Chapter 51: Searching for the Source of the Body

After a night of unremitting efforts, the remaining body parts were finally found. In the autopsy room of the Municipal Bureau's Judicial Appraisal Center, Forensic Doctor Xiao Zheng and a tall, gray-haired old man were wearing protective suits, gloves, masks, and hats, carefully examining a shocking, fragmented corpse on the autopsy table.

Lu Haoxuan, captain of the Jiangdong Branch Criminal Police Brigade, arrived at the autopsy room with his apprentice, young criminal police officer Gu Changzheng, also fully armed in protective suits.

"Old Lu, thank you for your hard work! We fear encountering these unidentified corpses the most. If we can't figure out the victim's identity, it's very difficult to carry out the next step of the work!"

The tall old man was Lu You'an, a senior forensic doctor in the city. Hearing the voice, he looked up and signaled him to come over. Lu Haoxuan took two steps to Lu You'an's side. Lu You'an pointed to the victim's ferocious-looking head and said, "The victim was poisoned first and then dismembered. Look, his lips are dark purple, and his earlobes are cherry red. After the autopsy, a bitter almond smell could be detected in the stomach and chest cavity. It can be confirmed that he died of massive potassium cyanide poisoning!"

Then he pointed to the cross-section of the body parts and said, "The victim's limbs were all detached at the joints, not chopped off by violence or using conventional dismemberment tools like steel saws. This shows that the person who performed the dismemberment is someone with skilled anatomical knowledge!"

At this time, Gu Changzheng couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Lu, you said 'the person who performed the dismemberment.' Do you mean the person who dismembered the body is not the person who poisoned him?"

Lu You'an glanced at Gu Changzheng. Although he was wearing a mask and his expression couldn't be seen, it was clear he wasn't displeased by the young man's interruption. Instead, he replied in a very patient tone, "This is just my personal judgment, a feeling. I hope it doesn't affect your investigation direction." He paused, as if he felt he hadn't explained clearly, and added, "I'm just considering it from a personal perspective. Someone with such skilled anatomical ability has too many ways to kill a person! If I were the killer, I would disdain using poison."

"Ha!" Lu Haoxuan suddenly spoke up: "Old Lu, your words make sense! This is very likely a gang crime!"

"This is something you need to investigate. I have another discovery. From the victim's hair, I found some debris that doesn't belong to human tissue..."

"Oh? What is it?" Gu Changzheng asked hurriedly.

Lu You'an rarely didn't get angry at this young criminal police officer who had interrupted him twice today. He said directly, "After testing, it belongs to pork debris."

"Heh!" Gu Changzheng looked at his master, Lu Haoxuan, with a look of seeking praise, as if to say, my judgment was correct, wasn't it!

Lu Haoxuan squinted and smiled. He said to Lu You'an, "Old Lu, is there a record of the victim in the fingerprint database?"

"No, the victim has no criminal record during his lifetime. However, through blood tests on the body, I found that the victim suffered from gonorrhea during his lifetime!"

"Oh? Okay, thank you! We're leaving!" Lu Haoxuan said to Lu You'an thoughtfully.

The two left the appraisal center. Gu Changzheng went to get the tricycle motorcycle and carried Lu Haoxuan toward the Jiangdong Branch.

"Master, shouldn't we check the missing persons? If a living person disappears, their family will definitely be anxious. Maybe they have already reported it!"

Lu Haoxuan lowered his head and didn't speak, as if thinking about something. After a while, he said in a low voice, "It seems we have to rely on the power of the masses again! To find this kind of unidentified deceased, we can only honestly use the 'stupid' method!"

Gu Changzheng said, "Then should we issue a notice for the unidentified corpse?"

"No, let's go back to the team first and print the victim's photos immediately. We will focus on investigating a few places first, maybe we will have a big harvest!"

Soon, photos of the victim of the dismemberment case appeared in the hands of every police officer in the Criminal Police Team. In the conference room of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, Lu Haoxuan stood in front of the team members, making deployment arrangements.

"Quickly investigate the above-mentioned areas. Identifying the victim is of great significance to our next step! Everyone, cheer up. Within 24 hours, the investigation must be completed."

The team members said in unison, "Yes!" and split into several groups, heading to their respective investigation areas.

When the body (or rather, the body parts) was discovered, it had already been dismembered into multiple fragmented pieces. There were no personal belongings, so it was impossible to infer his economic situation based on his clothing, which made it difficult to form a portrait of the victim! When the forensic doctor examined the physical characteristics, he found that the victim's hands had delicate skin. Except for the longer nail on the right little finger, the rest of the fingernails were neatly trimmed, only slightly protruding from the fingertips. There were no traces of wearing rings on the fingers for a long time. There was a green bean-sized indentation near the tiger's mouth on the left wrist, as if worn by some object. Combined with the fact that the skin on the wrist was slightly whiter than other parts, it was judged that the victim had the habit of wearing a watch during his lifetime.

Examination of other parts of his body revealed that the victim paid attention to maintenance during his lifetime, and there were basically no obvious scars on the body surface, and his figure was well-proportioned. Looking at his mouth, his teeth were white and free of smoke stains, and his hair was thick and strong. He should have paid great attention to his demeanor and nutrition. Although his facial expression was ferocious due to death from potassium cyanide poisoning, it could be seen that the victim could be said to be handsome during his lifetime. Taken together, the victim should be a person engaged in non-manual labor, such as government, enterprise, or public institution staff. Of course, it is also possible that he was some rich kid, or one of the very few special professionals in society.

After Lu Haoxuan summarized the information "told" by the body, he circled several directions for the key investigation scope: 1. Government agencies, enterprises, and public institutions; 2. Merchant families with better economic conditions in Zizhen City; 3. Major dance halls and night venues to find people who knew the victim.

He believed that the victim was very likely among them!

Just as Lu Haoxuan was leading the Criminal Police Brigade members to conduct investigations, the wife of Wang Heshan, who was engaged in wedding photography in the Jiangnan District, was furious at home!

The reason was that her husband, the owner of Victoria Wedding Photography Studio and a successful businessman who was among the first in Zizhen to "go to sea" and make a lot of money—Wang Heshan—had not been home for two days. Moreover, his newly bought mobile phone was turned off, and he couldn't be found at all!

His wife, Wu Yuxian, knew that her husband liked to "hunt for wild food" outside, but as long as he didn't stay out overnight, she would turn a blind eye. But this time, he hadn't been home for two days and two nights, and his phone was off. This made Wu Yuxian angry! She took her brother, Wu Yuhe, and searched through all the hotels of all sizes in Zizhen City, but returned empty-handed. At this moment, she couldn't help but get angrier the more she thought about it at home, and she was furious at the bottles and jars in the house!

After she vented, Wu Yuhe said softly, "Sister, don't always think that way. Brother-in-law is not that kind of person..." Before he finished speaking, Wu Yuxian slapped her fat chest and wailed, "Don't speak well of him! Don't think I don't know about him taking you out to mess around! If he isn't found today, I... I won't recognize you as my brother anymore!"

She originally wanted to say she would divorce Wang Heshan, but when the words reached her lips, she was afraid that if Wang Heshan came back at this moment and heard it, it would be troublesome, so she had to change her words to not recognizing Wu Yuhe. Wu Yuhe was dumbfounded and said casually, "I'm not speaking for brother-in-law, but look at him for so many years, when has he ever not come home for a few days without telling the family? I'm worried that brother-in-law has encountered something else!"

When this was said, Wu Yuxian indeed stopped wailing. She tilted her head and thought about it, then suddenly shouted, "Oh no! Bad! Could your brother-in-law have had an accident?!" ===== CHAPTER 52 =====