National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 906 - 844: Key Points

Before Dawn.

The group drove over a hundred kilometers to reach Yueyang Village.

A portion of the officers was tasked with finding all available surveillance videos as much as possible and sending them back to the Criminal Investigation Brigade by car. The rest continued to look for more surveillance footage, contacting people by phone to collect it. Some accompanied Jiang Yuan to re-examine the crime scene.

By now, it was essentially acknowledged that this case was a normal criminal case involving elements of luck, and Liu Jinghui didn’t give any special instructions like increasing personnel. He simply filled his stomach and waited in the Image Reconnaissance Brigade office.

Occasionally, Liu Jinghui would also like to visit the crime scene, as it helps him construct the crime in his mind. But this crime scene had already been meticulously inspected, and Jiang Yuan’s second investigation bore no significant fruit; whatever Jiang Yuan could perceive, Liu Jinghui could not, so he did not join in the bustle.

The night grew deep.

The office of the Image Reconnaissance Brigade was becoming increasingly crowded.

The detectives of the Image Investigation were called in on short notice. For detectives of this level of the brigade, it is relatively unusual to work overtime through the night, which generally happens only in major cases, incidents involving leadership’s friends losing their bags, and so on. Usually, the higher the level of the unit, the more regular the hours, and at the brigade level, they can mostly stick to normal office hours.

Unless it’s when a super specialist like Jiang Yuan is involved in the case. By the time the first batch of surveillance videos was retrieved, Yu Wenshu had rushed over, not to mention the other police officers.

Actions speak louder than words. Don’t look at what the leader says in meetings; look at what he does afterward. If a leader likes to chat with pretty female subordinates, then the good-looking male subordinates will have to... look for opportunities through intermediaries... If the leader usually respects a certain technician, then the subordinates will think twice before causing trouble.

Yu Wenshu had spent so much money on Jiang Yuan and even reverse-transferred so many elite officers to Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad. Such an investment would be painfully significant for any brigade, which itself speaks for Yu Wenshu’s choice.

At two o’clock in the morning, Jiang Yuan returned to Changyang City and went directly to the Image Reconnaissance Brigade.

He had slept in the car to and fro and felt fairly energetic now. Upon entering the office and taking a couple of sips of water, he said, "Li Yanmin’s residence should not be ruled out as the primary crime scene."

This statement didn’t seem different from the previous judgment on the surface, but it actually was. The officers present knew that "not be ruled out" is cop jargon, roughly translated to: It’s possible, but I can’t find any evidence.

It might sound unreasonable, but in fact, evidence itself has high standards. It’s a requirement laid out by the public to protect their own interests, not the only standard that police need to adhere to.

Making a conviction without evidence would certainly lead to wrongful convictions. But the police, being human, are not solely reliant on evidence to make judgments.

It’s like a student who, after attending a semester’s classes, can easily pass judgment without definitive evidence: XX is an idiot!

Or a worker who, after just a week, can point out without any proof: Except for XX and XXX, the rest are all pure morons!

When Liu Jinghui heard there was no evidence, he perked up and said, "Tell me more in detail."

Yu Wenshu, Ma Jiyang, and others also sat up straight to listen.

Jiang Yuan thought about his words and said, "Based on the crime scene investigation, the victim’s bedroom likely had a carpet, right next to the bed. This is because the imprint on the floor is not evenly distributed. My guess is that Li Yanmin was hit and fell onto the carpet, and the assailant rolled him up in it and took the whole thing away."

As Jiang Yuan said this, he spread his hands and continued, "But this can’t be ascertained. Too much time has passed, and his room receives quite amount of sunlight."

"Was there any fiber evidence on the victim?" Liu Jinghui was knowledgeable in this area.

"If it was a woolen carpet, it would not survive in the reed beds," Jiang Yuan explained. "After such a long time, it would have mostly decomposed. Wool, being a natural polymer fiber, tends to decompose easily in warm and humid environments. Plus, there have been rains intermittently over the past several days, washing away any remaining wool."

"Woolen carpets aren’t cheap. Turns out that the more expensive materials are the least useful," Ma Jiyang couldn’t help but remark.

Mu Zhiyang answered on behalf of Jiang Yuan, "It’s possible the person who bought the wool carpet never planned to die on it."

Ma Jiyang gave a thumbs up: "That makes a lot of sense."

"Another key point," emphasized Jiang Yuan, "Although Li Yanmin’s bedroom once had a carpet, no one knows if there was still a carpet there during the period leading up to his death. Li Yanmin had very limited interactions with relatives, and the few female acquaintances he had almost never turned into girlfriends."

"How did he solve his physiological needs then?" Liu Jinghui immediately noticed this crucial issue.

Jiang Yuan paused, recalling the scene, and said, "I didn’t see anything for personal use, but there were two boxes of condoms. Self-service?"

"Maybe there’s some secret mistress?" Liu Jinghui seemed to think of something, chuckled, then became serious again, "Proximity breeds adultery, gambling leads to theft. He couldn’t have been killed for no reason. If it involved an affair, that would explain it well."

"An affair means the woman is married, isn’t that thrilling? Instead of finding a girlfriend for himself, he goes for someone else’s?" Wang Chuanxing found the idea exciting.

"Maybe it’s true love?" Mu Zhiyang countered.

"True love should lead to divorce. What era are we living in? There’s nothing wrong with divorcing."

Liu Jinghui scoffed, "Maybe it’s the wife of a brother, uncle, or cousin. Is it easy to be Emperor Xuanzong of Tang?"

"Is that even possible?" Wang Chuanxing wanted to say he didn’t understand, but the reference to Emperor Xuanzong made it clear. Though still puzzled, he had a sudden realization.

"That’s why you should never assume that the only matters in a village are trivial," Liu Jinghui was widening the younger officers’ horizons with his remarks, which were deliberately concise. "If you dig deeper, you’ll find everything in the village from trivial disputes, to grievances as serious as disinheriting fathers, poisoning brothers to covet their wives, and deceiving mothers and fooling with sisters."

After a pause, Liu Jinghui continued, "Of course, with this case, the possibility of the perpetrator being an acquaintance has increased again, though at present, we can only start with the surveillance footage. Tomorrow morning, we’ll ask around in the village to see if there’s any such situation."

"Let’s start with the surveillance footage then," Jiang Yuan said, holding a pot of ginseng tea, and sat behind the monitor wall, letting the Image Investigation officers begin their work.

Mr. Jiang occasionally studied health maintenance issues. When he called Jiang Yuan at dinner time and learned that his son would be working late, he immediately called a familiar tea shop in Changyang City and had them deliver some cooked ginseng tea.

Jiang Yuan naturally did not refuse. He sipped the tea while waiting to view the surveillance footage.

The quality of the surveillance footage collected from the village was varied; putting aside resolution, many cameras were installed in unsuitable locations, and some couldn’t even capture the full license plate.

The Image Reconnaissance Brigade also had corresponding software to read these videos, especially those related to vehicle surveillance footage. There were mature solutions for identifying stolen vehicles, vehicles without plates, or those with obscured license plates.

Additionally, the trajectory of vehicles was one of the criteria for judgment, such as cars suddenly slowing down, circling in a particular area, or passing the same intersection multiple times. These details are often difficult to detect manually, but using software, a list of suspicious vehicles could be generated quickly. freewebnoveℓ.com

Jiang Yuan also prioritized viewing these suspicious vehicles. After watching, he filtered out several suspect vehicles, recorded them aside, and then closely watched the afternoon’s traffic.

He now had a clearer estimation of the time of death but didn’t disclose it. Given the complexity of the body’s condition, his estimate’s accuracy was at most 70 percent, but this didn’t prevent Jiang Yuan from focusing more attention on this time period.

Sip...

Slurp...

Jiang Yuan drank his ginseng tea, occasionally jotting down the license plates of suspicious vehicles. There were many reasons for suspicion, including but not limited to the direction of the vehicles, the type of vehicle, the number of occupants, and so on.

The list of license plates he noted exceeded a hundred. When morning came, the police officers would visit these car owners, following the list.

If this round of visits bore no fruit, it might be time to call in Xu Taining.