Chapter 724: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

What a coincidence?

Yu Dazhang could tell at a glance that something was off here.

There were so many people on the yacht, yet Yan Yuting's whole family had died — no matter how you looked at it, something felt wrong.

Even if it were a coincidence, they couldn't have died so thoroughly.

Yan Yuting and her husband, plus their child, plus her in-laws and her own parents — seven people in total, not one left, all perished.

And on the entire yacht, only those seven died.

Even if one or two had survived, it could still be called a coincidence.

"They sure weren't shy about spending money."

Yu Dazhang said, looking at the file:

"They even brought both sets of parents along on a trip — given their family's financial situation, they shouldn't have been that generous."

"And it was a trip abroad too — that's no small expense."

He felt this didn't match Yan Yuting family's values.

Generally speaking, it's not that common to bring both sets of parents on a trip; unless the family's finances are especially well-off, most just travel as a family of three.

Let alone going abroad — the cost would be even higher.

If Yan Yuting's family had good finances, they wouldn't have pulled a scam like staging a fall for insurance money, so the overseas trip itself doesn't make sense.

"I've had someone contact the local police station, and they've already sent people over to look into it."

Captain Xu replied:

"That family went on the trip last year, so it hasn't been that long — they should be able to dig up some information related to the case."

Having the local police station cooperate with door-to-door visits is a common investigative tactic — it boosts efficiency and saves manpower and time.

He had just finished speaking when the office door was pushed open from outside; an officer walked in and reported to Captain Xu:

"The station got back to us. There's one household that was fairly close to their family. According to that neighbor's recollection, it seems their family won some kind of prize."

"Because it's been almost a year, the neighbor doesn't remember clearly either — only that it seemed everyone in the family had to take part."

He paused briefly, then continued:

"The prize was a free trip. At the time, their family even bragged about it to the neighbor, but they didn't say exactly how they'd won it."

Sure enough, it was greed that did them in... The moment Yu Dazhang heard "free trip," he immediately reached a judgment.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Obviously, Yan Yuting's family had been lured abroad by someone.

The other side had counted on this family definitely taking the bait, so they used winning a prize as bait — the goal was to get all seven of them together and trick them into going abroad.

How convenient — no need to go after them one by one, just wipe out the whole nest in one go.

When something happens abroad, it's naturally investigated and handled by the local police; from the file, it was ultimately ruled an accident.

"Should we look into how they won that prize?" Captain Xu asked.

He had also sensed something off about this "free trip" — it was clearly a trap.

"No need."

Yu Dazhang waved his hand:

"The dead can't testify — investigating this now is pointless."

Yan Yuting's family of seven perished abroad; even if they investigated, they couldn't crack the case.

Besides, the other side didn't even need to make contact with that family — they only had to spend money on them in advance.

Once a scheme is set up, there must be a complete plan behind it.

He thought the file ended there, but Yu Dazhang discovered there was a second page.

After turning the page, he saw another homicide — this time one that had occurred domestically.

In June 2014, Yan Yuting's eldest sister-in-law's family of three died of food poisoning — rescue efforts failed.

Forensic examination determined the poison was "amanitin," which destroys liver cells, and indeed this family died of liver failure.

Poisonous mushrooms?

Yu Dazhang remembered that when he was at the police academy, the instructor had once talked about this kind of poisonous mushroom and even taught methods of identification.

Only this kind of poison doesn't kill immediately — after ingestion, there's a period of vomiting and diarrhea, followed by a false-recovery phase.

Logically speaking, there should have been enough time to save them, yet this family just couldn't be pulled through.