Chapter 241: Saw Blade

Although only one victim had been confirmed—or rather, confirming even one victim had already lifted everyone's spirits.

In several groups, the number of people speaking had clearly increased.

In the "Gray Badge Group" that Jiang Yuan had been added to, someone cheerfully began chatting:

Trace Evidence Li Rui: 【I feel like we're seeing hope now—we've confirmed the victim's identity, so we can start tracing their movements on the day they disappeared.】

Forensic Investigation Zhang Mingyuan: 【Don't be so optimistic. They've been missing for three years and four months; only family members still remember anything. Ask anyone else nearby—they've forgotten completely.】

Image Analysis Fu Quanzhi: 【Didn't anyone actively search for them when they went missing? If a normal person had someone vanish from their circle, and were later questioned about it, wouldn't they remember clearly?】

On-site Investigation Zhang Mingyuan: 【When they disappeared, their parents weren't around—they were in the countryside. The victim didn't have a job; she stayed home, you know—now they call it flexible employment—so she had no coworkers. It wasn't until four days later, when her parents couldn't reach her by phone after multiple attempts, that they filed a report.】

Forensic Ni Lihuang: 【(? ?) The victim had cervical spondylosis and lumbar disc herniation—all occupational diseases from sitting at a desk all day. But she didn't even have a job?】

On-site Investigation Zhang Mingyuan: 【She was just gaming too much.】

Forensic Ni Lihuang: 【Damn, I can't even do my job anymore—how am I supposed to judge her lifestyle or work environment now?】

On-site Investigation Zhang Mingyuan: 【At least we found the victim's pendant. Jiang Yuan's still sharp—if not for him, we might not have even found the victim at all.】

Image Analysis Fu Quanxian: 【So now, any leads on the motorcycle? Or did that trail go cold?】

On-site Investigation Zhang Mingyuan: 【We're still looking. And we can't limit ourselves to just the victim's living area—her range of movement was extremely narrow.】

The group chatted, shifting from optimism to pessimism, and soon fell silent.

Jiang Yuan also frowned as he watched. He had imagined possible identities for the victim, but none felt solid.

Still, his initial assumption had been that the victim was a white-collar worker or civil servant—someone who worked in an office. He never imagined a twenty-something girl, seriously addicted to gaming, could develop so many health problems from it.

After scrolling through his phone, he snapped back to reality, sighed quietly, and turned his attention back to the body.

Originally, he thought that if they found the victim's place of death—or the crime scene—the odds of catching the killer would be very high.

For a cold case like this, the evidence gathered so far was already substantial.

But absence is absence. Especially during this period of searching the victim's home—if new leads emerged, they might directly lock onto the killer. But if none appeared, this lead's value would plummet.

The police were still working hard locally, checking motorcycles, reviewing the victim's social status at the time of disappearance, and investigating her interpersonal relationships—perhaps they'd uncover a clue.

But from Jiang Yuan's perspective, the best evidence was always the body itself.

"The King of Evidence" proved just how rich the information a corpse could provide—though extracting it was often far too difficult.

Yet compared to the first three bodies, the fourth appeared to have more to say—purely Jiang Yuan's intuition. If he had to describe it, the fourth body looked more disordered, more carelessly handled.

From the timeline, the fourth body's time of death also seemed older—Jiang Yuan estimated it was four years ago.

Meaning the victim was killed by the killer much earlier.

The disposal was incomplete.

Or did something unexpected happen during the process?

Jiang Yuan carried hope in his heart and carefully searched for clues.

In fact, accidents during dismemberment were normal.

Even a lifelong pig butcher hired for New Year's slaughter in the countryside wouldn't dare claim he never made a single mistake.

Add to that the killer's psychological pressure, the uncomfortable location, restricted visibility—and accidents were inevitable. Some killers even wore latex gloves, only to have the gloves cut into the body.

Jiang Yuan hadn't found any particularly useful evidence on the first three bodies, but the fourth looked promising—he hoped to find something.

He didn't examine the body in order; instead, he followed his instinct, starting with the larger bone fragments.

This took over an hour. @JingHua_ShuGe…j_h_s_s_d_c_o_m First Release Update~~

During this time, other forensic experts came over to examine the bones, but each focused on different points, with different priorities and analytical directions.

Jiang Yuan watched silently, until he reached the cut surfaces of the radius and humerus—and stopped.

What caught his attention was the bone fracture surfaces.

The bones had been cut with a saw. Nothing unusual—many dismemberment killers preferred saws, including Wang Guoshan from the reservoir body-dumping case, who also used a saw.

Compared to those using axes or cleavers, saws require less force, produce more pieces, and result in smaller average fragment weights.

Jiang Yuan had seen many bodies dismembered with saws—but the fourth victim's fracture surfaces showed a change.

What kind of change?

Jiang Yuan pulled out several sternum and rib fragments and compared them to the humerus and radius. The former's fracture surfaces were smoother and cleaner; the latter showed severe cutting marks and clear skip-saw marks. Additionally, the humerus and radius had distinct step-like patterns, 4 millimeters from the fracture edge and 4 millimeters long, while the sternum and ribs appeared far more even and clear.

All this pointed to one issue: the killer switched saws.

Whether he cut the sternum first or the arms first—he switched saws.

Maybe one saw broke. Maybe the blade snapped. Maybe he felt the one he was using wasn't powerful enough. Whatever the reason, the killer changed saws during dismemberment—at minimum, he changed the blade.

But whether he switched the entire saw or just the blade, it further confirmed an answer: the killer performed the dismemberment at a fixed location.

This conclusion came because the killer must have used a high-power saw—most likely a chainsaw.

Chainsaws are bulky and heavy, weighing around ten kilograms, and their blades—better called chains—are heavy, bicycle-chain-like devices weighing several jin. Jiang Yuan believed a normal dismemberment killer wouldn't carry two chainsaws, or one chainsaw plus an extra chain.

If the killer suffered from chain-breakage anxiety, wouldn't it make more sense, given his meticulous nature, to simply replace the chainsaw's chain?

These chains are typically used for cutting wood and trees, made of special steel, and can withstand hundreds of cuts before needing sharpening—they don't break easily.

You could buy a new one online, cut up two bodies, and maybe even return it to the shopkeeper for a refund.

So on the fourth victim, switching saws or blades is best explained by the killer operating from his own territory.

Only then would it be easy and convenient to swap out a saw or blade when problems arose.

This also overturned another hypothesis: that the killer deliberately carried tools like saws to commit crimes far from his home or workplace.

In other words, the killer's residence or workplace must be near the crime scene.

That is, near the residence of the third victim, Feng Xiaoyan!

Jiang Yuan realized this and immediately called Huang Qiangmin.

On the other end, Huang Qiangmin hadn't rested—he listened to Jiang Yuan's reasoning with anticipation, then fell silent.

"Is there a problem?" Jiang Yuan sensed something was off.

"We've already swept all motorcycles in Fangjin Township—no suspects emerged," Huang Qiangmin sighed.

Jiang Yuan was surprised: "You checked so fast? What about the surrounding areas of Fangjin? The rural villages closer to Feng Xiaoyan?"

"Possibly. But motorcycle use here isn't as widespread as in Zifeng Town," Huang Qiangmin paused. "Could the killer have ridden from another township twenty or thirty kilometers away?"

"A bit far. And carrying one chainsaw is already a burden—two chainsaws, or one chainsaw plus two chains? That's too exhausting."

"True," Huang Qiangmin said after a pause. "Feng Xiaoyan could have moved, but it's unlikely she traveled dozens of kilometers alone."

Huang Qiangmin immediately contradicted himself.

"So the killer is very likely in Fangjin Township or nearby. Too bad we can't locate the other bodies—if we could…," Huang Qiangmin muttered, then added: "We've also been monitoring dismemberment tools—found nothing. Still, your discovery is valuable. I'll report it to Director Xu—we need to intensify searches here."

Jiang Yuan acknowledged, hung up, and felt weary.

The search area had narrowed, but ten or fifteen kilometers in radius was still vast. If time allowed, meticulous, step-by-step screening could yield results.

But screening was the most time-consuming task of all.