. Even if they hire 100 people to search the data, it’s just an expense of a few hundred thousand. Ah, this way, it’s much cheaper!"

Tao Lu, feeling his ears swell from listening, exclaimed, "I’m investigating a million-level case, and you suggest I spend millions or even tens of millions? That’s a losing deal!"

"You police departments were meant to spend money anyway. Even if the antiques are retrieved, you can’t sell them. Whether it’s millions or tens of millions spent, it’s all for solving the case... Ah..." the botanist shook his head, realizing Tao Lu truly might be out of funds.

Then let it be.

"Let’s first determine the specific location. Pull up the satellite map of Olympic West Road," Jiang Yuan commanded Wang Chuanxing.

Zhengguang Bureau’s backend also had satellite remote sensing images of the whole city. In fact, many satellite images were freely available, such as many of NASA’s databases, and the American surveillance satellites up to 1984, providing nearly 25 years of free data.

Theoretically, people worldwide could see what Americans saw via satellites in the sixties and seventies!

Comparatively, the green belt of Olympic West Road seemed quite ordinary when continuously scrolled on the satellite map.

"The distribution of pollen in the green belt of Olympic West Road indeed matches the types of pollen we extracted," Jiang Yuan first made a conclusion, then added, "To pin down the specific location, we need to look at the proportions of pollen."

Jiang Yuan again took out his notebook, glanced at it twice, and said, "Although the suitcases were buried in the soil for a while, there is still pollen attached to the suitcases, and a significant amount of pollen in the soil, particularly on the side between the two suitcases where the largest quantity was left."

"The quantity and variety of pollen inside the suitcases are far less than the outside, but if you look closely at their types, they are basically from near the green belt of Olympic West Road."

"This indicates that not only did the outer parts of these two suitcases come into contact with the green belt of Olympic West Road or were placed near it for a long time, but there was also exposure when the suitcases were opened."

Speaking, Jiang Yuan paused, and the group of botanists was not surprised, they just quietly waited.

Academics often had bursts of excitement when new ideas suddenly struck; this was normal.

Some who took notes were now rereading what Jiang Yuan had just said—if Jiang Yuan could gain insights from these remarks, perhaps they too might.

"In fact, the pollen found inside the suitcases might not have fallen in after they were opened; nobody would leave suitcases open for a long period. However, it is possible for antique vases and statues. The foam plastic in the suitcases might have brushed the pollen off from inside and outside the vases."

With Jiang Yuan saying this, everyone nodded in agreement.

The botanists, having not conducted such experiments, weren’t very clear—the difference between botany and forensic botany is that botany deals with plants themselves, while forensic botany often involves the relationship between plants and other objects.

"For example, whether pollen can stick to a bottle and under what circumstances it could be wiped off..."

Cui Qishan, as a police officer, didn’t want to think too much and only asked, "So, can we determine the location now?"

"Let’s look for it."

Jiang Yuan had Wang Chuanxing slowly pull up the satellite images.

The green belt was just a line, and although it was long, looking through it bit by bit didn’t feel too laborious.

The botanists even felt quite happy about it.

"Here, here!" someone suddenly shouted while looking.

"The proportion of lilacs is not right."

"You are looking at the current proportion; in October, the proportion might be right."

"Is it possible that the number of lilac trees now and in October is consistent, and the number of flowers and their proportion follow a pattern?" When discussing scholarly matters, scholars could certainly be very harsh.

The scholar who was attacked, although not young, could only calm down.

Most scholars never hoped to become outstanding young scholars in their lifetime; hence, they weren’t particularly meticulous about social niceties.

Wang Chuanxing continued to pull up the satellite images, but for a long time, no one spoke.

Cui Qishan stood uncomfortably close and whispered to Tao Lu, "Don’t skip it. The clarity is a bit low."

"Open the layout," said Tao Lu. "If we skip it, we can just do it again. It doesn’t cost money."

"How about here?"

Jiang Yuan stopped Wang Chuanxing.

This time, Sulei stepped forward, "Could the number of roses be too few?"

"Hmm, indeed..." Jiang Yuan waved his hand, signaling Wang Chuanxing to continue.

After several attempts, they finally selected a location.

"An antique vase or box must have been placed here for a long time," concluded Jiang Yuan and his colleagues after a brief discussion.

Although the direction of the investigation had changed from before, this was very common.

Cui Qishan nodded while making a phone call.

Soon, Xiao Si’s call came back, "We found an auction company."

It was quite logical for an auction house to have antiques.

Cui Qishan thought for a moment and said, "Check with the nearby police station about the situation. It might be better to have local officers or others from different departments take a look, and be careful not to alert anyone."

"Yes," said Li Jiang before hanging up the call.

"This might take a long time, we should probably grab something to eat first," Tao Lu volunteered, standing out this time. Regardless of whether the case could be solved, the botanists at the scene had certainly put in a lot of effort.

Everyone filed out and headed to the cafeteria to eat.

Shortly after sitting down, Xiao Si’s call came through again, "We went into the auction company, and the people inside ran when they saw the police!"

"Everyone ran?" Cui Qishan’s expression darkened, it wasn’t possible that they were all innocent and ran upon seeing the police.

Xiao Si gave a wry smile, "Not everyone ran, the front desk staff were still there. Plus one guy who was in the restroom got stuck there; the rest ran out of another door, some were chased but probably not many will be caught."