Chapter 798

The autopsy building.

Upon getting out of the car, the first things seen were the hearse, the soul-summoning banner, and the family members dressed in heavy mourning clothes.

Jiang Yuan and his team entered the lobby under the protection of local police, only to see several family members dressed in heavy mourning waiting inside.

Several criminal police officers looked at each other, all somewhat surprised. This not only showed that the victim's family had significant influence, but also that the direction of this case was of extreme concern to the family.

Whether at home or abroad, this point would increase the pressure on the police. It was no wonder Zhong Zhong Renlong had made a mark behind this case.

"Officer, are you going to perform an autopsy on Tang Shao-kui?" An old man walked over slowly, looking quite imposing.

Zhong Zhong Renlong had no choice but to stop and explain in a low voice.

Soon, the old man looked up at Jiang Yuan and said in pure Chinese, "My son's health was excellent. He liked fitness and running, and usually had two or three lovers. It's impossible for him to have died silently and suddenly after sleeping with his wife until midnight."

With a short sentence, the old man had already laid out all the family's doubts, and it inevitably influenced Jiang Yuan and the others.

Jiang Yuan glanced at the other party without speaking, and continued to enter under the protection of the local police. However, even thinking with a forensic mindset, what the old man said contained a massive amount of information.

The victim was in good health, to the point of being able to maintain multiple lovers year-round. At the same time, when the victim died, he was sleeping in the same bed as his wife. Connecting this to his status of having multiple lovers, the family had already pointed the finger at the deceased's wife.

Upon reaching the autopsy table, the body was already lying flat. The body was unclothed and muscular, but the face was made up, and cotton was stuffed in the ears.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan couldn't help but look at Zhong Zhong Renlong...

"The deceased's wife requested the body be cremated," Zhong Zhong Renlong said in Chinese.

"Is it also being cremated in Malaysia?" Mu Mu Zhiyang asked from the side.

"It can be cremated or buried. Currently, the decision lies with the deceased's wife." Zhong Zhong Renlong didn't wait to be asked again and continued, "On the day of the incident, the death occurred in the couple's bed. According to our forensic judgment, the deceased died two to three hours after falling asleep. However, although the cause of death is suspicious, the forensic examiner was unable to confirm traces of homicide."

"Is the autopsy negative?" Jiang Yuan's eyebrows twitched.

Zhong Zhong Renlong nodded: "We were unable to determine the cause of death."

An autopsy being negative, or more accurately, a negative autopsy, refers to a situation where a forensic examiner has conducted systematic anatomical, histopathological, physical, chemical, and biological examinations on a body, yet still found no lethal changes.

For a forensic examiner, to prove lethal violence, you must find traces of trauma; to prove death by natural disease, there must be a primary disease, such as mechanical injury, mechanical asphyxia, electrocution, high-temperature injury, exogenous poisoning, etc. In short, whether inside or outside, broken, rotten, swollen, charred, damaged, twisted, blocked, twisted into a twist, formed into a cavity, or just an abnormal peak in a physical and chemical laboratory, death always leaves traces.

But in practice, for various reasons, there really are some bodies where the cause of death cannot be found, thus forming a substantive negative autopsy.

In any country, domestic or foreign, this counts as a forensic accident. If possible, no forensic examiner wants to sign a report stating the autopsy is negative. Because theoretically, the vast majority of autopsies, as long as you examine them carefully, deeply, and comprehensively, should have a conclusion. At the very least, you should know how they died.

Yet on the other hand, if you can't find it, you really can't find it. Although most negative autopsies are still due to missed examinations—which is also the embarrassing part for forensic examiners—due to limited capabilities, negative autopsies will inevitably occur; that is reality.

Even some top-tier forensic examiners will helplessly sign negative autopsy reports.

Furthermore, sometimes it is precisely these top-tier forensic examiners who dare to sign negative autopsy reports.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Zhong Zhong Renlong, feeling that he probably wasn't setting a trap for him, but was purely ignorant.

The cause of death for most bodies is actually not difficult to judge. Forensic pathology is the most used and mature technology in forensic practice. Comprehensive dissection combined with modern technology rarely fails to provide a cause of death.

But precisely because of this, when an ordinary forensic examiner gives a negative conclusion, it is difficult for an expert-level forensic examiner to travel back in time to give a positive conclusion—not to mention that the difficulty of a second autopsy is higher, and a body that has already been screened represents a difficult and complicated case.

However, Jiang Yuan didn't have to sign the autopsy report, so he didn't have to bear any extra burden.

Zhong Zhong Renlong continued:

"The deceased lived in a villa in the suburbs. The villa has three floors, and the couple lived in the master bedroom on the third floor. After the police received the report, the deceased had already been moved from the third floor to the living room, and two emergency doctors had arrived. No emergency treatment was performed, and the doctors confirmed the death twice."

"At five o'clock that afternoon, the forensic expert from the police station arrived at the scene and, according to the family's request, performed an initial examination of the body..."

While speaking, the local forensic expert Jacob walked out.

Jacob, in his 50s, was still his usual thin and dark self, with a cold and firm British expression on his face. Seeing Jiang Yuan, he smiled unconsciously and showed a few teeth to ensure the other party knew he was smiling.

When he studied in the UK, he learned forensic science and coldness, and also learned humility. How much he fawned over his anatomy professor back then is how humble he was to Jiang Yuan today.

Previously, during the "Internet Celebrity Death Case" live-streamed autopsy, Jacob had truly experienced Jiang Yuan's ability. Afterward, he even took out the recording and studied it repeatedly.

Therefore, after thorough analysis and deliberation, seeing Jiang Yuan again, Jacob's smile was far wider than standard, for fear that Jiang Yuan would misunderstand his reserved smile.

"Oh, did Mr. Jacob perform the autopsy?" Jiang Yuan had a good impression of Jacob. With forensic pathology at roughly LV3, he was an expert in a single field, and his performance in other areas was also solid. Among humans who don't 'cheat', he was considered extremely good.

And with him participating in the autopsy, there was still a negative result? Jiang Yuan couldn't help but frown.

Jacob knew Jiang Yuan's thoughts and hurriedly said, "The first autopsy wasn't done by me; it was done by my apprentice."

As he spoke, he brought out a young man under 40.

The young man had deep nasolabial folds carved into his right cheek. Speaking of this case, he was also full of sorrow and said, "After the autopsy, there were many petechial hemorrhages on the surface of the heart, the heart chambers were filled with non-clotting blood, there were patchy hemorrhages between the lung pleura and lobes, and laryngeal edema. Other than that, there were basically no substantive abnormalities..."

"The key is that the toxicology test did not detect common drugs," Jacob added.

"In other words, there are minor injuries, but it is difficult to make further judgments," Jiang Yuan summarized.

Jacob and his apprentice relaxed a little and nodded in unison.

Jacob said, "Currently, the conditions for speculating sudden death are insufficient, and if it were murder... the entire night of the incident, the deceased's wife slept in the same bed as the deceased and claimed there were no abnormalities... The deceased's wife weighs 120 jin, and the deceased exercised year-round and weighed 170 jin. I'm afraid he could only be killed by poison."

"Let's look at the body surface first." Jiang Yuan couldn't infer the result out of thin air, but if it were poison, toxicological testing was originally the gold standard.

However, toxicological testing is a comparative test. That is to say, samples are first taken from the deceased's heart blood or other tissues, then run through a gas or liquid mass spectrometer. The resulting mass spectrum is automatically searched in a database. The principle is actually the same as fingerprints; not only must there be a sample, but the database must also have the mass spectrum of the corresponding substance.

And many poisons actually don't have mass spectra. For example, in thallium poisoning, the police wouldn't have tested for it in the past. More biological toxins might not even have standards. Often, one needs to find the poison first and then compare it.

In this case, the forensic examiner's plan is usually to look for a channel. Poison is either eaten, inhaled, or injected. If this can be determined, it is also a clear guide for the investigation. At the very least, it wouldn't be a negative autopsy.