Chapter 730

In the soil, there were not only rings, but also necklaces, bracelets, and anklets, as well as some scraps of clothing whose composition could not be determined.

The police officers digging the pit became more spirited the more they dug.

Having personal belongings is the best-case scenario; through these items, it might be possible to determine the source of the corpse. As everyone knows, the primary factor in identifying a corpse is the objects surrounding it. Through the body itself? That is not only difficult but also a matter of probability.

Just as when Jiang Yuan is ninety percent certain that a corpse is human, he still wouldn't say it out loud immediately. Because there is still a ten percent chance it could be an animal corpse, and as a forensic expert, one cannot gamble on this just once in a lifetime.

And no one would work with a forensic expert who gambles ten times and wins nine. When criminal police ask a forensic expert a question, they want a definitive answer.

It won't do for the criminal police to start acting on a homicide case, only for the forensic expert to suddenly say, "Sorry, I misread it before; it's actually a chimpanzee!"

Having such a situation occur once in ten times, or even once in ten years, is a major error that is not permitted.

By comparison, finding people through items is a mode the criminal police are more familiar with.

"It should be a fairly young girl; the necklaces and rings she wore were all of a rather special kind." The digging officer guessed casually while working.

The officer opposite him was slightly older; he dug the ground with his hands, head-to-head with the first, and said with an "En": "Nothing strange about that; ordinary middle-aged women don't end up dead here."

"You saying it like that is a bit discriminatory."

"The rings and necklaces weren't taken, which means it wasn't for money. And to bury them so far away—this group, even if they aren't professionals, are close enough. How would an ordinary middle-aged woman have any intersection with such people? A beauty's fate is thin; that's not just talk."

"If it's not for love, then it's for lust, right? It could also be a love from the previous generation, or a vendetta!"

"It could also be that they were killed at random."

"Then there's no need to bury them here. A corpse buried here is essentially equivalent to disappearing; this place is quite something. It won't be wasted either. Those who kill by accident just dump them anywhere."

"Is there a cost-benefit calculation for burying people? If there's a place and time, they'll definitely bury them in a safe spot."

Several criminal police officers talked while working, and as they spoke, they all became silent.

"Jiang Yuan seems to have done the positioning nearby as well."

"There are several places; our team is guarding two, and the Seventh Team has at least two as well."

"This month's vacation is down the drain."

"This month? It'll be good if we can take a vacation this year."

While speaking, the criminal police dug up some more soil, and seeing the bones exposed, they stopped. Their task was basically finished at this point; they would wait for the forensic expert to arrive before doing anything else.

Several people took off their gloves or went to relieve themselves in the distance, but no one felt relaxed.

Conference room.

Everyone's focus had long since shifted to the second marked point.

The second marked point also had sparse vegetation. Anyone who has read books or buried corpses knows that the plants above a corpse, in the early years, do not grow too well due to the corrosive effect of corpse fluids, electrolyte imbalances, and other reasons.

Therefore, just because the plants here were not growing well, it was dug up by the roots.

There was no need for Jiang Yuan to explain specifically; the botanists present had already studied it clearly.

"There are also broken trees nearby. The stump left behind has mushrooms growing on it, right? Based on the growth time of the mushrooms, we can also calculate the time the incident occurred." Different scholars have different academic research directions; those studying fungi were excited on the spot when they saw the mushrooms.

Qi Changye listened from the side and immediately communicated: "Protect the mushrooms on the stump well; they can help determine the time."

For cold cases, the time of death is a major hurdle. If the source of the corpse can be determined, and then the time of death can be determined, then the investigation of the case has a considerable foundation.

Jiang Yuan naturally wouldn't stop them. Even if he has LV6 death time appraisal, he still needs various factors as a basis for judgment; fungi are also a very good target object.

Soon, another large dirt pit was dug out.

When the bones appeared, several people stood up.

"This doesn't look like human bones." Botanists don't need to be like forensic experts who must be certain before speaking. Some botanists, besides their own research, also do some work with animal studies. At this moment, they stared at the bones and said: "Too thin, this length couldn't be ribs, and the bone quality isn't right either. Is it the change of the bones in the soil?"

Botanists belong to the side route taken when switching from biology; during their undergraduate or even graduate studies, they all learned other categories. They are mostly unfamiliar with the underground environment and don't know what kind of changes a bone will have after several years.

Jiang Yuan enlarged the image a bit, did some image processing on the fly, and then said: "Looks like a dog's corpse?"

"Yes, yes, yes, it looks just like an animal's."

The several botanists who stood up suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. On one hand, their judgment was correct, and most importantly, there wasn't another corpse.

Qi Changye also rubbed his temples: "Too stimulating; why would these perverts bury a dog's corpse inside."

Jiang Yuan ignored him, lowered his head to look at the processed image, and called the police officers at the scene, saying: "Please continue digging down, protect the scene well; there might be another corpse under the dog's corpse."

He said it very clearly and didn't deliberately keep them in suspense; it was just to avoid misjudgment by the criminal police at the scene.

Qi Changye's face went pale upon hearing this, and he hurriedly asked: "Buried together with the dog?"

If you think about it, this is reasonable. Otherwise, why would a single dog's corpse be buried in such a far-off place? If it were to avoid the corpse being discovered, eating the dog would be more cost-effective than burying it. As for whether it can be eaten or whether it can be swallowed, that is not a problem at all in front of criminals.

"It's possible." Jiang Yuan pointed at the screen with his finger and added: "The number of burying beetles is too large; the meat of one dog cannot support such a large family of burying beetles."

This answer of his was fresh, and the botanists looked at the image one after another.

The criminal police at the scene also started digging vigorously.

Jiang Yuan turned the screen directly to the third point at this time and said: "Let's continue to look at the third scene..."

"Oh my, let's look at the second point first."

How could the botanists be willing? Several people stood up, eagerly wanting to see if what was buried in the soil was a corpse.

Someone said directly:

"No rush, let's look at them one by one."

"Let's look at the previous one first."

Jiang Yuan coughed twice and said: "There are still several points; after we finish looking at them quickly, I have to go to the scene to see the corpses."

The botanists were slightly melancholy, but they couldn't interfere with normal work, so they sat down one by one.

Jiang Yuan nodded and displayed the third point, the fourth point...

Qi Changye was terrified.

This time, Jiang Yuan spoke very quickly because most of the content had been repeated before. Now, it was more about looking at examples and seeing the changes in different scenes.

The third point and the fourth point also had corpses dug out.

Jiang Yuan traced back to the second point, and sure enough, there was another corpse under the dog's corpse.

It wasn't until the fifth point that a slight deviation appeared. The animal corpse in the grass proved that the plant changes here had another reason.

Then came the sixth point and the seventh point.

In the end, Qi Changye's brigade obtained six corpses.

"Everyone rest today; tomorrow, we start work." Jiang Yuan exceeded the on-site effect, but he couldn't care about the botanists anymore.

With six corpses appearing in one go, many people won't be able to sleep tonight.

Jiang Yuan ended the meeting and got into a specialized forensic investigation vehicle, heading to the corpse burial site. Qi Changye got into another Passat and formed a convoy with Jiang Yuan, but he kept making phone calls along the way.