Chapter 265: Jingling Community

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The morning glow began to brighten.

Jiang Yuan opened his eyes, got up from bed, rested briefly, then headed to the Criminal Investigation Brigade.

Entering the cold case task force office, he indeed saw many people had already arrived.

Wan Baoming came in from outside and, seeing Jiang Yuan, said: "Last night, everyone cross-referenced the suspect information you provided with missing persons reports—no matches yet. Today we're planning door-to-door checks."

"You think it's someone they know?" Jiang Yuan asked.

Door-to-door checks, beyond questioning, offer the best advantage: observing family members' expressions, gestures, and demeanor. Some first-time killers, perfectly calm at first, reveal themselves after just a few sentences.

Besides that, if you visit the suspect's home and smell blood, or neighbors report they chopped meat all day long, and the suspect claims they bought a sheep to cook at home, no one will believe it.

In general, sophisticated investigative methods rarely face off against sophisticated murder plans in the criminal investigation unit.

Usually, one side has to be noticeably cruder.

Wan Baoming naturally hoped the other side was cruder, but then thought it unlikely, adding: "Mainly we're looking for a furnace. He probably dismembered first, then burned—the environmental requirements are still quite high."

"Yeah, without stairs in the house, you basically can't pull this off," Jiang Yuan nodded.

"So the crime scene neighborhood has always been highly suspected. This time, let's see if we can find any clues," Wan Baoming replied uncertainly.

Jiang Yuan looked around—the meeting room already had over half the team present, yet no one seemed to be doing anything useful.

This was the Changyang City Criminal Investigation Unit—everyone had ambitions for promotion and raise, so even meaningless attendance was met with enthusiastic participation.

Unlike county bureaus, where people now care about meaning. If something lacks meaning, no one bothers. After all, it won't lead to promotion or raise.

"Let's go to the scene," Jiang Yuan felt he couldn't waste this team on PowerPoint presentations. Yu Wen's team had likely just formed the cold case task force and was reluctant to pull him away, but with no active case, Jiang Yuan was growing restless.

Wan Baoming was surprised. "The scene is under Yu's command, but Zhu is in charge. Should I call him?"

"Yes," Jiang Yuan said, gathering his things and preparing to leave.

Wang Chuanxing, standing nearby, had been eavesdropping and quickly followed: "Team Leader Jiang, let me carry your bag."

He took Jiang Yuan's belongings and smiled cheerfully: "What are we looking for when we get there?"

Wang Chuanxing had genuinely benefited—he'd earned a third-class merit and risen above brutal competition. His mood was like winning the lottery; now he hoped to win again.

Jiang Yuan thought carefully: "I don't know for sure, but I believe the person who discarded the burned bones likely lives in this neighborhood—or nearby."

Wang Chuanxing agreed: "Out-of-towners wouldn't find such a suitable neighborhood—right in front are villa districts, and whether they drove or took a taxi, they'd likely be recorded."

Tang Jia joined them: "The collected bone fragments are so small—I think the killer just tossed them casually into a trash bin, assuming they'd never be found. If not for stray animals pulling them out and someone noticing, this case might never have happened."

"Should've thrown them in the river," Wang Chuanxing said. "Just a dozen or so bone fragments—drop them in the river, you'll never find them."

"They might wash ashore. Or someone by the river, or a camera, might've caught them. Li Changyu had a case where they dammed a river and fished out bone fragments. The Hangzhou wife-murder case was similar—they pulled human tissue from a septic tank," Wan Baoming added as he joined Jiang Yuan heading out.

In the car, Wan Baoming continued: "The crime scene neighborhood—Jingling Community—has over three thousand households. Over a thousand are villas, currently occupied by five hundred. There are also about two thousand apartment buildings, with occupancy around seventy to eighty percent. This is one of Changyang City's earliest villa communities. The surrounding area is even larger, and because it sits on a hill, people from nearby neighborhoods often come to Jingling Community. That's the main problem now..."

Outsiders who dump bodies usually choose major roads, highway exits, or bridges.

Imagine someone driving thousands of miles with a corpse—or a basket of burned bone fragments—arriving in a foreign city. Could they calmly and coolly find a remote villa community far from downtown, then dispose of it in a trash bin?

Completely unnecessary.

Especially if unfamiliar with local traffic—many drivers avoid neighborhood roads even daily. Carrying a basket of bone fragments into a neighborhood to find a trash bin? It's absurd.

Better to just toss them in the river.

Arriving at Jingling Community and examining the scene, you'd see the situation is even more complex—Jingling Community sits atop a hill, with five or six smaller communities scattered halfway up and at the foot of the mountain. At the foot of the hill, Anji Community even built a man-made lake.