Chapter 173

What caused the deceased to die is a very serious topic for a forensic doctor.

Forensic pathology, the entire book, is about this very thing.

The court also attaches extreme importance to the cause of death.

Just like today's case, if the death was caused by arson—meaning the deceased died because of the arson but was not the target of the arson—then it is possible to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

But if it was arson after a murder, this belongs to an aggravating circumstance, which basically means the death penalty.

On the other hand, if it was an accidental killing in a fire, or if someone else committed arson after the murder, causing the corpse to be burned, then it might return to life imprisonment.

The expression of Niu Tong, who was the main person performing the dissection, also became solemn.

Burning after murder is, relatively speaking, a fairly common scenario.

In order to escape their crimes, killers often use various methods to destroy the evidence.

However, there were so many stab wounds on the abdomen, yet the lungs had a crepitus sensation...

These are two completely different causes of death.

A crepitus sensation in the lungs, or a snow-crunching sensation, usually means it is related to asphyxiation.

Niu Tong didn't hesitate to cut off a piece of lung tissue. He saw some pink, foamy liquid flowing out.

This further proved that the death was highly likely related to asphyxiation.

So, was the deceased stabbed in the abdomen, fell into a coma, and then suffocated by smoke?

Niu Tong's gaze couldn't help but look at the throat part of the corpse.

As everyone knows, a corpse suffocated by smoke has three characteristics.

First, the airway and oral cavity may be burned by high-temperature smoke. Second, the eyes are usually closed. Third, the carboxyhemoglobin saturation is high.

The first item is easy to understand.

The second item is actually also easy to understand; the irritation of smoke is so great that when it reaches a lethal level, and one is in the smoke, one will definitely be unable to help but close their eyes.

The third item, high carboxyhemoglobin saturation, actually represents an indicator of carbon monoxide poisoning.

This indicator is usually negative in normal people, and the indicator for smokers might be 0.02 to 0.04.

But if one is in smoke and suffers from carbon monoxide poisoning, the carboxyhemoglobin saturation indicator will soar to over 20%.

However, the opening and closing of the eyes is not easy to verify.

Because a person's eyelids can be closed after death; for example, some men might cry bitterly at a fire scene and close their brother's eyelids—this kind of behavior would be suspected as strangling the brother and covering up the cause of death.

Carboxyhemoglobin saturation requires toxicological testing to prove.

Originally, for a forensic doctor, the most direct way is to cut open the airway and take a look.

But the tissue on the deceased's chest, including the throat mentioned above, had already carbonized. Niu Tong stepped forward and made a cut, but couldn't see anything, so he didn't cut any further.

"Should we take heart blood for testing?" Jiang Yuan asked politely.

"Um... yes, we can."

Niu Tong's reaction was a beat slower than Jiang Yuan's.

Taking heart blood is for toxicological testing.

Jiang Yuan volunteered again: "Shall I do it?"

He was here to gain experience, after all; he couldn't just keep hovering on the sidelines.

Niu Tong was stunned for a moment, then gave his position to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan took the heart blood and then took the stomach contents.

Toxicological testing mainly involves testing these two places.

One represents what is in your blood, and the other represents what is in your stomach.

After taking the samples, Jiang Yuan pointed his knife vaguely at the abdominal cavity and asked: "Shall we take a look?"

Wang Lan and Niu Tong were stunned again, then whispered: "Then let's take a look."

He didn't even need to say what to look for; the three forensic doctors leaned in together to look.

"No blood clots."

"The stomach was punctured here, but there are no blood clots, no carbonization."

"The lower abdomen here is the same; no carbonization."

Everyone tacitly stated the key points.

If a blood vessel is punctured before death, it will bleed; this is because the heart is pumping blood.

If a blood vessel is punctured after death, it will not bleed because the heart has already stopped beating.

The reason why one cannot eat bled pork in Western countries, besides economic factors and habits, is that bled pork requires the pig to bleed while it is alive, which is very un-European.

And the lack of blood clots in the abdomen indicated that the deceased's blood vessels were punctured after death, or...

Theoretically, blood clots could also have been burned away by the fire.

Saying that there was no carbonization in the stomach and no carbonization in the lower abdomen was to eliminate subsequent possibilities.

"Looking at it this way, the possibility of toxic asphyxiation and mechanical asphyxiation is relatively high, and the corpse was stabbed so many times after death..." Niu Tong couldn't help but shake his head.

Jiang Yuan gestured at the position of the stab wounds and said: "It's possible it was a crime committed by an acquaintance, and they were afraid of being recognized, so they stabbed the body again."

"Very possible." Niu Tong became excited and said: "Then I'll make a phone call first."

The cause of death was basically found.

The specific situation would depend on the toxicology report, but the fact that the abdominal stabs were done after death had a significant impact on the investigation of the case, so it was still necessary to notify the front-line officers first.

After Niu Tong cleaned his hands, made the call, and put his gloves back on to come over, he saw Jiang Yuan and Wang Lan digging out the heart and examining it carefully.

"Any discoveries?" Niu Tong quickly stepped onto his footstool.

"There are petechial hemorrhages," Jiang Yuan said.

"Corroborating evidence of asphyxiation," Niu Tong nodded.

Asphyxiation can lead to hypoxia, which can form such petechial hemorrhages on the surface of multiple internal organs.

The deceased's heart was just like that.

However, given the state of today's corpse, it wasn't easy to notice petechial hemorrhages.

The chest cavity was almost burned through.

If the fire had been extinguished a bit slower and the house had really been burned down completely, the heart would probably have been burned through as well.

"Jiang Yuan has a pretty good eye," Niu Tong said appreciatively.

Wang Lan looked up, shaking her head to relieve neck discomfort, and said: "Jiang Yuan doesn't just have a good eye; he was looking for hemorrhages on the surface of the internal organs. He examined the liver and kidneys carefully. The ones on the heart can also be found, even though the hemorrhages were about to be roasted dry."

"Wu Wu Fa Yi Jiang is capable," Niu Tong nodded.

Knowledge is written in books; being able to apply it appropriately at the right time is quite remarkable—Niu Tong's evaluation of Jiang Yuan had been that of a young newcomer, but now he looked at him with slightly more respect.

"Let's finish the rest as well; Captain Lei is planning to come over and take a look in a while," Niu Tong said, and continued to dissect energetically.

The trace evidence examiner next to them, Cao Keyang, was helping to the point of wanting to vomit. He sighed and said: "Your Captain Lei is coming over at this hour? In the middle of the night?"

"He doesn't sleep in the middle of the night anyway, it's fine." Niu Tong didn't have any intention of being considerate of his leader.

Jiang Yuan, Wang Lan, Cao Keyang, and the forensic assistant all nodded in agreement.

The atmosphere in the autopsy room became warm because of this.

An hour later, Lei Xin, the captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Qianjin District, Qinghe City, ran over.

"Wu Wu Fa Yi Jiang, thank you for your hard work, thank you for your hard work."

Qinghe City has a total of three districts; Qianjin District belongs to the old urban area, and the district bureau's criminal investigation brigade is at the same level as the Ningtai County criminal investigation brigade.

This was a criminal investigator who was a bit thin, with yellow hands and yellow teeth; one look and you could tell he was someone who could only use his brain, not his hands.

Upon entering, Lei Xin first greeted Jiang Yuan politely before handing out cigarettes to the others.

Jiang Yuan said "It's fine," and took the cigarette to light it.

If there's a reason to be overly polite, it must be for a reason.

Taking advantage of the case to get to know each other, Lei Xin added: "Wu Wu Fa Yi Jiang, Wu Wu Fa Yi Wang, Niu Tong, shall I introduce the case?"

"Okay."

Lei Xin deliberated his words and said: "Briefly speaking, it was today... yesterday afternoon, a residential house in our Qianjin District, a self-built house by villagers, caught fire. After the fire was extinguished, this female corpse was discovered... DNA comparison was done on the corpse, and I just received the results."

"The deceased's name is Zhang Ying, 22 years old. Unmarried. She rented a place here. The situation at the scene is that the deceased was lying on the bed in the room, without clothes, so there is a possibility of indoor rape."

"In the self-built houses of the urban village, the people coming and going are quite complicated, and there are very few cameras."

"We are currently investigating Zhang Ying's social relationships. The deceased worked in a shopping mall and was a sales clerk at the L'Oréal counter; it feels like she didn't have any colleagues she was particularly close to. Her parents don't know much about their daughter's social relationships either..."

Lei Xin finished his round of speaking and then added: "Does Wu Wu Fa Yi Jiang have time to take a look at the scene?"

Jiang Yuan didn't object, but scratched his head and said: "There's very little evidence at a scene after arson, right?"

He had done fingerprints for arson cases before, and could be considered the ceiling of the field.

Lei Xin didn't hide anything and said: "Basically, no evidence was found at the scene. Now, if the corpse doesn't have evidence like semen, even if we find the person, it's estimated that there will be a lack of physical evidence."

"The murder weapon?"

"The murder weapon is lying near the ignition point; it's a chef's knife, the kind used in Western kitchens, like a five-piece kitchen set, the knife inside the wooden box. The exterior has also been burned away."

Don't say it—Lei Xin's attempt to get close was one thing, but the problems he was encountering now were truly difficult.

Lei Xin complained, half-truthfully: "We don't have any results from our investigation yet, and even if we do, I still have to worry about the physical evidence. The requirements for homicide cases nowadays are getting higher and higher; without DNA evidence, without solid physical evidence, prosecutors will complain."

Wang Lan nodded in deep agreement: "The CSI effect."

The CSI effect refers to the fact that everyone has watched too many TV shows, movies, and variety shows related to forensic science, to the point where everyone's requirements for forensic science have quietly increased.

In Western countries, the CSI effect is reflected in jurors' requirements for physical evidence and their increased expectations. For example, jurors will demand more DNA testing and the most advanced technology possible.

In China, the CSI effect is more reflected in the leaders. Especially leaders who are not from a professional background, or higher-level leaders—when they ask about the "physical evidence" of a certain case, it's impossible for criminal investigators to say they don't feel the pressure.

To a certain extent, this is actually a kind of progress; after all, leaders who want "physical evidence" seem more scientific than leaders who want "confessions."

And for grassroots leaders like Lei Xin, all aspects must be considered.