Chapter 189

Two boats and four frogmen searched the reservoir for a day and indeed found four more body bags.

Because the volume and weight of the body bags were smaller, they were scattered over a wider range, making it more difficult for the frogmen to retrieve them.

However, the real difficulty was the immense pressure and responsibility.

The leaders of the Qinghe Municipal Bureau were contacted by phone one after another to inquire about the situation.

Naturally, they kept connecting to Wang Lan in the autopsy room.

By the time the four body bags were transported in, the previous four bodies in the autopsy room hadn't even finished boiling.

The forensic doctors looked at the four small body bags that had just been sent in with a look of awe.

Several people's gazes turned towards Jiang Yuan; this meant that the crime had escalated and there were more remains.

Jiang Yuan was helpless under their gaze and could only say, "Keep boiling. If any new body bags are sent over later, don't even think about sleeping."

Wang Lan also sighed, looked at the forensic doctors who had been boiling for a whole night, and said, "Shall we take turns resting? One group sleeps first, um... are there any volunteers to stay behind?"

"I'll stay." Jiang Yuan displayed some spirit; he had managed to sleep for a few hours when he went to eat yesterday, so he wasn't very sleepy.

Two other young forensic doctors and Niu Tong also chose to stay.

Wang Lan naturally couldn't escape, so she let the others go rest first, and the four forensic doctors here would work first.

Anyway, the people can rest, but the pots can't.

Thinking of this, Wang Lan sighed again and said to the criminal police officer who came to deliver the body bags, "Please pass on a message to buy two more pressure cookers and send them over."

The criminal police officer, who had been keeping a straight face, couldn't hold it in anymore and bent over to dry-heave.

"Go vomit by the floor drain; if you vomit on the autopsy table, you can just sleep here tonight," Niu Tong jumped up to be as tall as the other person, his voice even higher.

The criminal police officer who came to deliver the body bags wasn't young either; he must have been thirty, had worked for nearly ten years, had two children, was on the verge of divorce, had huge mortgage pressure, soaring living expenses, didn't want to go to class reunions, peed in a dribble, but his life seemed to be getting by. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have vomited.

It was just that today's scene had too strong an impact, from visual to olfactory, and then to psychological feelings, all of which broke the bottom line of a 10-year junior policeman.

*Ugh... *

The criminal police officer kept heaving and directly started vomiting.

The hot air sprayed onto the floor drain, the smell that shouldn't be fragrant wafted up, and then after the criminal police officer's mental processing...

*Ugh... *

Jiang Yuan and the others fanned the air in disgust, and they heard Wang Lan urging, "The others who are going back to rest, hurry up and leave; I'll give you 8 hours, at most no more than 10 hours, then come back to take over."

Although there were 12 forensic doctors in total, some were old and some liked to slack off.

For example, Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye from Longli County, who had also come this time, was slacking off and being lazy the whole time, and wasn't really of much use. Wang Lan didn't have the authority to manage him either.

The forensic doctors from the municipal bureau just worked in a different unit, and their rank wasn't necessarily higher than others.

Furthermore, this time, it was forensic doctors from various places supporting the municipal bureau; they were here to help, and Wang Lan couldn't work them to death.

After a while, only the last few people were left in the autopsy room.

Everyone continued to guard the two pots boiling bones.

Why boil them for so long?

Using a not-so-appropriate but very "vivid" metaphor, think about the Chinese New Year, if a family wants to boil half a pig, how long would it take for the whole family to be mobilized?

There are 4 bodies here, and they all have to be boiled until the bones are stripped.

The exhaust fan worked desperately, and the *whooshing* sound couldn't clear away the sweltering heat in the autopsy room.

Jiang Yuan untied a small body bag that had just been sent in, took DNA as usual, sampled the water, left some residual tissue, then re-numbered the iron bucket, looked at the body parts one by one, and put them in.

There were no clues on the surface of the body parts, so in a while, when the previous body finished boiling, he could directly pour the body parts in the bucket into the pot and continue boiling.

In the forensic autopsy room, they were now using super-large stainless steel buckets that could hold 50 jin; if it weren't for the fact that this way of boiling is slow, they could have directly put them on the stove to boil.

After looking at two bags of bodies, when looking at the third bag, Jiang Yuan let out a long sigh.

"What's wrong?" Wang Lan looked over.

"Found three arms." Jiang Yuan shook his head and directly untied the fourth body bag.

Sure enough, body bags one, two, and four roughly belonged to one person. Body bag number three belonged to another person.

"Now the pressure is on the frogmen." A young forensic doctor, perhaps exhausted to the point of collapse, gave a miserable laugh: "As long as they can't find the remaining two body bags, don't even think about coming up."

Jiang Yuan ignored this remark, pulled over the large stainless steel bucket again, took the body parts from body bags one, two, and four to the autopsy table, and tried to piece them together.

"Fortunately, except for the head, basically everything is there." Niu Tong came over to help and showed an "I knew it" expression, saying: "It's not strange for a killer who 'throws far and buries near' to play the trick of 'head far, body near'."

"Head far, body near" is also a common routine in criminal investigation.

Because people generally believe that the head is the easiest part to reveal the identity of the body, killers in dismemberment cases often handle the head separately, either dumping it further away or hiding it elsewhere.

From the handling method of "throw far, bury near" plus "head far, body near," it can be seen that the killer is not very knowledgeable about modern criminal investigation methods, and is likely not someone who likes to study and collect information.

It is more likely a killer who evolved step by step from an ordinary person.

"Four plus two, that's 6 people now." Jiang Yuan untied body bag number three; inside were mainly upper limbs and torso. It should belong to another male.

"I'll make a call." Wang Lan said, but didn't move immediately; instead, she pondered for a moment and said, "Let's divide the work."

Several people looked at Wang Lan.

"Let Jiang Yuan analyze the bones first to see if we can find any clues."

Wang Lan then explained, "We've all seen the situation now; these bodies are likely not all of them. We need to find something as soon as possible, not to lock onto the killer, but at least to narrow the scope of the investigation. Otherwise, once public opinion spreads and the social aspect starts to ferment, if the killer receives the news and runs away early, wouldn't that be troublesome?"

Wang Lan signaled for Jiang Yuan to start working and said, "Now is a time of racing against the clock. We cannot let the killer have another chance to lay out plans in advance, or eliminate evidence, or change behavior..."

In short, before the killer gets the news, finding some evidence and locking onto some information is beneficial for solving the case and litigation.

This was exactly what Wang Lan wanted to express.

Niu Tong understood as soon as he heard it, smiled in a seemingly silly way, and said, "Meaning our technology isn't as good as Jiang Yuan's, so let Jiang Yuan take over, and we'll continue being cooks..."

"I didn't know you were so obsessed with anthropology." Wang Lan looked down at Niu Tong.

Niu Tong gave a dry laugh: "I was just saying."

He hadn't pointed out his talent in forensic anthropology yet; if Wang Lan asked him to join in later, wouldn't he show his incompetence?

The other two young forensic doctors had nothing to argue about; their understanding of anthropology was just that much.

In this day and age, there aren't enough forensic doctors, and there are too many bodies, but there are never enough bodies for teaching. Relying solely on school and training, one basically can't train a forensic doctor in anthropology; one can only watch and practice more at work.

For example, right now, just watching more is enough.

Seeing that Wang Lan had started to back him up, Jiang Yuan stepped down from the meat-boiling post and returned to the autopsy table to study the bones.

Body No. 3 was a male, in his thirties, 1.75 meters tall.

Body No. 4 was a female, in her forties, 1.65 meters tall.

To summarize, for the first wave of four bodies, the forensic doctors of the special task force obtained two middle-aged men and two middle-aged women, with average height, average tooth wear, and ordinary living habits.

So-called ordinary people are the type forensic doctors like the least.

Especially in forensic anthropology, what they most hope to find are special figures among special groups; only then can they judge the identity of the deceased through simple bone fragments.

The "special" required here is just different from the conventional special; it doesn't actually require them to be truly special.

Just like body No. 1, if she were 20 years old, had given birth to children, and at the same time was 170 cm tall, then running the hospital system would likely make it easy to find the corresponding person.

Or a woman of forty-five or older, if she had never given birth to children, also had a height of 170 cm, and then after some investigation, it is estimated that there would also be gains.

Jiang Yuan looked at the bones back and forth, looking quite aimless.

Wang Lan didn't say anything either and just boiled the body parts energetically.

This job is the most tiring and dirty; as the person in charge, no matter what reason she used to escape, she felt uncomfortable.

On the other hand, when Jiang Yuan and she were piecing together the bones, he had already shown ability in anthropology far exceeding her own; Wang Lan felt there was no need to interfere with Jiang Yuan.

In the autopsy room, it gradually became quiet again.

Everyone was working exceptionally hard.

At this time, Jiang Yuan had been leaning over body No. 3 for twenty or thirty minutes before he said, "This body is quite special."

"How so?" Wang Lan, as if wound up, immediately darted over.

"He has traces of being hacked by an axe here." Jiang Yuan pointed to the ribs on the back of the chest.

Wang Lan was stunned and asked, "Is it the cause of death?"

Finding the source of the body is important, but if the cause of death can be found, that's also very good.

Jiang Yuan said, "Doesn't look like it; his ribs were all cut with something like an axe. But for the leg bones and such, a cutting machine was still used."

"Used an axe and a saw?"

"Yes."

"This also shows some thought. Was it because the axe couldn't cut it, so he switched to a cutting machine?" Wang Lan walked over to look and indeed saw the iconic wedge-shaped cut of an axe; her eyes lit up. This situation often means that this body is a link between the past and the future.

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "The use of the cutting machine is not much different from the other bodies. As for the axe, it was also used relatively skillfully. I don't see a learning curve."

This is actually part of the tool mark inspection; Jiang Yuan's understanding is not deep, and he can only say a rough idea.

What is more attractive is actually the issue of proficiency.

If there is no increase in the learning curve, it means the killer is either an insider, or he had practiced with bodies before.

But this kind of speculation that makes people excited cannot be said randomly; anyway, the search in the reservoir is still ongoing, so let's wait for the results.

Wang Lan also understood the meaning and frowned: "This person's tools are quite complete."

"He must also have a large venue," Jiang Yuan said.

Saying is saying, but these things are still a long way from locking onto the killer. Qinghe City has plenty of small factories; the high-tech large factories that the government wanted from the early industrial park planning never came, and in the end, they were rented to local small processing plants.

Besides this, towns and villages also have various small workshops of their own, those oil pressing workshops, honey bottling plants, etc.; how they died 20 years ago is how they have been revived in the last few years.

Seeing that they are still going to die, but it doesn't prevent people from courting death inside.

"Let's have some specifics." Jiang Yuan pulled the topic back.

"You say." Wang Lan nodded.

Jiang Yuan listed them one by one:

"No. 1 had dental work, porcelain teeth; we can search from this aspect."

"No. 2's right humerus has a fracture; this must have been treated at a hospital."

"No. 3, judging from his lumbar vertebrae and leg bones, he may have been engaged in heavy manual labor."

"No. 4. Wore high heels all year round, had orthodontic treatment."

Jiang Yuan gave an investigation direction for each body as much as possible.

Wang Lan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief; with so many things, they would always be able to find the source of the bodies. Perhaps finding one body would lead to finding the killer.