civil forensic

Chapter 1348 Casting the Net
Liu Jinghui, who had been selling things outside for years... deduction, had seen all kinds of customers. Even though he felt Huang Qiangmin's request was a bit rude, he still faced it with a smile, only proposing higher conditions and prices.

Liu Jinghui: "To get certainty, first of all, it's essential to expand the scope. Think about it: the crime scene is Ningtai County, one of the male victims is from Qinghe City, and the car was abandoned in Anwan City. There's reason to believe that the murderer is suspected of committing crimes across provinces. The possibility of itinerant crimes is very high. We've been searching old cases for most of the day now. To be honest, the murderer's modus operandi is quite distinctive. If the number of crimes is high, we should have found him by now."

“In Ningtai County, they’re already checking files from 15 years ago. The Qinghe City Public Security Bureau has also organized a team to investigate. How far do you think they should expand this investigation?” Huang Qiangmin pressed.

Liu Jinghui probed Huang Qiangmin with his gaze, trying to gauge his level of endurance. His words, like a thin needle, slowly pierced Huang Qiangmin's gluteal muscles: "For a case from 15 years ago, assuming the murderer has sufficient experience, regardless of whether he skipped a step or not, it's still necessary to push back a year... preferably two years."

Liu Jinghui: "Those who commit taxi robberies, especially robbery and murder, usually only last one or two years. In the early stages, they are not taken seriously and can make some money. Later, they upgrade their operations a little, and their expenses and desires increase. When they go a little bigger, the higher-ups start to pay attention and set up special task forces to track down the vehicles, mobile phones, and various assets. They start making inquiries from all sides. Whether it is an individual or a gang, they should disappear without a trace."

Modern police rely on various technological means, such as surveillance cameras, mobile phones, and various laboratories. However, 15 or even 20 years ago, there were no surveillance cameras, no ubiquitous mobile phones, and no trace evidence. The only thing they could rely on was people.

Either the police are strong enough, or there are eyewitnesses, or you can only rely on informants, which is essentially asking around in the underworld.

Similarly, the robbers back then didn't have peer-to-peer platforms like Zhuanzhuan and Xianyu, and they clearly lacked the ability to sell their goods—if they did, why would they choose robbery, the least technically demanding job? Therefore, the robbers of that era relied heavily on various channels for selling stolen goods.

So, when a case starts to involve injury or death, and when criminal investigators begin to thoroughly investigate various channels, the robbers' channels for selling stolen goods are basically blocked. What remains is either being caught or fleeing.

Huang Qiangmin was a veteran criminal investigator who had lived through that era. He had also had his share of experiences interrogating people in dance halls back then. Hearing Liu Jinghui's words, although he felt a sting, he still nodded and said, "It's reasonable to put it back two years. However, as far as I can remember, there were no such cases in Ningtai 15 or 17 years ago."

Liu Jinghui: "What about Qinghe City?"

Huang Qiangmin: I don’t think so. But I should ask, because there were no highways to the city back then, and I’m not sure if there were any in other counties.

Seeing that Huang Qiangmin's "living fossil" experience had mitigated some of the pressure, Liu Jinghui added a bit of pressure and asked, "What if he's a released prisoner?"

Huang Qiangmin frowned slightly: "I've lived in Ningtai County for 30 years, and I have no recollection of this, especially his knot-tying technique. If there were similar ones, I would definitely remember them. Besides, if he was imprisoned 15 years ago, let's not even talk about anything else. Back then, where in Ningtai County could you find taxis?"

"His knot-tying technique is somewhat similar to that of the spearmen," Liu Jinghui said.

Huang Qiangmin grunted and said, "It doesn't necessarily mean anything. So many people retire every year, and those around us can learn from them."

Liu Jinghui sensed that Huang Qiangmin was unwilling to drag out the timeline too long, but still tried to push it a step further, saying, "Actually, even considering the issue of released prisoners, simply looking at the case files and finding similar crime patterns, rope-tying methods, etc., wouldn't take much time. Just treat it as a common case of linking cases."

"What if we also consider fugitives?" Huang Qiangmin knew Liu Jinghui's target, and this caught him off guard.

Liu Jinghui gave it a push, but couldn't budge it, so he simply tickled Huang Qiangmin instead: "Should we calculate it? Do you believe the murderer only committed crimes in Ningtai, or only in Ningtai County and Anwan City, and then disappeared without a trace?"

"Sigh...this makes it impossible to do it." Huang Qiangmin sighed. In criminal cases, itinerant crimes are extremely difficult to handle.

Even in the pursuit of fugitives, the pursuit is carried out one place at a time. Or, like in economic cases, different places have different victims and suspects, so although the investigation and evidence collection involve many places, the investigation is always targeted.

If criminal cases are only investigated at the investigative level, it would require traveling all over the world, which would be too difficult. The main problem is that many of the places visited might yield no results, resulting in wasted effort. And if you travel to too many places, forget about funding; the leadership would find it unacceptable.

"It is indeed quite difficult. Perhaps we should wait and see what Jiang Yuan says when he returns." Liu Jinghui still had expectations for the giant dragon.

Some city walls are tall and thick, built by countless civil engineers working day and night. If you attack them using ordinary methods, it will definitely be a tough battle. But if there is a dragon, it's a different story.

The two exchanged a glance and reached a consensus. They quieted down, went about their own business, and waited patiently for Jiang Yuan to bring back more resources.

Six hours later, Jiang Yuan returned to the conference room after examining the remains of both victims.

Huang Qiangmin and Liu Jinghui pushed aside their teacups and asked in unison, "How is it?"

"It depends on what you want. The identities of the two victims have been confirmed, and the DNA reports should be out by now. If no one called, then there are no surprises." Jiang Yuan sat down, looking a little tired, picked up a teacup, and took a couple of sips of tea.

“The DNA has already confirmed the identity,” Huang Qiangmin replied, then asked, “What were the results of your autopsy?”

“I wrote an autopsy report, but it didn’t differ much from the results of the first autopsy, and the skeletal remains I saw didn’t provide much information.” Jiang Yuan’s answer made Huang Qiangmin slightly uneasy.

“Then what you just said…” Huang Qiangmin asked hurriedly.

Jiang Yuan looked at Liu Jinghui and said, "Not having more information is also part of the information, right?"

"Of course," Liu Jinghui replied naturally.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan winked at him.

In an instant, Liu Jinghui suddenly understood Jiang Yuan's meaning; this was clearly the breath of a giant dragon descending from the sky.

"Ningtai County, is this group's starting point?" Liu Jinghui's statement was preceded by at least three or four prior assumptions.

Jiang Yuan gave him his firm support, affirming, "Ningtai can't produce such a notorious thief, and neither can Qinghe City."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan looked at Huang Qiangmin and said, "We have already investigated the backlog cases in Ningtai County and Qinghe City. The murder cases have been traced back to 30 years ago. There is absolutely no murderer with the same method. Their methods are efficient, and it is definitely not the first time they have committed this crime."

"Is it possible that this is a leap in crime escalation?" Liu Jinghui quickly explained his previous theory to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan said decisively, "Impossible. The murderer must have killed someone before. They drove to the riverbank to kill, kidnapped the person to make the killing easier, and burned the car to destroy the evidence. Moreover, the murderer's actions were swift and efficient. If they had no experience in killing, had never encountered resistance, or had never experienced the difficulty of digging a pit, how could they have chosen this method? They chose almost the easiest method."

It is well known that digging a hole to bury a person is very tiring and time-consuming, but most people may not realize how fiercely ordinary people can resist when faced with the threat of death. At the same time, they may not have seen how easily ordinary people can compromise when faced with a strong threat that does not lead to death.

A killer who can easily and smoothly exploit the difference between threats of threat and death is like a businessman who is good at making money by exploiting information gaps. He not only needs vision and methods, but also experience and practice to apply them skillfully.

Liu Jinghui understood the reasoning behind this, but he lacked sufficient information. Without Jiang Yuan, he might have had to rummage through old documents for many days, just like he had done before, and still might not have found the answer. Otherwise, he wouldn't have relied on Jiang Yuan to solve cases every day.

Of course, Jiang Yuan couldn't draw conclusions easily, but he was extremely familiar with Ningtai County and Qinghe City. Leaving aside Ningtai County, he had already cleared up numerous backlog cases long ago. He had memorized most of the larger cases, especially the eight major crime categories. The same was true for Qinghe City. Not to mention the cases brought to him by various county bureaus, Jiang Yuan had spent a great deal of energy and time searching for all kinds of cases during Qinghe City's "Year of Tackling Backlog Cases" campaign.

Putting aside other matters, Jiang Yuan would always thoroughly review the basic information in robbery and murder cases, regardless of whether they were solved or not. This highlights the importance of local expertise in criminal investigations; the more deeply rooted a detective is in the local area, the more confident they become when dealing with cold cases, old cases, and cases involving multiple individuals.

“If that’s the case, we’ll have to cast a wide net,” Liu Jinghui said, looking at Huang Qiangmin.

Jiang Yuan also looked down at Huang Qiangmin with a calm expression.

"Damn it!" Huang Qiangmin was all too familiar with this script. He had just been given so many warnings by Liu Jinghui that he had no more illusions and asked, "Xu Taining, right?"

They've already cast a wide net, what else can he say? If he waits any longer, he can only wait for Jiang Yuan to utter those words.

Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui nodded in unison, revealing expressions that they thought the boy was teachable.

"What about the scope? Where should the net be stretched to?" Huang Qiangmin asked dejectedly. He couldn't possibly spend all the savings he had accumulated over the years.

Jiang Yuan, being understanding, took the map, drew a circle around the area of ​​Shannan Province, and then asked Liu Jinghui, "Could you add something?"

“I think we can focus more on the north. After all, they came to Pingzhou, so they must be familiar with this area. Otherwise, if they went to the southwest port, the problem of stolen vehicles there would be just as serious.” As he spoke, Liu Jinghui drew a half-ellipse on top of the circle that Jiang Yuan had drawn.

Looking at the circle within a circle that covered almost half of the map, Huang Qiangmin couldn't help but say, "You guys should sell me out."

“We can start with cities we’re familiar with.” Jiang Yuan had thought about this on the way. “We only have so many people, it’s impossible to really sweep through such a large area. I think we can make a few phone calls to the criminal police teams in the cities and counties we’re familiar with to help us gather some intelligence. We just need to find clues, the mesh doesn’t have to be too small, as long as we can catch fish, it’s a success.”

Huang Qiangmin's expression immediately brightened, and he thought to himself, "Jiang Yuan really knows how to care for people."

His mind suddenly clicked, and he nodded repeatedly, saying, "That's a good idea. If it's just about contacting familiar cities and counties, I don't think we need to rush to empty our pockets. Many of the criminal investigation teams in these cities and counties want to establish friendly relations with us. Some of them have made promises... but haven't kept them. That's good. If we ask them for their cooperation, they'll definitely be willing!"

Liu Jinghui, showing consideration for Huang Qiangmin, said, "It would be easier to talk if Jiang Yuan made the call."

"Excellent, excellent, it has to be Director Liu, this reasoning is exceptionally well done." Huang Qiangmin immediately gave a thumbs up.

Jiang Yuan naturally wouldn't refuse. This case already belonged to Ningtai County, so he immediately summoned Wang Chuanxing and said, "Make a list of the cities and counties where we've handled cases, then sort them in order and write down the phone numbers of the local officials in charge. I'll make the calls."