The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

“Xiao Sun, have you noticed that the places where the murderer disposed of the body parts all have one thing in common?” Xiao Yang said to Xiao Sun while investigating. Xiao Sun asked in confusion, “What do they have in common?” Xiao Yang pointed to the surrounding environment and said, “These places are either areas with a lot of garbage cans, or areas with relatively little foot traffic but where sanitation workers can easily spot them. It seems the murderer deliberately chose these places to dispose of the body, wanting the body to be discovered as soon as possible, while also using the garbage as cover to hide the body parts.”

Xiao Sun carefully observed the surrounding environment and nodded: "That's right. Moreover, these disposal sites are distributed along Heping Road in a linear arrangement, which indicates that the murderer may have been driving along Heping Road and discarded the body parts along the way. We can retrieve the surveillance footage along Heping Road and focus on investigating vehicles that traveled along Heping Road during the time of the incident, especially trucks, vans, and other vehicles that can carry body parts."

“That’s a good idea,” Xiao Yang said. “I’ve already asked my team to contact the traffic police to retrieve surveillance footage from Heping Road and surrounding roads. However, the surveillance equipment on some sections of Heping Road is quite old, which may affect the monitoring results. We still need to rely on on-site investigation to find more valuable clues.”

The two continued their investigation. When they reached the back door of a shop on the west side of Heping Road, Xiao Yang noticed several suspicious drops of blood on the ground. "Xiao Sun, look here!" Xiao Yang pointed to the bloodstains. Xiao Sun immediately went over, squatted down, and examined them closely: "These drops of blood are dripping, with a relatively regular shape. The drop height should be about 1.5 meters, which matches a human height. Moreover, the bloodstains are quite fresh, so they should have been left recently."

Xiao Yang took out his camera, photographed the bloodstains, and then used a cotton swab to collect a blood sample, placing it in an evidence bag labeled "Shop Back Door Bloodstain-001". "These bloodstains are very likely related to the case. They might have been accidentally spilled by the murderer while moving the body parts, or they might have been left by the deceased before their death. The technical department needs to conduct DNA testing on the bloodstains to confirm whether they belong to the deceased," Xiao Yang said.

The two then conducted a thorough inspection of the shop's back door, finding a small amount of dust and stains on the doorknob and floor, but no obvious signs of wiping or other suspicious marks. They questioned the shop owner, who stated that he had closed the shop around 10 PM the previous night and had not noticed anything unusual about the back door or heard any strange noises when he closed it.

"Boss, after you closed last night, did you see or hear any suspicious people or vehicles around here?" Xiao Sun asked. The shop owner shook his head: "No. This area is quite quiet at night. Apart from the occasional sanitation worker cleaning up the trash, there are very few other people around. Besides, I went straight home after closing and didn't pay much attention."

After leaving the shop, Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun continued their investigation. In the median strip of Heping Road, Xiao Sun found a broken tree branch with traces of blood and human tissue on it. "Xiao Yang, there's a tree branch here with blood and human tissue on it!" Xiao Sun shouted. Xiao Yang immediately rushed over and carefully examined the branch: "This branch is about 3 centimeters in diameter, and the break is relatively fresh, so it was probably broken recently. The blood and human tissue on it were likely caused by the friction between the body and the branch when the murderer was moving the remains."

Xiao Yang collected bloodstains and human tissue samples from the tree branch, and then examined the surrounding green belt. "Look, there are trampled marks on the grass in the green belt," Xiao Yang said, pointing to the grass on the ground. "These trampling marks are rather messy, with multiple footprints of different sizes and patterns. They may have been left by the murderer and onlookers. We need to collect these footprint samples for comparison and analysis."

Xiao Sun took out plaster powder and tools and carefully extracted the footprints in the green belt. "There are too many footprints here and they are too messy. It is very difficult to extract clear and valuable footprint samples," Xiao Sun said while extracting. "Moreover, after the light rain this morning, many footprints have become blurry."

"Let's try our best to extract anything, even a blurry footprint might provide clues for solving the case," Xiao Yang said. The two then continued their investigation in the green belt, discovering a small amount of human tissue fragments and bloodstains, which they extracted and recorded.

At 11:00 a.m., Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun arrived at the northeast corner of the intersection of Heping Road and Jianshe Road, where there was a small garbage transfer station. "Since the murderer disposed of the body parts in the garbage cans along Heping Road, he might have disposed of some murder tools or the victim's personal belongings in the garbage transfer station," Xiao Yang said. "Let's go in and check."

The two men entered the garbage transfer station, which was filled with all sorts of trash and emitted a pungent stench. The staff at the transfer station saw them enter and quickly greeted them. "Officers, what are you doing here?" one of the staff asked. "We're investigating a case and need to check the garbage here for any suspicious items," Xiao Yang replied. The staff assured them they would fully cooperate.

Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun put on gas masks and began their search of the garbage transfer station. The garbage in the transfer station was diverse and piled up like mountains, making the search extremely difficult. The two of them divided the work and worked together, using tongs and shovels to search through the garbage bit by bit, carefully examining each piece of garbage, afraid of missing any valuable clues.

"Xiao Sun, look at this!" Xiao Yang suddenly shouted. Xiao Sun quickly went over and saw Xiao Yang holding a torn black backpack. "This backpack looks relatively new, not like ordinary household trash," Xiao Yang said. He carefully pieced the backpack pieces together and found that the backpack was made of waterproof nylon with a blurred brand logo, but the specific brand was no longer legible. There were no items inside the backpack, but a small amount of bloodstains and fiber residue were found in a lining.

“Take bloodstains and fiber samples!” Xiao Yang said. Xiao Sun immediately took out tools and collected the relevant samples. “This backpack is likely one of the deceased’s personal belongings, which was torn up by the murderer and discarded at the garbage transfer station,” Xiao Yang analyzed. “We can investigate the backpack’s material and brand logo to see if we can find any clues related to the deceased’s identity.”

The two continued searching the garbage transfer station for over an hour, but found no other suspicious items besides the fragments of the black backpack.