Chapter 290: The Truth Reversed: A Second Appraisal

The Japanese Police Law stipulates that police patrols generally require two or three officers; a single officer cannot patrol alone. Therefore, there must be at least two officers who arrived at the scene to handle the case. Among them, Assistant Police Inspector Sato, who was in charge of the case, has already fallen from grace and is currently under investigation by the District Public Prosecutors Office, so the remaining officer who was at the scene is of vital importance.

This officer is named Sonoda, a Patrol Sergeant, currently 32 years old, and he was the one who went to the scene with Assistant Police Inspector Sato at the time.

The Japanese police have a similar tradition where patrol partners are often paired as one veteran and one rookie; the veteran is experienced, calm, and composed, while the rookie is hot-blooded, impulsive, and has a strong sense of justice. Thus, this model has become a sort of tradition in police dramas, and the clash between the new and the old, the confrontation between empiricism and technical methods, as well as the divergence between youthful passion and elder steadiness, are major highlights of police dramas, making it easier to shape vivid characters.

A typical example is Police Inspector Megure in "Detective Conan," who often acts alongside Brother Takagi or Police Sergeant Chiba.

Right there in the on-site meeting, with everyone seated, the family members of Nikaido saw Patrol Sergeant Sonoda and one after another revealed looks of anger and hatred.

Patrol Sergeant Sonoda showed a look of conflict and said quite unconfidently: "It was me... I followed Assistant Police Inspector Sato to the scene at the time."

"May I ask where you discovered the corpse of Nikaido Kei?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked.

"It was... the reservoir in Yokosuka City."

"When you discovered the corpse, was the corpse completely naked, or was it wearing clothes?" Uesugi Muneyuki held up the appraisal report in his hand: "Was it like in the photo, with the body completely naked?"

"Uh... let me think..." Patrol Sergeant Sonoda said distressfully: "Five years have already passed, I don't quite remember clearly..."

"You don't remember clearly, but we will never forget that day!" Just then, the father of the deceased, Nikaido Kei, said: "We remember very clearly, at the time Kei was fished out, he was wearing clothes!"

"Oh, right! Right! I remember now!" Patrol Sergeant Sonoda finally had some impression: "The deceased was wearing a green suit at the time, I remember now!"

"Very good." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded, then asked the Kanagawa University representative: "The appraisal report at the time did not mention the issue of pyramidal hemorrhage. Can I assume that your dissection did not find any traces of pyramidal hemorrhage on the corpse?"

"This..." The Kanagawa University representative had already been numbed by the situation.

"Is there, or is there not?" Anyone could hear the anger in Uesugi Muneyuki's tone.

"Everyone from Kanagawa University! Whether there is or isn't, just answer truthfully. For this case, the Headquarters has already requested the Metropolitan Police Department to intervene personally. If you continue to be vague and unclear like this, do you really want to be sued and become defendants?" Acting Chief Kobayashi Shoji, sitting in the main seat, said angrily.

He was a person from the Watanabe Eiji faction, so he naturally stood on Uesugi Muneyuki's side, and he also wanted to use this matter to take the opportunity to reorganize personnel and take full control.

"Then... no." The representative from Kanagawa University could only lower his head: "Since the appraisal report didn't say so, then my side did not discover it."

"Very good." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded: "So there were also no post-mortem injuries discovered on the corpse, including traces of impact injuries on the head and hands of the corpse, right? I didn't see it in the appraisal report; instead, I saw you emphasizing over and over again that there were no serious external injuries."

"Yes..."

"Then this was not drowning, nor was it suicide!" Uesugi Muneyuki finally gave a definitive conclusion: "Kanagawa University was wrong, and the Kanagawa police were also wrong! You were all wrong. Nikaido Kei was neither drowned nor committed suicide, and it was even less of an accidental death. He was murdered, then his body was dumped in the river, and he was only discovered after drifting a long distance."

"This is a murder case!" Not even half an hour into the meeting, Uesugi Muneyuki said decisively.

The whole room was silent for a moment, and then Ishihara Mikoto went up to the stage to explain: "Let me explain the reason."

"First, there is the issue of no pyramidal hemorrhage inside the corpse..."

The Forensic Beauty began to explain for Uesugi Muneyuki's judgment: When a person breathes in water, the water is sucked into the Eustachian tubes between the nose and ears, forming a water plug that impacts the eardrum.

When a person is in an elevator or an airplane rising rapidly, the eardrum will cave inward due to the impact, making one feel abnormal. At this time, swallowing saliva can restore it, because this action can "push back" the eardrum.

By the same token, when diving, the eardrum will cave inward due to the water plug, and the ears will be very uncomfortable. At this time, a person will also instinctively close their nose and mouth and use a blowing action to "push back" the eardrum, and thus the eardrum returns to normal to continue diving.

However, when drowning, water rushes through the nose into the Eustachian tubes, which usually do not take in water. The Eustachian tubes are very thin, and when they are impacted by the water plug and undergo piston movement, the endosteum of the bone surrounding the middle ear and inner ear will peel off and bleed; this is pyramidal hemorrhage.

This is a very rare bleeding symptom, found almost exclusively in drowning cases, and this situation was not found in the judicial autopsy report.

"Naruhodo~", "Sou desu ne~", "Sugoi", "Subarashii~". Everyone at the scene understood Ishihara Mikoto's explanation, and even Eirina, who was sitting next to Uesugi Muneyuki, understood.

This woman still has some real talent, the tall beauty thought unwillingly.

"Of course, whether there is pyramidal hemorrhage only represents whether it was drowning, not whether it was suicide." Uesugi Muneyuki continued, describing the course of events to everyone: "The police previously overlooked a very important point."

"According to the investigation by the police handling the case at the time, Nikaido Kei drifted from 29 kilometers upstream."

"For a corpse that drifted for 29 kilometers, if it were drowning, the lungs should be full of fluid, so before the corpse became completely edematous and reached the stage of giantism, it should have sunk into the water, brushing along the bottom of the water in an undercurrent."

"At this time, the posture of sinking to the bottom of the water should be..." Uesugi Muneyuki drew a human figure on the small blackboard—an adult on all fours with their butt in the air and their head pressed to the ground in an 'orz' state: "In this situation, brushing along the bottom of the water in an undercurrent, please tell me, what would happen to the corpse?"

"It would... it would collide!" Police Inspector Okada's reaction was fast: "In that case, wouldn't the head hit the riverbed many times?"

"Correct." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded: "But the Kanagawa University School of Medicine clearly stated in the judicial autopsy appraisal report that no serious external injuries were seen!"

"Collisions on the riverbed are very cruel to a drowned corpse. As the corpse brushes against the riverbed, serious defects will appear; clothes, skin, and muscles will be damaged in the friction and expose bone, forming post-mortem injuries, and if it hits solid rocks or encounters complex terrain, it is even possible for the torso to be broken and separated."

"In addition, due to the long-distance undercurrent on the riverbed plus constant bumping, unless the corpse is wearing tight clothing, the clothes will be stripped off, leaving it completely naked."

"After enough time passes, and the corpse further decomposes and swells from absorbing water, the phenomenon of giantism begins to appear, and only then will it float to the surface."

"In this case, the corpse drifted in the river for a full 29 kilometers, but when it was discovered, the corpse was relatively intact; the head, hands, knees, and feet showed no signs of serious external injury, and it was still wearing clothes." Uesugi Muneyuki said sternly: "This is the ironclad proof that the corpse was neither drowning nor suicide, because Mr. Nikaido was first murdered and then his body was dumped in the river!"

"There was air in the lungs, so the corpse did not sink; it flowed downstream like a lifebuoy, never touching the riverbed, never hitting rocks, and the body did not roll in an undercurrent, so naturally, the clothes did not fall off."

"In summary, I, on behalf of the Special Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department, formally judge this case as a murder followed by dumping the body in the river. It must be this way, there is no mistake!"

Uesugi Muneyuki's resonant and powerful voice echoed throughout the room.

"It was murder!!!"

"…………"

"……………………"

The whole room was silent. After Uesugi Muneyuki's words settled, whether it was the police, the District Public Prosecutors Office, the university, or the family of the deceased, all fell into deep silence.

Until a sob sounded, Nikaido Kei's wife, 36-year-old Nikaido Misaki, suddenly let out a whimper and burst into tears: "Dear! Finally, finally, you are finally not a suicide, boo-hoo-hoo~ Do you know how I have lived through these five years? I was treated as an unlucky wife, we were regarded by people around us as an unlucky family, Takumi kept asking me for his father, but these police, these incompetent police, these thieves of the national tax, forcedly said you committed suicide because of a vague appraisal!"

"So is it clear now?!" Nikaido's father also stood up and said angrily: "We reported the case a full nine times! Nine times! You all refused to file the case! Afterwards, we appealed six more times! Six times! For these five years, there has not been a day we forgot my son. Don't you have sons?"

"Oh, right, you are different from us; you are all public servants, university lecturers, noble prosecutors. You are different from us, but you also have sons, right?" Nikaido's father stared at everyone at the scene with venomous eyes, as if he wanted to memorize the faces of everyone present and the name tags in front of their seats one by one, which was chilling.

Nikaido's mother wiped her tears: "Five years, are you finally willing to admit it was a misjudgment? If Mr. Uesugi hadn't come, we wouldn't know how much longer we would have had to wait."

"Please stay calm, please everyone stay calm." The police at the scene hurriedly surrounded them, fearing they might do something extreme in their agitation.

"Chief Kobayashi, as the person in charge of the re-appraisal, I request to restart the investigation into this case." Uesugi Muneyuki said.

"Mm, I, on behalf of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters, accept your proposal." Acting Chief Kobayashi said with a serious expression: "The Headquarters will immediately form a Special Investigation Headquarters to begin restarting the investigation of this case."

"To the family members of Mr. Nikaido who have been reporting and appealing to the police all this time, thank you for your hard work. Please trust us, the Japanese police; we will definitely give you a satisfactory result, and we will definitely bring the murderer to justice!"

With this, the meeting ended, and the main gate of the Prefectural Police Headquarters opened wide, with the reporters waiting at the door immediately swarming up to ask for the results.

And the family of the deceased cried and laughed, finally nodding slightly toward the cameras. After five years, they had received a satisfactory answer.

The case was overturned!

It was really overturned!!!

The reporters at the scene and the protesters at the entrance were in an uproar.

As expected of the legendary rookie Forensic Pathologist, the Metropolitan Police Department's last line of defense, the Sherlock Holmes of Sakigawa Nen, and the descendant of the Dragon of Echigo, Lord Kenshin!

Is he planning to single-handedly spark a wave of case reversals in the Japanese police force?

Let us wait and see!

(End of this chapter)