Chapter 405 - 405 372 There's Always One Suitable for Him

Words : 1758 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

405: Chapter 372 There’s Always One Suitable for Him 405: Chapter 372 There’s Always One Suitable for Him Jiang Yuan did not proceed with the autopsy in the normal order but began by carefully collecting trace evidence from the wound on the chest. When the murderer killed, they used a lot of force, and the dagger moved very quickly, stabbing into the victim’s heart and swiftly penetrating until the hilt hit the chest of the victim. At the same time, the front blade of the dagger also touched the victim’s rib, leaving a mark as seen from the dissection. In this way, the victim’s wound likely contained trace evidence of the murder weapon. Whether this evidence would help solve the case was not yet certain, but it was most likely useful for court evidence. Actually, nailing a murderer was not that easy. Without sufficient evidence, courts often handed down reduced sentences. This was especially true in death penalty cases, where the demands for evidence and the chain of evidence were exceptionally high. Therefore, sometimes the court would rather issue a stay of execution than a direct death sentence because even if a death sentence were handed down, it could be overturned during the review process, which would be embarrassing for the court. It was because Jiang Yuan, a criminal investigation officer with a forensic doctor background, who spoke with physical evidence, was particularly welcomed everywhere. Solving a case was not just about cracking the case, but also came with a complete set of evidence, and the chain of evidence was relatively intact. This was unlike Liu Jinghui, whose arguments sounded logical but ended up being all talk and no substance in court. Wu Jun watched Jiang Yuan take the skin lesion from the chest and handed him the rib spreader. The rib spreader used by forensic doctors is the same as the one used by thoracic surgeons, fundamentally utilizing the principle of leverage to spread the ribs. The difference is that thoracic surgeons’ rib spreaders tend to be delicate and costly, while forensic doctors’ are not as particular, often larger, rougher, and appearing more cumbersome and powerful. After Jiang Yuan cut the bones and took photos, he carefully took samples and then directly cut off a piece of rib containing the mark. Human ribs have many similarities with pig ribs, and if it is a body that has just been cremated, it is said to also have a smell similar to that of roasted pork. The freshly cut rib had the suggestion of pork ribs, and Wu Jun specifically wrote a label with a pen to note it. Furthermore, the heart was also a key sample to collect. Finally, all the internal organs, including the heart, liver, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, pancreas, thyroid, and adrenal glands, were all soaked in formalin. Each organ was sampled, cut into strips, and then put into the dehydrator to dehydrate. By the time dehydrating was finished, Wu Jun had the paraffin wax heated. The melted paraffin was poured into small compartments, and then the dehydrated samples, meaning the sliced organs, were placed into the wax. Once the wax solidified, a piece of wax resembling amber was obtained. Then, the wax block was placed onto a microtome to be cut into thin slices, which were subsequently spread onto the spreader. In the spreader, the slices expanded due to the surface tension of the water, the wax that enveloped them melted away, and only a thin piece of tissue was left. This process was highly technical and truly tested a forensic doctor’s skills. Especially when the samples were limited, a few failures by a forensic doctor could exhaust the samples, leaving nothing in the end. These slices were not only used for archiving and as evidence but were also necessary for future review and verification. Particularly in death penalty reviews, these key pieces of evidence would definitely be examined. In other words, for a criminal to be sentenced to death, the handling of the samples had to be done well. Jiang Yuan was exceedingly meticulous in his work. Wu Jun stayed with him until the end of the autopsy, and only after pushing the body into the refrigerated vault did he say, “Don’t forget, you promised Director Huang you could crack the case.” “I remember,” Jiang Yuan nodded. “Can you solve it?” Wu Jun asked, full of doubt. “I should be able to solve it.” “How?” “I don’t know yet,” Jiang Yuan replied, feeling a bit nonsensical and hastily added, “I have confidence, but as to which aspect we can use to solve the case, it’s still unclear.” Wu Jun sighed, “So, don’t make promises too easily, right? If you hadn’t agreed so quickly at the time, you’d be more relaxed now. Director Huang will still need to make a statement when the time comes.” Jiang Yuan merely responded with a couple of noncommittal grunts. With his current skill set, being overly cautious didn’t seem right to him. Although the current case didn’t seem to have any direct clues pointing to the murderer from the autopsy, Jiang Yuan saw that there were still very many avenues to explore. Wu Jun simply reminded Jiang Yuan a couple of times, seeing that he did not have a worried expression, he also felt at ease, and casually lit a brazier in the room. Jiang Yuan did not even need to be told, he cleverly jumped over it three times. The two of them then rode back to the Criminal Police Brigade. In the conference room, intelligence kept pouring in, and several squad leaders were also discussing in low voices. It was still the early stage of the investigation, and the direction of the investigation had not yet been determined, so the main work was being done by the personnel of the Criminal Investigation Squad, which was to collect and analyze the evidence at the scene. Upon entering, Jiang Yuan did not stand on ceremony; he first sought out the people from the video surveillance office to check the monitors. “The murderer probably didn’t take the common route, we have surveillance in the main directions, but no person was captured. At least for now, no suspects have been locked down,” said Zhuang Wei, from the video surveillance office, who now had great trust in Jiang Yuan. He was even slightly nervous. Ningtai County had spent so much money to upgrade the surveillance equipment, if it did not function, it would be no laughing matter, and the staff of the video surveillance office would all be in trouble. Jiang Yuan had even more confidence than Zhuang Wei. While watching the surveillance footage, he asked, “Not even a shadow of a suspect was found?” “For now, we are still not certain about the suspect’s physical characteristics,” Zhuang Wei replied with a bit of helplessness. Nowadays, people are being sought without a photo, how would one know who to look for? “Which way did the police dogs track?” Jiang Yuan asked an officer beside him. He had deployed the police dogs not expecting a direct answer. However, judging from the blood spatter at the scene, the murderer definitely left carrying some of the blood. By using the dogs’ sense of smell, it was roughly possible to determine the direction the murderer had left. The officer beside him pointed to the east side. Zhuang Wei also explained, “We’ve also extended the investigation range to the east side, but haven’t found any notably suspicious individuals.” “If surveillance doesn’t turn up any leads, we’re going to have to change our approach...” Liu Jinghui stood up intending to help reorganize the case. Jiang Yuan, however, did not follow Liu Jinghui’s direction and said first, “At three o’clock in the morning, anyone appearing on the street would be suspicious, right?” Liu Jinghui was taken aback: “We can’t just investigate every newcomer...um, the murderer is most likely a non-local. From this perspective, if a non-local is still loitering on the streets at three in the morning, could they possibly be the murderer?” “We can start by following this line of thought,” said Jiang Yuan, still keeping a rather relaxed demeanor. Using surveillance to solve the case was just an easier method, not the only one. Zhuang Wei, however, shook his head again and said, “Starting from three-thirty in the morning, there weren’t many people captured in the surveillance, and we’ve been looking for people along public transport routes, but so far, no one looks like the murderer.” His statement was not very precise, but everyone present understood. Those wandering outside at dawn, even if they walked for a while, would eventually take public transportation. Using these modes of transport, it was basically possible to confirm the identities of most people. Of course, there would certainly be individuals whose identities were not so easy to establish, but a murderer would have their own characteristics; they would be nervous, walk fast, look around anxiously – in short, some murderers could disguise themselves as normal people, but some just didn’t look the part. And the police were not dealing with 007. From Zhuang Wei’s perspective, people wandering outside at three or four in the morning, though strange, ultimately did not resemble murderers. Jiang Yuan selected a few surveillance videos from that time period to watch for a while but did not discover any clues. At this time, the expressions of everyone present had grown solemn. Could it be that this current case would truly have an oversight? However, Jiang Yuan’s expression did not change at all. He simply had someone mark the locations of the cameras near the bar, looked at them carefully for a while, and then said, “Team Leader Zhuang, continue monitoring the footage, especially analyze the surveillance near the bar from three-thirty to four o’clock. I’m going to the scene to have a look.” “Okay,” Zhuang Wei agreed with a nod. Mu Zhiyang, who was sitting nearby, quickly stood up, ready to follow Jiang Yuan to the scene, and asked, “Do you want to go over the scene again?” “Yes, the surveillance coverage around the bar street is broad enough. If there’s still no trace of the murderer, we have to consider that the murderer did not come and go through normal means,” Jiang Yuan said with a smirk. “If that’s the case, the murderer will only have left behind more traces.”

Chapter 405 - 405 372 There's Always One Suitable for Him

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