Chapter 273: Reading Files

"I also want to look at the evidence again. Everyone, read the files first."

Jiang Yuan didn't start speaking directly because of everyone's attention. The cold case from eleven years ago is a real old cold case, and the file reading work alone is quite heavy.

Now, since there is already a formal cold case special class and a team of twenty or thirty people, instead of just a few people tinkering silently, Jiang Yuan wants to be more formal.

The first step in restarting a cold case is to sort out and organize clues.

The clues from that year must be taken out. If evidence can be subjected to non-destructive inspection, it must be re-inspected to see if the latest technological innovations can play a role. It is also necessary to see if the evidence from that year has any omissions or imperfections.

And the materials visited by the police officers previously must also be read by someone. It would be even better if someone could read the inquiry records of hundreds or thousands of pages and find clues or corroboration of certain evidence.

"Murder cases are not broken, the special task force is not withdrawn" is largely a gimmick, but leaving one or two police officers in the special task force who can know the whole process is indeed a very necessary and even smart move.

The two special task force police officers contacted by the "Cold Case Special Class" are—the older one has retired, and the younger one... is still an ordinary police officer in the Criminal Police Detachment. If pulled to the scene, he can keep up with the progress.

After everyone was busy, Liu Jinghui sat beside Jiang Yuan and said in a low voice: "You felt it too, right?"

"Felt... what?" Jiang Yuan looked blank.

"This case is different from the ordinary ones." Liu Jinghui's expression was solemn.

Jiang Yuan's expression also became solemn immediately: "You mean, it's possible..."

Jiang Yuan pointed his hand upward, his eyes full of questions.

Liu Jinghui was stunned, reached out and broke one of Jiang Yuan's fingers, and said: "My meaning is that this might be a pair of male and female thieves. En, saying thieves is not accurate, it's just that the suspect should be a couple."

"Eh, why?"

"Because there is no rape." Liu Jinghui's voice was low.

Seeing Jiang Yuan still puzzled, Liu Jinghui coughed twice and said: "This... I have worked on several taxi robbery and murder cases, and I have also studied some cases inside and outside the province. Let's put it this way: if the taxi driver is a female driver and drives to the wilderness, if a robbery and murder eventually occur, most of them will involve rape."

"Most, not all."

"Those that don't involve rape, either the female driver's age is too old, or there are women in the gang. For the rest, many will evolve into robbery, rape, and murder." Liu Jinghui sighed and said: "So, this case had obvious omissions in the process of investigating the scene."

This is the reason why Liu Jinghui gave this case a high score.

Jiang Yuan listened to the explanation.

"I looked at the photos in the file. There was a long hair on the back seat, but I looked for the evidence bag, and it wasn't sampled at the time. I estimate that the criminal police who investigated the scene thought it was the victim's hair. It does look like it, but I think it's more likely to be the murderer's hair."

Liu Jinghui found the photo from the file.

In the gap of the brown seat, there was a bloodstain. The photographer was shooting the bloodstain, but a long hair could be vaguely seen next to it.

Jiang Yuan immediately took the victim's photo for comparison. After repeated judgment, he nodded slowly: "It's possible. The hair is a bit like the victim's. The length and color are about the same, but the curliness is slightly different. The photo conditions are too poor to be sure, but even if it's not the victim's hair, it could be left by a previous guest."

Taxi cases are annoying here. The vehicle looks like a treasure trove of evidence, but when opened, the ownership of each treasure is problematic.

And in the process of extracting evidence, how to extract evidence and which evidence to extract is itself a place that tests the scene investigation.

First of all, it must be clear that scene investigation cannot provide an unlimited amount of evidence.

An evidence bag costs a few yuan, which is nothing. DNA reagents are indeed not cheap. Domestic ones are a hundred or so yuan at the current price, and there are always some imported goods that are better to use than domestic ones. If you want higher precision and better sensitivity, there is always a price.

In a murder scene, extracting a dozen

DNA traces is normal, and extracting hundreds is also normal. But for such a large scene, extracting hundreds is actually impossible to cover everything.

And this is not just a problem of expensive consumables. The laboratory's workload is also limited. A municipal bureau's DNA laboratory handles DNA test materials all day long, and the feedback time for ordinary cases goes to "weekends," "next week," and the like.

Murder cases are indeed valued, but they cannot occupy resources indefinitely.

Scene investigation or other technicians, or other criminal police, always have to make some judgments and trade-offs based on self-experience.

It is clear that based on the situation of the case, the police officers who participated in the investigation of the scene at the time might not have thought at all that this kind of fierce robbery and murder case with head-cutting would involve women. So when taking the test materials, they didn't specifically extract this hair.

Liu Jinghui said noncommittally: "I guess it's a man and a woman. Another reason is that there is only one bloody footprint at the scene, and the DNA extracted from the victim's fingernails has not been matched for many years. This kind of stability is also rare. I bet it's a pair of desperate lovers."

"You think the murderer would commit the crime again?"

"Most murderers in robbery and murder cases are repeat offenders." Liu Jinghui said: "There are no murderers who only rob once. Once a hero goes to Liangshan, robbery and looting become daily business."

Jiang Yuan nodded upon hearing this and said: "This shows that the original purpose of the case is likely not robbery."

"Yes, the purpose should not be robbery, let alone murder." Liu Jinghui paused and continued: "Judging from the way of killing, head-cutting, although it seems cruel, is actually very unprofessional, which proves the amateurishness of the murderer from the side. However, the murderer's technique has something to it. I think he should have been exposed to similar work, been a butcher, or a doctor or something."

"If he were a doctor, shouldn't he kill and then dismember?" Jiang Yuan opposed slightly.

"It's possible." Liu Jinghui nodded and asked: "On your side, what evidence can you see? Why give a high score?"

"There is only one person's bloody footprint at the scene, male, about 38 years old, 175 cm tall, with a slight limp in the left leg." Jiang Yuan emphasized: "The degree of limp is not very serious. It should be that the left leg is slightly shorter than the right leg, but if he wears height-increasing shoes, it won't be very visible."

Liu Jinghui's eyes lit up upon hearing this: "No wonder you gave a high score. This case should be ranked in the front. If there is a limp, it will be much easier to find people."

The recognition of a limp is very high. If it is not covered up, when walking, people around will basically notice it, and it doesn't even need special attention.

"There is also DNA, but they didn't screen it out that year either." Jiang Yuan said: "The two are probably no longer in the local area."

"En... very likely. The screening at that time should have been quite detailed." Liu Jinghui was a bit heavy at this time. If people left, or if they were outsiders themselves, the screening would be equal to no effect.

Without screening, the combat effectiveness of the criminal police will fall by 30%.

"A limping butcher? And there is DNA. It is indeed a breakthrough." Liu Jinghui nodded. After all, it is a murder cold case. Being able to have so many clues is actually very difficult.

It's just that compared to the first case, this case can't achieve a direct breakthrough. ===== CHAPTER 274 =====

It was just that, compared to the first case, there was no way to achieve a direct breakthrough with this one.