civil forensic

Chapter 1351 Similarity
"Wang Chuanxing, send this note to the Chiyong City Bureau." Jiang Yuan signed his name on a printed sheet of paper with a flourish and handed it to Wang Chuanxing.

Wang Chuanxing glanced at it and knew it was just another half-autopsy report.

The reason it's described as half a report is that Jiang Yuan was unwilling to write a complete autopsy report, nor did he have the time to conduct a full autopsy and write a report. So he simply presented a few sentences about the information he had seen to the other party.

The document before me, written in size 4 font, reads: "[Stress fracture of the metatarsal bones, increased lumbar lordosis. Significant wear on the anterior medial aspect of the talus trochlear joint, and asymmetry of the legs—these points, in particular, suggest that the previous assessment that the deceased was a dancer was inaccurate; he was more likely a figure skating enthusiast, possibly with dance training experience…]"

Jiang Yuan's signature, along with the printed text, proved that he wrote the report himself.

He doesn't have time to produce a legally binding autopsy report right now, but with his signature, the local criminal investigation team will take it more seriously.

As for whether the case can be solved, Jiang Yuan couldn't be sure. Finding clues, or rather, having a breakthrough, is still quite a distance from solving the case.

Just like now, if there were other options, Jiang Yuan wouldn't want to ask Xu Taining to clear the area. Huang Qiangmin is even less likely to do so; the Ningtai County Bureau didn't accumulate its assets easily, and nobody wants to start all over again.

But the case still needs to be solved, even if the investigation has a very low probability of success. Jiang Yuan is essentially using advanced forensic skills to investigate the modus operandi of previously unsolved cases.

However, while he could find clues in other cases, he was never able to obtain the leads he needed.

This method is somewhat similar to fishing. Even if the angler is well-prepared and uses the bait that the target fish likes best, it's perfectly normal not to catch the target fish. On the contrary, small fish are swarming around the bait, and one or two are caught every now and then.

Wang Chuanxing carefully put the printed paper with Jiang Yuan's signature into a folder, took a picture of it, and sent it directly to Political Commissar Liu of the Chiyong Police Station via WeChat, asking, "If they ask, should we call them?"

"For now, everything I can offer is written down. There's no need for a phone call anymore. If they want to investigate further, they'll have to wait until our case is closed." Jiang Yuan's answer was not surprising.

After confirming, Wang Chuanxing agreed. This wasn't just the case at hand; during normal times, when Jiang Yuan was handling cases, various people would try to cut in line to check fingerprints, examine the crime scene, or see the body. Theoretically, Jiang Yuan only dealt with cases that could be handled quickly; unless it was a particularly urgent case, the rest could be dealt with later.

It's fair to say that far fewer police stations have witnessed Jiang Yuan's streamlined investigation services than the number of criminal investigation teams that have consulted him. In a sense, Jiang Yuan's current streamlined case-handling approach is more like an advertisement.

Of course, the note Jiang Yuan just wrote was a clue he discovered proactively. In the past, he might have delivered it through Huang Qiangmin in this situation, but since the Chiyong City Bureau had joined the team battle, there was no need for that.

Upon receiving the news, the head of the Chiyong City Public Security Bureau inevitably made another round of troop deployments. They couldn't reduce the intensity of the "Li Huimin Case" in Jiangyuan, as the number of cases themselves wouldn't be small either, and they might have to borrow some young, strong, and fertile personnel.

Jiang Yuan looked at the photos one by one, and time flew by.

Boom. Boom.

Another evidence box, along with a stack of hard drives and CDs, was placed on the table.

Jiang Yuan asked without even looking up, "Where are you from?"

“We had it reorganized.” Xu Taining said, with Liu Jinghui standing next to him.

Jiang Yuan looked at the two of them in surprise: "Is there something new?"

“Director Liu has a new theory that I quite agree with.” Xu Taining smiled and looked at Liu Jinghui beside him.

Liu Jinghui sighed: "This guy seized the opportunity. I was thinking that burning corpses is actually a modus operandi, and this modus operandi can eliminate other modus operandi, so I think we should also consider related types of cases."

Jiang Yuan looked up at Liu Jinghui, thought for a moment, and said, "The degree of burning a body affects the degree of evidence concealment. To hide the chest wound, the upper body needs to be burned to a charred state, ideally with some decomposition, so the heart wound is invisible. As for the binding marks, burning the rope would make the binding method invisible, but the way the hands are bound behind the back is still easy to see. It means the hands need to be burned to the point where they are no longer visible..."

"It has to be a really big fire?" Liu Jinghui translated.

"almost."

“That’s even better, it narrows down the scope.” Liu Jinghui paused for a moment and said, “I asked the traffic police officers, and according to them, the fact that the Xiali car involved in the case didn’t catch fire was partly due to luck. The main reason was that there wasn’t enough fuel in the tank. They drove all the way here and didn’t have enough fuel left. The weather was also cold, so they couldn’t burn the car completely.”

Jiang Yuan understood and nodded slowly: "So, cases where the vehicle was completely burned should be included in the case file?"

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a vehicle.” Xu Taining’s words were broad: “It doesn’t have to be limited to vehicles. I’ve looked through a few cases, and there are quite a few cases of burning corpses. There are cases of burning corpses in the wild, cases of murder and burning corpses at home, all kinds of cases. In particular, there are quite a few cases of pouring gasoline. It’s probably because gasoline is relatively easy to obtain.”

He mentioned quite a lot; those were cases from numerous cities and counties that had come together.

Frankly speaking, under normal circumstances, no one would investigate a case on such a large scale. Even cases supervised by ministries would not involve such a wide range of people. The cost of doing so would be too high, and very few cases would require such a wide investigation. This would place excessively high demands on organization and investigative capabilities.

Being able to do this is already a skill in itself.

Just as Liu Jinghui analyzed, his idea would not have been possible without Xu Taining's help. Similarly, without Jiang Yuan's support, Xu Taining would not have rashly involved so many cases of burning corpses, because the judgment of ordinary forensic doctors might not be accurate enough, and speed was also an issue, making the plan impossible to implement.

For Jiang Yuan, it was simply a matter of whether it was necessary or not.

"I understand. I'll look at the case of the burned corpse first." Jiang Yuan understood their thoughts and agreed with them.

From his perspective, although the case involves multiple provinces, cities, and counties, a corpse is ultimately just a corpse, and there won't be any additional difficulties.

Even if the murderer burned the body, it's easy to identify if the body wasn't completely burned.

……

Half a day later, Jiang Yuan indeed found a case among a pile of arson cases where the hands were tied behind the back.

"The Bajiang Cremation Case!"

Upon hearing the news, Liu Jinghui and Xu Taining arrived and each picked up a section of the case file to read.

"The victim was dragged into a dense forest and burned, his hands were tied behind his back, and he was burned after death. The murderer also used gasoline, and the time of the crime was close..." Jiang Yuan gave a brief introduction.

"But we can't see the binding method behind the back." Liu Jinghui said with some regret.

“We’re very close.” Xu Taining didn’t need such a precise answer. He waved to the people behind him and said, “Put it away and mark it as Grade B. We have so many resources, what’s wrong with merging a few more?”

The A, B, and C levels are the case similarity ratings defined by Xu Taining, with level B representing the closest cases collected so far.

Liu Jinghui couldn't help but glance at Xu Taining, and then received a wide smile in return.

"You really aren't worried?" Liu Jinghui said with a touch of emotion. He often went out to do this himself and knew all too well the pressure involved.

Xu Taining smiled calmly and said, "What are you worried about when using other people's resources to solve a case? Are you worried that they won't ask you to come back?"

Liu Jinghui stared at Xu Taining for several seconds before realizing, "So they won't be able to afford you anymore, right?"