Chapter 200 - 200 192 From Chaos to Order

200: 192 Chapter From Chaos to Order 200: 192 Chapter From Chaos to Order The most feared aspect of handling a murder case is the lack of clues. As long as there are clues, there is no shortage of manpower. For instance, if someone commits a mass shooting and then flees to the mountains, the local authorities can organize a search team of thousands within minutes. Many murder case task forces organize massive searches, at times, just to make full use of the available human resources. Whether it’s sufficient or necessary, at least it keeps the task force members busy. Having nothing to do is a huge blow to the morale of the task force. After Jiang Yuan submitted the clues, the task force for the 724 Qinghe major homicide case started their investigation work overnight. An 18-year-old is likely to be a senior in high school or a college freshman, and being a ballet student suggests a well-off family background, so the victim was probably still a student. After pulling out the list of missing students from Qinghe and several nearby cities and adding the attribute of having studied ballet, even going back several years, the list was so short that it only had one name. Zhang Xiaoyun. A resident of Jianjiang City, and a student at Jianjiang No.1 Middle School. Jianjiang City is adjacent to Qinghe City, and its economic level is not much different from that of Qinghe City. There is only one training institution that teaches ballet in the entire city, making the search rather convenient. However, even after DNA matching, members of the task force were still somewhat apprehensive. It was purely because the condition of being a ballet dancer was so narrow that they could easily expand the search to the neighboring cities... which again proved one thing: The killer did not stick to killing locally. This is quite inconsistent with current trends. The business and cultural atmosphere now emphasizes localization and has started to focus on circles. Even in matchmaking, people have started to add the first six digits of an ID number before other requirements like having a car or a house. Killing without considering an ID number... Of course, it’s understandable that a murderer might be a bit rebellious. But the members of the task force had to start reflecting on themselves: If the killer no longer cares about killing locally, just how extensive could their range be? This is not a mere joke. The killer’s psychology can vary according to the environment. Some killers, when they are away from home, become incredibly reckless and violent, but back at home, they are still meek and obedient, eating, drinking, getting hit by their wives, bearing the brunt of their bosses, with no change at all. Some killers only commit murders in one place, and this type is the mainstream. Especially those who like to dismember their victims; they usually do so in their own homes. Reality often responds to these choices in a bizarre way. A typical case involved Jia Wenge of Nehe City, who, along with his team members, killed 42 people locally over more than three years, attracting a special task force with nothing to show for it. To avoid suspicion, he fled to Hang City, where he committed several cases of robbery-cum-murder but did not dare to kill. He was arrested and, three months later, executed by firing squad. The killer in the 724 case, it would seem, was familiar with the reservoir and had been dumping bodies there for years, so they were likely local as well. But the only two identified victims were not local. The first victim, number 1, came from Wan Xiang City in the far west of Shannan Province. It’s very likely they had come to Qinghe City on business and died there. But it’s also possible that they died outside of Qinghe City, such as in Jianjiang City. Now, the fifth victim is directly a student from Jianjiang City, with limited mobility, so they probably died in Jianjiang City. So, did the killer live in Jianjiang City, near Qinghe City? It’s not strange to dump bodies in a neighboring city, as anyone with even a slight ability to counter-investigation knows this increases the difficulty of solving the case. Even ancient bandits knew to choose an area where three provinces meet. And for the task force, it seemed the difficulty had indeed increased. For two days in a row, the conference room of the Qinghe City Bureau was filled with the sound of arguments. Fortunately, Jiang Yuan did not have to attend the meetings anymore. He was confined to the dissection room, studying bones every day. These bodies had been soaked in water for a long time, most of their flesh had decayed, and the bones, exposed and soaked in a large amount of body fluids, had all changed in color and texture to different extents. For some basic judgments, these changes are not an issue. For instance, when determining gender, the pelvis is the most useful, but it’s not indispensable; the hip bone is also quite good, the skull is not a problem, and the mandible, sternum, and femur can all be utilized. On this basis, even if the bones have been soaked for a long time and eaten by some microorganisms, it doesn’t have much impact. But to make further judgments about the origin of the body is obviously more difficult. The remaining bodies, numbers 2, 3, 4, and 6, each have their own complications. The dissection room’s four autopsy tables display four sets of skeletal remains. Wang Lan assigned each forensic doctor a body to work on, except for Jiang Yuan. The judgments for the first two bodies all relied on Jiang Yuan, so his knowledge of Forensic Anthropology was clearly sufficient for the job. He might even far surpass the others. Apart from giving him full trust, Wang Lan could not be of much help. On the first day, Jiang Yuan was examining the four sets of skeletal remains. Afterward, Jiang Yuan spent more and more time on the skeletal remains numbered 3. Number 3 was the skeleton that had been chopped with an axe. This skeleton showed severe wear on the lumbar vertebrae and leg bones, leading Jiang Yuan’s initial judgment to be that they performed physical labor. Of course, there was nothing wrong with this judgment. The problem, however, was that the scope was too vast—finding someone based on this was virtually impossible. Initially, Jiang Yuan had planned to study the marks left by the axe. If he could determine the type of axe, even if he couldn’t solve the case, he might at least find some clues. For instance, the commonly seen fireman’s axe or a small hatchet used for chopping wood—there definitely wouldn’t be many people buying those. As it turned out, Jiang Yuan had underestimated tool mark analysis. With his level of expertise in this area, he simply could not decipher the origins of the axe. Determining the time of death... was naturally even more impossible. The underwater world is a closed environment. It’s usually necessary to seek help from external factors to ascertain the time of death of a body that has been underwater for a long time. For example, by looking at how many generations of maggots have propagated or how long the algae has been growing... Never mind the lack of conditions for such analysis, even if the conditions were met, determining the time of death could only be estimated to the nearest year. In fact, establishing the time of death is the most difficult and intricate part of forensic science. In other words, it’s the least accurate aspect. In current cases with fresh, still-warm bodies, it’s still possible to measure liver or rectal temperature. But in old cases like this, where the liver and rectum are gone, and it’s uncertain if microbes have gone through generations of change... In the end, what Jiang Yuan could study were the basic traces on the bones. Theoretically, skeletal remains can provide many marks from a body’s life, not just from daily living, but also from occupation, illnesses, or environmental factors. A fitting example for modern people might be if twenty people were killed in a subway, their flesh stripped away, only observing their bones. What would be the most common trace found on the skeletons? The incidence rate of excessive wear on the cervical vertebrae would definitely be extremely high. Jiang Yuan had already seen the wear on the lumbar spine and leg bones of corpse number three. After further observation, he concluded that the wear on his knees, tibia, and even the heels must have originated from his daily life or occupation. But what occupation could cause wear in these areas was something that puzzled Jiang Yuan. After racking his brain for the duration of a bowl of instant noodles, he still did not have a clear idea, so he directly called Liu Jinghui. In Jiang Yuan’s view, Liu Jinghui, who was good at reasoning, might be able to serve some purpose in this situation. Liu Jinghui, a fourth-grade senior chief superintendent from the Shannan Provincial Department, received the call and rushed to the autopsy room. Jiang Yuan found him a protective suit and said, “Actually, you didn’t need to come here. We could have talked over the phone.” Liu Jinghui shook his head: “Many things become clear only when you see them in person.” “Alright then.” Jiang Yuan led him to autopsy table number 3, and handed him a tibia, saying, “Take a look for yourself.” The tibia is the larger, inner bone of the lower leg. It’s very hard, and fits snugly in one’s hand when grasped—the clever people of ancient times discovered the features of the tibia early on, and thus, thousands of years ago, they ground tibias into daggers, even carving blood grooves into them. Based on the shapes of such artifacts unearthed, the tibia was an excellent material for making daggers. However, as plain evidence, Liu Jinghui turned the bone over and over for quite some time without discerning anything. “You give me the rundown,” Liu Jinghui sighed. A few forensic doctors also gathered around quietly, keen to hear Jiang Yuan explain on the spot. “The wear is mainly here. The bone has become rough.” Jiang Yuan held the tibia, showing the worn side to Liu Jinghui. Liu Jinghui still didn’t see it. “That’s why I said we could’ve just talked on the phone,” Jiang Yuan said. “It’s not very far anyway.” Liu Jinghui argued, then turned his attention back to the corpse and asked, “The wear you mentioned, what movement could have caused it?” “It could be from frequently squatting down,” Jiang Yuan said, demonstrating the motion. Liu Jinghui looked closely and nodded slightly: “Knees, tibia, heels.” Jiang Yuan nodded: “It’s a pity it’s a male. If it were a female, it could have been someone from the service industry.” “Oh...” Liu Jinghui clicked his tongue twice, sizing up Jiang Yuan: “You seem to know a lot, truly a Jiang Village person, so young yet...” “I’m referring to a server, like in shoe sales, or a flight attendant in first class.” “Men can do those jobs too, right? Does gender really need to be such a strict factor?” Liu Jinghui joked first. Jiang Yuan pursed his lips: “Heavy labor.” “A first-class flight attendant who frequently carries luggage. Or maybe a shoe salesman who takes a part-time job at a courier point at night?” “I was just giving an example,” Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, “Considering the age of the deceased, he spent much longer squatting down in his daily life than someone in a profession like shoe sales.” “A welder?” Jiang Yuan hesitated for a moment, then nodded: “Possible.” “Or an athlete in a certain sport, like skiing?” “That’s also possible.” Liu Jinghui guessed a few more occupations, more or less grasping Jiang Yuan’s assessment. “This killer... killed very randomly,” Liu Jinghui sighed. Jiang Yuan hummed in agreement, arranged the tibia properly, then turning to look at the other corpses, he asked Liu Jinghui, “How’s the special case team doing?” “A complete mess,” Liu Jinghui said gravely. “Didn’t the Provincial Department send you to offer counsel and command?” Jiang Yuan looked at Liu Jinghui. “My judgment is that this person probably commits crimes randomly,” Liu Jinghui also looked at Jiang Yuan. “Do you know how to solve these kinds of cases?” Jiang Yuan shook his head. It wasn’t without reason that random acts of violence accounted for a large portion of the backlog of homicide cases in various provinces. “We need to pile up the known factors. To find order within chaos, listing the known conditions is the most basic step,” Liu Jinghui said. “I’ve called in two more teams of divers to see if there are more bodies in the reservoir. If they don’t find any, the few bodies we have now represent all we know.”