Chapter 235: Eager to Try

Whether it was a dismemberment case, a corpse burning case, or a skeleton case, whenever forensic anthropology was used, finding the source of the corpse was the key to solving the case.

That was the key question of "who is he," which was the foundation for solving such cases.

Ordinary grassroots forensic experts, just like doctors in grassroots hospitals, basically relied on instruments and equipment to do appraisals.

Of course, high-end forensic experts didn't start boiling water at the first opportunity either.

Normally, DNA was run once, fingerprints were tried to be taken, and if there were none, they looked for whether there were special marks such as fingerprints, medical marks such as steel plates and steel nails, etc.

If there were forensic experts who could impart relevant experience, it was generally believed that it was most effective for ordinary people to have steel nails put in at regular hospitals as proof of identity.

Steel nails caused little damage and were well-hidden; after being killed, forensic experts could find the marks with a casual search, while the killer, because of a lack of equipment and the separation of flesh and bone, easily ignored them.

And the problem with steel plates and prosthetics was the same; the concealment was a bit worse, and the surgery performed was relatively large.

The concealment of tattoos or scars was even worse; if the killer was serious, they would probably gouge them out separately. Moreover, they couldn't be used for forward searching.

Dental records were very useful in the United States, but the effect in China was average, also because there was no unified database, and forward searching couldn't be achieved.

Therefore, in China, dental records could be used for confirmation, but wanting to find someone through teeth to achieve the task of "who is he" was relatively difficult.

On the contrary, the steel plate on the head usually had a number, and it wasn't easy to be discovered; if lucky, it could also block a blunt force attack from a killer.

The risk was that the head was easily taken away entirely, just like the first scattered corpse discovered; no matter how the skull was searched for, it couldn't be found, and it was mostly handled separately by the killer.

--Dismemberers always liked to handle the head separately, and some often buried it in their own homes, like a kind of obsession common to both East and West.

Overall, grassroots forensic experts, in terms of corpse source identification, mainly relied on these three axes.

If one wanted to add an extra move, it was the things beside the corpse.

The clothing worn by the deceased before death, the objects used, and now, it was the trash dumped together with the deceased.

If viewed by the standards of the current case, the value of this trash was very small.

But for accumulated cases, information that was pitifully small was also information.

The first things Jiang Yuan raked out were some packaging bags and beverage bottles.

Wang Lan said: "I'll record the time."

"Good." Jiang Yuan piled the trash that was easy to have time markings on for Wang Lan.

At the same time, he also separated some organic matter and put some things that could still be distinguished, such as fish bones, pig bones, etc., to one side.

Theoretically, if there were uncooked bones, it was possible to extract DNA. As for what use it had, that depended on the situation; at the very least, DNA was one-to-one evidence, and the precision was high, so it was still very valuable.

Besides these non-degradable trash and some wet trash, some textiles and paper were also additionally separated by Jiang Yuan.

These things could also be used to prove the source of the corpse. It wasn't necessarily time, perhaps it was location.

If it could be determined which clothes, or paper, came from which trash can, then finding the surrounding missing persons or deceased would also become easier.

Of course, all these premises were that the trash and the corpse came in the same wave.

If not...

Then one could only continue to analyze the corpse. Forensic anthropology yyds!

The forensic experts gathered in front, although they also had certain abilities to identify evidence, seeing Jiang Yuan do it so quickly and well, and the classification was particularly clear, just like an old hand who had been doing trash sorting for many years, everyone naturally played support.

Anyway, it was just a matter of sorting trash; no one wanted to grab this work.

As for how to specifically analyze trash, everyone also had some of their own insights.

In fact, most forensic experts would have a point of expertise other than corpses.

For example, most forensic experts would have a bit of fashion sensitivity. Because you had to write reports, and in the reports, you had to describe the corpse's clothing and appearance in detail.

The people who died in that jurisdiction, besides the working people who dressed plainly, also had working people who dressed fashionably. Such as dark round-neck shawl sleeveless waist-cinching hooded arm-wrapping skirts, etc.

As long as enough fashionable people died, even the straightest forensic expert could become a fashion expert.

It could be imagined that the forensic experts in Paris and Milan must not be weak in terms of fashion.

If they did it long enough, they might even be able to write works like "Fashion Death Examination."

Forensic expert Niu was particularly good at analyzing paper.

Using the word "good at" wasn't very accurate; the accurate description should be that he was particularly familiar with the types and preparation of paper.

Forensic expert Niu was especially familiar with household paper, which was paper towels, facial tissues, napkins, and toilet paper.

This was mainly because he once worked in an area with weak public security and an industrial structure that was exceptionally biased towards the offline entertainment industry, and he had been fishing for paper towels from waste paper scraps all year round to test for semen, etc.

After doing it a lot, whether it was gb/t-2011 tissue paper or gb/t-2018 toilet paper, he knew it at a glance.

Common materials, such as native wood pulp, native pulp, pure wood pulp, and mixed pulp, or relatively special bamboo pulp, were also very easy to distinguish.

Some common brands, forensic expert Niu could also distinguish quite a few by touching and sniffing.

Of course, as an unavoidable derivative knowledge, forensic expert Niu could also distinguish considerable information based on the smell of semen.

Like the smell of photinia or chestnut flowers circulating in the streets, from the perspective of a forensic expert, it was a bit shallow.

Not to mention that these two flowers weren't common, and saying it was like saying nothing, the reality was that different people had different semen smells in different states.

For example, those without smell belonged to those with impaired prostate function.

Those with an exceptionally strong smell might be those who hadn't done it for a long time.

A fishy stench might be caused by inflammation.

A rotten fragrance or fishy smell was also common, and it was highly likely to be a dietary problem.

If one had to use common items to describe its smell, French perfume would probably be more appropriate, especially when the concentration was high; many French perfumes had similar scent types.

At this moment, forensic expert Niu took the initiative to stand in front of the paper pile.

Everyone had been forensic experts in the local area for many years, and there was a certain degree of familiarity among each other; some forensic experts had specific things they were good at, and they would ask for advice when needed.

Naturally, no one would fight with forensic expert Niu for paper rights.

What attracted Jiang Yuan's attention most were a few small pieces of jewelry.

They weren't very valuable jewelry; looking at the material, it was highly likely to be copper or glass, or something like glazed glass. In total, there was a pair of earrings, a necklace, and a ring.

Based on Jiang Yuan's experience of rummaging through trash just now, the owners of this wave of trash had a relatively conservative consumption pattern.

For example, the fish bones eaten were hairtail bones, the material of the clothes worn was also mainly chemical fiber and cotton, and judging from the packaging bags of snacks and drinks, the prices weren't very high, and many were products of unknown small factories.

In this situation, jewelry discarded as a set seemed slightly abrupt.

Of course, it might be unrelated to this case, but Jiang Yuan still gave it more attention. After a brief inspection, he packed it up with an evidence bag.

Several forensic experts on the scene sorted about two tons of trash, which took several hours.

The excavation on the other side also progressed rapidly, re-excavating the mine tunnel by nearly 10 meters.

At this time, the lighting conditions were already very poor, and everyone hurriedly transported the things that felt a bit useful to the top of the mine tunnel, which was almost the end of today's excavation.

The mine tunnel had already been dug quite deep, and doing night shift excavation again was too dangerous.

The situation at the scene was grasped by Xu Taining. Jiang Yuan went to report, and said: "I plan to go to Qinghe City tonight to see the situation of the corpses."

Xu Taining nodded with a bit of appreciation.

He stood at the top of the mine tunnel today, watching the work below. After all, no matter how complex the surrounding search was, it was ultimately to obtain clues.

The corpse was currently the "evidence" that could bring the most clues.

And Jiang Yuan's work attitude and ability had also fallen into Xu Taining's eyes.

Compared to other forensic experts he had worked with, what Xu Taining saw were more advantages and stronger physical strength, which could be said to be rarely seen and excellent.

Of course, Xu Taining wouldn't say these words out loud; he just nodded warmly and said: "Take care of your own body, don't get exhausted."

"Yes." Jiang Yuan didn't know if he heard it, but having received permission, he immediately followed the car down the mountain.

From Zifeng Town to Qinghe City, it took two hours.

Sleeping on the road, and then arriving at the Qinghe City funeral home, after getting off the car, for a moment, he felt like a lifetime had passed.

The sound of the excavator was gone, the ubiquitous murmuring was gone, and the anxious mood seemed to be smoothed out by the tranquility of the funeral home.

At the tip of his nose was the wild mountain smell with a slight smoky air, as well as the fresh pine scent and the burnt smell of yellow paper.

The families of the deceased walking quietly in the distance, everyone used different customs to mourn the deceased, but only quietness and silence were the universal standards.

Jiang Yuan suddenly felt comfortable all over, as if bathing in a hot spring, and the fatigue of his body was being eliminated.

"Let's go, finish looking at the corpses early, and go back to rest early." Forensic expert Niu jumped out of the car.

He was also exhausted today; coming out with Jiang Yuan, rather than saying it was to see the corpse autopsy, it was better to say it was to be sent over to rest.

Because of Xu Taining, there were already forensic experts from the provincial department in Qinghe City to help. Including forensic expert Niu and others, no one had the intention to perform the autopsy personally.

Jiang Yuan had lv3 forensic anthropology, which was also the level of a provincial expert, and he felt he would be helpful, so he insisted on coming over to see.

Autopsy room.

The smell filled the nasal cavity, and the exhaust fan spinning desperately was useless.

The first two corpses had already been laid out on the autopsy table.

The scattered limbs were pieced together as much as possible, but they still looked like broken toys.

However, thinking about the fact that they were human beings before they died, stomach acid easily surged.

Jiang Yuan changed into a white coat, entered, and his gaze first fell on the corpse-waxed corpse.

Corpse-waxed corpses usually only appeared in water or damp mud. If the mud was too dry, they would form mummy-style dried corpses.

Both belonged to preserved corpses; compared to the final white bones, they seemed to have a bit more of a flesh-and-blood feeling.

But only when truly seeing the corpse would one feel that the skeletonized corpse was friendlier.

And corpse-waxed corpses, or dried corpses, were actually suitable for being wrapped in cloth strips.

Corpse wax, as the name implied, was that parts of the corpse became like wax.

The main change was the corpse's adipose tissue. It began to change from the limbs, face, and arms.

However, compared to the wax figures in the wax museum, the gray-white color common to corpse wax had a much higher terror index.

Changing the angle, looking at the wax figures in the wax museum after seeing corpse wax, the terror index hit a new high.

"Forensic expert Zhai." Forensic expert Niu first greeted the forensic expert from the provincial department.

Forensic expert Zhai was a withered little old man with a wooden look in his eyes.

He could be considered the provincial department version of Wang Lan, and also an upgraded version of Wang Lan. However, unlike Wang Lan, who was a city bureau forensic expert running around the city, forensic expert Cheng's work was actually more paper-based, which was reviewing forensic reports from various places, injury appraisal, and other text work.

Only for particularly large cases would forensic expert Zhai be brought over.

Seeing Jiang Yuan and forensic expert Niu, he didn't speak either, just letting the two look for themselves.

Jiang Yuan wasn't polite either, so he started himself, checking from top to bottom.

The broken bones of the corpse all had matching points, indicating that there was no situation of missing bones.

The places where the knife was used a few times were also handled cleanly and neatly by forensic expert Zhai.

Forensic expert Niu watched for a while and lost interest.

Watching this kind of autopsied corpse, and it was also a strength of comprehensive crushing, he would rather go look at the autopsy report.

Jiang Yuan's mood had commonalities with him, but he became eager to try. ===== CHAPTER 236 =====