Chapter 37: Evidence Collection

Mu Zhiyang also lay down and looked closely at the fingerprints.

The fingerprints were incomplete, mainly at the fingertips, the middle part was not pressed very comprehensively, and the total area was not large.

"Is the time still a bit long?" Mu Zhiyang was a little disappointed. The brush worth over 200, brushing the copper powder that sounded expensive, didn't result in complete fingerprints.

Jiang Yuan first took out the camera and took photos as clearly as possible before standing up straight, looking directly at the fingerprint pattern taken, and said slowly: "It's a bit incomplete, but it should be able to make up more than a dozen feature points."

Mu Zhiyang stood on tiptoe and looked at the fingerprints, quite unexpectedly: "The shape is not complete, and the texture is blurry, can it still propose more than a dozen feature points?"

"You should look at the fingerprints of the arson case I did a few days ago." Jiang Yuan bent down again and took a few fingerprint photos, then started taking scene photos.

Mu Zhiyang patted his head: "You say my association ability... alas, it's just you. If someone else came, this case would really be hard to handle."

The same fingerprint, if it had been lifted by the county bureau's crime scene investigation team, the trace evidence examiners would certainly have had to pretend to be dismissive of it. Otherwise, what else could they do? It was mangled into such a dog's breakfast that, regardless of whether it was Old Yan or Little Wang, neither would be able to produce a match.

Even if the completeness of the fingerprints is a little higher, the two of them are estimated to be unwilling to do it.

The incomplete fingerprints are more annoying the more incomplete they are. If they are incomplete to the extent of the arson case, it is not only annoying, but may also consume mental energy, and it must be the mental energy of an expert-level trace examiner...

The cases solved by this way of burning the brain cells of experts, if it is just a few electric scooters being stolen, the handling police officers will feel embarrassed.

Jiang Yuan did it himself, so there were no such verbose words, and he said politely: "It's just that I only know fingerprints. If the police station checks, there should be other ways."

"There are ways, but it's not necessarily possible to solve it. Many of those who steal electric scooters for a living are wandering crimes, running to one place and staying for a period of time, spending the money, feeling dangerous, and then going to another place, like traveling." Mu Zhiyang inexplicably felt a little envious.

Zhou Ta, who had finished the on-site record, just came back and heard the second half of Mu Zhiyang's sentence, agreeing: "Indeed. Some people also know that rabbits don't eat the grass around their own burrows."

"I'll try to match the fingerprints as soon as possible." Jiang Yuan could only do this. If it drags on for a long time, even if the fingerprints are matched, it will be a trouble if the criminal suspect runs away—this is another layer of trouble in reality. Even if you know where the criminal suspect is, the procedures for handling cases in different places, the time and energy consumed, and the burning funds are all troubles.

Imagine two police officers, very likely four police officers, driving to another city perhaps thousands of kilometers away, communicating with the local criminal investigation department, requesting to send people to assist in investigation and arrest of criminal suspects. In this process, because of refueling, road tolls, overtime pay, and food and accommodation, they spend a lot of money, but what they bring home is a small thief who stole several electric scooters, and there is a possibility of not catching anyone... Whoever thinks of it, will feel owed in their heart.

Compared with the young Mu Zhiyang, Zhou Ta was even more unable to understand Jiang Yuan.

However, he was used to doing more things and talking less, helping Jiang Yuan organize things clearly, and then rushed to the parking area outside the residential area without stopping.

When they arrived at the place, the three of them put on gloves and masks and started digging through the sewer, trying to find the cigarette butts and garbage seen in the video.

Three people, two large bags, soon stood up satisfied.

"Polluted to this extent, I guess only cigarette butts can be used." Jiang Yuan sighed. There were quite a few cigarette butts in the sewer, and he picked them all out, and collected them one by one in small evidence bags.

For this action, Jiang Yuan did it for more than a quarter of an hour.

Mu Zhiyang watched and felt tired, took off his gloves, covered his nose and let go with disgust, and said: "The garbage water has soaked in, can you still check DNA?"

"It should be no problem. Cigarette butts have a strong ability to preserve DNA." Jiang Yuan observed the cigarette butts carefully and said: "As long as they don't get moldy, 10-year-old cigarette butts can measure DNA."

"So powerful? Why? Did it soak in when smoking?" Mu Zhiyang followed his master to solve cases all day long, but he hadn't paid attention to this.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said: "On the one hand, the smoking time is long, and on the other hand, the structure of the cigarette butt is good, which can resist external erosion. When measuring DNA, tearing the cotton inside strip by strip is also easier to measure."

"So we often say in the police station that crime needs to be learned. You say, in this era, there are still people who throw cigarette butts at the crime scene. We also often handle cases, one by one stupidly, leaving evidence everywhere..." Zhou Ta shook his head happily.

Compared with the old auxiliary police officer Zhou Ta, Mu Zhiyang saw it clearly and said: "They don't want to leave evidence, they just can't take care of it. I once followed my master to handle a homicide case and encountered it once. The murderer killed someone and ran out of the alley, still carrying blood on his hands, and smoked, and threw the cigarette butt in front of him after smoking. They don't know, it's just that their brains couldn't think of these at that time. Too nervous."

"That makes sense. Instead, those who do theft cases are relaxed, have agile thinking, and are not easy to find evidence." Zhou Ta said.

"Those who do theft have many repetitions and high proficiency. Generally, those who do homicide finish it once or twice, and have no chance to practice." Mu Zhiyang started to summarize.

"Homicide is also complex, the scene is often messy, and there are corpses... equivalent to a big project. Theft is a small project. People who come up to do big projects are definitely easy to make mistakes." Zhou Ta also summarized some experience.

Jiang Yuan raised the evidence bag and said: "Let's go back, I don't know if I can match DNA."

"Do your best and listen to the destiny, that's how it is." Zhou Ta ran for such a long time and also hoped for results. It's just that compared to success, he has more feelings for the experience of failure.

Jiang Yuan only nodded slightly. If you want to talk about it, this is the first time he has run a case completely. ===== CHAPTER 38 =====