Chapter 363

Jiang Yuan did not dissect the body in the normal order; instead, he first carefully collected trace evidence from the wound on the chest.

When the killer committed the murder, they used plenty of force, and the dagger's speed was also very fast, stabbing into the victim's heart and drilling in smoothly until the dagger's guard hit the victim's chest.

At the same time, the front edge of the dagger touched the victim's ribs; judging from the dissection, it did indeed leave marks.

In this way, the victim's wound is very likely to contain trace evidence of the murder weapon. As for whether this evidence will help solve the case, it's not yet certain, but it will likely help as court evidence.

In fact, nailing a killer is not that easy. In cases where evidence is insufficient, courts often reduce sentences. Especially when it involves the death penalty, the requirements for evidence and the chain of evidence are more than a notch higher.

Therefore, sometimes courts would rather give a suspended death sentence than a direct death penalty. Because if they give it, it might be rejected during the death penalty review, and the one who ends up embarrassed is still themselves.

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Criminal investigation personnel like Jiang Yuan are particularly welcomed everywhere because he is a forensic expert who speaks with physical evidence. Solving a case is not just about breaking the case, but also comes with a full set of evidence, and the chain of evidence is relatively complete. It's not like Liu Jinghui's type, which sounds logically rigorous, but in court, it's all just talk.

Wu Jun watched Jiang Yuan collect the skin damage from the chest and handed him the rib shears.

The rib shears used by forensic doctors are the same as those used in cardiothoracic surgery; essentially, they both use the principle of a lever to cut bone. The difference is that the rib shears used in cardiothoracic surgery are often small and exquisite, and quite expensive, while the rib shears used by forensic doctors don't have so many fussy requirements; they are often large and rough, looking both heavy and powerful.

Jiang Yuan cut the bone, took photos, carefully sampled it again, and then directly cut off a section of the rib that had marks.

Human ribs and pig ribs have many similarities. If it's a body that has just been burned, it is said that it even has a smell similar to roast pork.

The freshly cut rib was a bit like pork spare ribs. Wu Jun specifically wrote a label with a pen to note it.

In addition, the heart is also a key point for sampling.

Finally, the entire bucket of internal organs, including the heart, liver, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, as well as the pancreas, thyroid, and adrenal glands, were all soaked in formalin. Then, each part was sampled, cut into small strips, and put into a dehydrator to dehydrate.

After dehydration was complete, Wu Jun had already heated the paraffin.

The melted paraffin was put into small compartments, and the dehydrated specimens—the strips of organs—were put into the wax. Once the wax solidified, a wax block resembling amber was obtained.

Next, the wax block was put onto a microtome, cut into thin slices, and finally put into a water bath.

In the water bath, the slices would expand due to the tension of the water, the wax wrapping them would melt, and finally, only a thin slice of tissue would remain.

The technical content of this process is quite high, and it is also a great test of a forensic doctor's skills.

Especially when the specimens are limited, if a forensic doctor fails a few times, they might use up the specimens and end up with nothing.

And these slices are not only used for archiving and as evidence but are also needed for future review and testing. Especially for death penalty reviews, these key pieces of evidence must be examined.

In other words, if you want the perpetrator to be sentenced to death, the processing of the specimens must be done well.

Jiang Yuan did it extremely seriously.

Wu Jun accompanied him until the autopsy was finished. Only after the body was pushed into the ice coffin did he say, "Don't forget, you promised Director Huang that you could solve the case."

"I remember," Jiang Yuan nodded.

"Can it be solved?" Wu Jun was full of doubts.

"It should be solvable."

"How to solve it?"

"I don't know yet," Jiang Yuan replied, feeling that he was being a bit nonsensical, and quickly added: "I still have this confidence, but I don't know yet which aspect will be used to solve the case."

Wu Jun sighed: "That's why you shouldn't make full promises. If you hadn't agreed so quickly, you'd be relaxed now. When Director Huang needs to show his appreciation, he'll still show it."

Jiang Yuan just responded with "Mm-hmm." With his current skill set, he felt being too cautious didn't quite make sense.

Although the current case, judging from the autopsy, did not directly point to clues about the killer, in Jiang Yuan's view, there were still many options available.

Wu Jun was just reminding Jiang Yuan. Seeing that he didn't have a worried expression, he felt relieved and casually lit a fire basin in the room.

Jiang Yuan didn't even need him to say it; he obediently jumped over it three times.

The two returned to the Criminal Police Detachment by car.

In the conference room, information was constantly being sent in, and several squadron leaders were also whispering to each other.

It is still the early stage of the investigation, and the direction of the investigation has not yet been determined. Therefore, the main work is being done by the Criminal Science Squadron, which is collecting and analyzing evidence from the scene.

Jiang Yuan entered and didn't stand on ceremony; he first found the people in the imaging office to check the surveillance.

"The killer probably didn't take the usual path. We have surveillance in the main directions, but we didn't capture anyone. At least for now, we haven't locked onto a suspect." Zhuang Wei, the first generation of the imaging office, now has extremely high trust in Jiang Yuan; he even felt a tiny bit of tension.

Ningtai County spent so much money upgrading the surveillance equipment; if it couldn't be put to use, it wouldn't just be a joke—everyone in the imaging office would be in trouble.

Jiang Yuan had more confidence than Zhuang Wei. While watching the surveillance, he asked, "Haven't you found even a shadow of the suspect?"

"We're not quite sure about the suspect's physical characteristics yet," Zhuang Wei said with a bit of helplessness. They weren't even carrying photos when looking for people now; how would they know which person to look for?

"Which way did the police dog chase?" Jiang Yuan asked the officer next to him.

He dispatched the police dog not to get an answer directly.

However, judging from the blood spattered at the scene, the killer must have left with some blood on them. Through the police dog's sniffing, they could roughly determine the direction the killer left in.

The officer next to him pointed to the east side.

Zhuang Wei also explained: "We have extended the investigation range to the east side, but there are no obviously suspicious figures."

"If the surveillance can't find clues, we have to change our approach..." Liu Jinghui stood up, trying to help reorganize the case.

Jiang Yuan didn't follow Liu Jinghui's lead and said first, "On the streets at 3:00 AM, anyone appearing is suspicious, right?"

Liu Jinghui was stunned: "We can't screen all the newcomers... Hmm, the killer is likely an outsider. From this perspective, an outsider still lingering on the street at 3:00 AM is very likely the killer?"

"We can try this line of reasoning first," Jiang Yuan maintained a relatively relaxed posture.

Solving cases through surveillance is just a relatively easy way, not the only way.

Zhuang Wei shook his head again and said, "Starting from 3:30 AM, there are very few people scanned in the surveillance. We are looking for people along the transportation routes, and as of now, there is no one who looks like the killer."

What he said was not very rigorous, but everyone present understood.

People wandering outside in the middle of the night, even if they walk a distance, will eventually have to take transportation. Based on the transportation, the identities of most people can basically be determined.

Of course, there will definitely be people whose identities are hard to determine, but a killer will have the look of a killer—they will be nervous, walk fast, and look around. In short, some killers can disguise themselves as normal people, but some people don't look like killers at all.

And the police are not facing 007 after all. From Zhuang Wei's perspective, people wandering outside at 3:00 or 4:00 AM, although strange, ultimately don't look like killers.

Jiang Yuan watched the surveillance for a few time slots and didn't find any clues either.

At this moment, everyone's expressions became a bit solemn.

Could it be that this current case will really have a slip-up?

Jiang Yuan's expression, however, did not change in the slightest. He just asked people to mark the locations of the cameras near the bar, watched carefully for a while, and then said: "Team Zhuang, you continue to watch the footage, especially analyze the surveillance near the bar between 3:30 and 4:00. I'll go to the scene to take a look."

"Okay," Zhuang Wei agreed.

Mu Zhiyang, who was on the side, hurriedly stood up, ready to follow Jiang Yuan to the scene, and asked: "Do we need to look at the scene again?"

"Yes. The surveillance coverage around the bar street is wide enough. If there are still no traces of the killer, we have to consider that the killer didn't enter and exit through normal means," Jiang Yuan curled his lips and said, "If that's the case, the killer will only leave more traces."