civil forensic

Chapter 1354 The Building Under Investigation

Wei Zhenguo was nearing retirement, so he took a long leave and came to Anwan City to stay with the special task force.

He didn't contact Jiang Yuan and the others. At most, he would send a text message describing his memory of his wife to them.

For seasoned police officers on special investigation teams, it's not unusual to see victims' families present; in fact, it's not only not unusual, but also a very effective means of oversight. Especially for ordinary people, relying on some oversight agency to achieve their goals is far less effective than having their own family members present.

However, the sheer size of the task force also meant that it couldn't proceed as rapidly as a typical task force. Most people couldn't even influence it, much like the components inside a massive tunnel boring machine. Apart from the key parts, changes to many other components wouldn't affect the moving equipment; at most, they would be discovered and replaced during maintenance.

Meanwhile, this ever-growing task force is moving forward steadfastly, attracting increasing attention as it progresses.

Over the weekend, Song Tiancheng brought Cui Xiaohu, Li Haochen, and Chu Guanliang to Anwan City.

Jiang Yuan is treating everyone to hot pot!

The ingredients for the hot pot are naturally beef slices from Jiangfu Town, which are slaughtered and cut in the early morning. They are served on the table as soon as the cattle land, just in time to complete the process from rigor mortis to recovery. After being sliced ​​thinly, the beef is dipped into the soup pot. Watching the red meat roll in the red soup looks very appetizing.

Song Tiancheng and the others ate with great relish.

They spent half a day flying over, and not only were they starving, they would pretend to enjoy the food just for the sake of Jiangfu Town.

"Please come have dinner with us, Uncle," Cui Xiaohu invited again.

Before Jiang Yuan could speak, Jiang Fuzhen waved his hand and said, "The chef won't starve. Besides, the chef doesn't eat with the guests. As long as you think it's delicious, that's fine. I'm very busy here."

Jiang Fuzhen nodded as he spoke, then went to the kitchen to supervise the work with his hands behind his back.

"I'm a little embarrassed." Cui Xiaohu turned his head and chuckled twice.

"It's okay, my dad just likes to cook meat, even if he doesn't like to eat it himself," Jiang Yuan explained with a smile.

"What does he usually eat? Or does he just not like to eat?" Cui Xiaohu asked curiously.

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "My dad usually eats very simply. If he gets a craving, he'll call the chefs over to cook for him. In short, he won't go hungry."

Cui Xiaohu pondered the term "chef team" for a moment, then hissed and buried his head in his food.

Song Tiancheng put down his chopsticks and took over the conversation, saying, "We're here this time to provide you with some support. You've handled quite a few cases under the Ministry's supervision, and we'll also assign this case to you, mainly to provide some funding and such. Is there anything else you need?"

"That's enough. Your previous phone call was a great help to us. The fact that the Bajiang arson case was solved is all thanks to your support." Jiang Yuan's emotional intelligence was always on point during the meal, probably a shrewdness he had developed from eating at many different homes as a child.

Song Tiancheng laughed out loud: "I'm glad I can help. Just give me a call if you need anything. I can't guarantee anything else, but the ministries can coordinate and support us in terms of manpower, resources, and funding."

Jiang Yuan thanked him again.

Chu Guanliang said from the side, "With Director Song in the country, things will be fine. If you need resources abroad, feel free to contact me anytime. If the murderer has fled to a neighboring country, even without an arrest warrant, I will try my best to persuade him to come back."

Chu Guanliang stepped down from his position as a police liaison officer in Malaysia, having gained a great deal from the experience, and he very much wanted to give back to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan thanked him again.

In the domestic police force, criminal investigators are like family, and there are many instances of mutual help and support. Of course, Jiang Yuan is the most promising and popular member of the family.

Song Tiancheng, as the leader, genuinely liked Jiang Yuan. After finishing the hotpot and visiting the task force, he didn't leave but simply stayed overnight, saying he wanted to see Jiang Yuan's daily work.

Jiang Yuan's daily work and the special task force's daily work were not seen much. After receiving word of the situation, the entire Anwan Municipal Bureau mobilized and invited Song Tiancheng to visit and provide guidance.

The progress of the special task force was also being spurred on faster and faster.

As the killer's footprints were identified, his appearance was determined, and his facial features were sketched, the details of several other Category C cases were gradually completed.

However, at this point, some background noise began to appear.

"The witness insisted that the carjacker was no more than 175 cm tall, because he himself is 170 cm tall and guessed that the other person's height was about the same as his own based on the height of the vehicle."

"Surveillance footage from the scene shows that no one taller than 1.8 meters entered or exited the area that day. Furthermore, the people who entered and exited did not match the appearance of any known suspects."

The criminal police officers who went to other places also did their best to investigate, but the information they brought back was completely different from the task force's established goal. To use a physics analogy, at this moment, two dark clouds were floating above the seemingly indestructible edifice of physics.

Then, Liu Jinghui stepped forward and proposed a new unified theory: "We have always suspected that the murderers committed crimes as a team. If that's the case, it's normal that one of the murderers' appearances doesn't match the conclusions drawn from the footprint analysis. Especially for murderer A, whom we've always believed to be the killer, the fact that he didn't appear at a certain crime scene doesn't overturn that conclusion. I'm more inclined to believe that the murderers' team didn't always commit crimes collectively, but rather that they might have committed crimes separately! The murderers usually committed crimes individually, occasionally cooperated, and the personnel involved might even be inconsistent."

This is a difficult question to answer, because Liu Jinghui's statement not only provides a conclusion but also raises questions. He not only confirmed the fact that the murderer's team was organized, but also proposed a new theory, suggesting that the team might have been a freely cooperating model that split and reunited.

As we all know, in the workplace, you don't have to solve problems, but it's best not to create them.

Unless you are some kind of king...

Even Xu Taining, who was extremely busy organizing his team, was not unhappy that Liu Jinghui had changed the scope of the investigation. His main concern was whether the inference was reasonable.

"What do you think?" Xu Taining asked Jiang Yuan.

“I think it’s quite appropriate, after all, it’s a case from 15 years ago, and that’s all the clues we can get. However, we also have to consider the possibility that the witnesses have forgotten or reconstructed their memories.” Jiang Yuan paused, then continued, “I can use existing sketches of suspects to perform forensic sketches and deduce the current appearance of the murderer, but in this situation, it’s unlikely that we can find the person through facial scanning.”

“Hmm… Well, if we include this extra murderer, or maybe two murderers, in the investigation, our task force might not be big enough.” Xu Taining’s eyes flashed red: “We’re also running out of boxed lunches. We need to find another supplier. The fast food industry here is too small.”

“Actually, we don’t need to.” Jiang Yuan stopped Xu Taining and said softly, “I think we should focus on catching the first murderer, that guy who’s 1.8 meters tall.”

Xu Taining hesitated for a moment, then said, "Do you think he'll implicate the others?"

"Correct."

“But what if he doesn’t know his accomplice’s real name?” Xu Taining’s mind automatically conjured up various possibilities. He added, “Fifteen years have passed, and they may not have any contact anymore. Even if they reveal a nickname, it may be useless. But if we don’t expand the search now, it will be too late when we find that the match doesn’t match up.”

“If we expand any further, Political Commissar Huang will collapse,” Jiang Yuan said. Then, regarding the solution: “We don’t need that many resources for fugitive apprehension; let’s focus on arresting the one in the 180th squad first.”

"Okay." Xu Taining didn't seem particularly willing.

"Do you have a plan?" Jiang Yuan asked, giving instructions.

Xu Taining hesitated for a moment, then said, "If you ask me now, I only have a clumsy way to answer."

"What kind of stupid method?" Jiang Yuan didn't expect any clever method. If the case could be solved cleverly and easily, then all the previous special task forces, and this special task force, is full of hidden talents. Do they all like to go on business trips and have fun?

Solving a case is like solving a math problem. Perhaps a genius can come up with a brilliant solution after a flash of inspiration, but if you can solve the problem using a clumsy method, that's already quite good.

Xu Taining took out his notebook, turned to the record page, and said, "15 years ago, a strong man who was 180 cm tall and weighed 180 kg and spoke with a non-local accent should have been quite outstanding. So, your idea of ​​targeting this 180 cm tall man is not bad. I'm just worried that if we only target him, we might alert the enemy."

"It's been 15 years, and we don't even know where the snake is anymore."

“Okay, I have two routes, but we need to go at the same time.”

"You said."

Xu Taining slowly said, "The first line is the line of receiving stolen goods. We suspect that he received stolen goods from other places, but this line has not been dug deep enough, because many buyers of stolen goods have not been found in the past. But if we must follow this line, and with the cooperation of criminal police from various places, I think we can find most of them."

"These people may not even know 180's identity."

“We can work with the second point. We’ll collect hotel guest lists from various places and see if there are any people who appeared twice or multiple times around the same time.” Xu Taining said in advance, “I know that 15 years ago, many hotels weren’t managed so strictly, and even now there are ways to avoid it, but with the murderer committing crimes so frequently, can he avoid it every time? I guess he’ll only be careful during his time on the run, not usually. Maybe he’ll even commit crimes on a whim.”

"What about multiple ID cards?"

"You can't use it all the time. If you do something too many times, you'll eventually slip up." This is Xu Taining's advice based on experience.