Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 502 The Headless Case of August 11 (Vote for a chance to win a big prize)

Zhou Yi learned from Li Linglong that there were no forensic doctors in the city.

It makes sense, considering that forensic experts are an extremely scarce resource. It's not surprising that economically underdeveloped areas in the 1980s and 90s didn't have any forensic experts.

So, under normal circumstances, when they encounter a murder case, they either submit a report to a neighboring big city to borrow a doctor, but then they have to wait in line, or they go to the hospital to find a professional doctor who specializes in cooperating with the police to assist them.

However, there is still a big difference between doctors and forensic doctors. After all, one treats the living and the other treats the dead, so their professionalism and perspectives will be different.

In the case of particularly serious cases, such as dismemberment or burning of a body, the case will be transferred to the municipal public security bureau, which will then report to the provincial level, whereby a professional forensic doctor will be dispatched to conduct an autopsy.

Li Linglong said that they rarely encounter cases like this.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi's lips twitched slightly.

Thinking about it carefully, Hongcheng seems to be going through a lot of troubles.

Could it be that the feng shui of Hongcheng is not good?
As instructed by Zhou Xiangdong, the square-faced policeman waiting for the bureau chief at the village entrance was named Yang Chuan, a criminal investigator from the Criminal Investigation Brigade.

He quickly reported the situation after they were dispatched to Li Linglong.

After receiving the case report from the local police station, Zhou Xiangdong immediately led the investigation team to Shacao Town. They first went to the Shacao Town Police Station to meet with Chief Chen and his team to discuss the case in person.

After learning of Miao Genhua's suicide and Ma Weichang's disappearance, Zhou Xiangdong immediately told them that Miao Genhua needed to be taken into custody to prevent any further accidents. So he asked Director Chen to send two people to the county hospital to keep an eye on Miao Genhua.

Then they split into three groups to look for Ma Weichang. One group went to the city to find Ma Weichang's ex-wife, another group went to find out information about Ma Weichang's business friends and partners, and the third group personally led Yang Chuan and the others to Xipinggou.

Zhou Xiangdong first went to Miao Genhua's mother and younger brother, but they said they hadn't seen Ma Weichang return. Then he went to the village chief, who also said he hadn't seen him.

So Zhou Xiangdong led his men to the quarry on the back mountain.

Unlike coal mines, quarries do not require digging tunnels, so the entire quarry is basically in an open and transparent state.

After Zhou Yi got out of the car, he also discovered that there was not much place to hide in the quarry itself.

The only place where people could hide was the corrugated steel office built near the quarry.

That's the place where Miao Genhua and Ma Weichang got together during that rainstorm.

Because the door to the corrugated steel office was closed, Zhou Xiangdong asked Yang Chuan to find the village chief. The village chief told him that because of Ge Fangfang's disappearance, everyone in the village had been looking for the Miao family's child these days, and Ma Weichang was also quite anxious about the matter, so the quarry had not started work.

Normally, apart from the workers on duty, no one would come to this quarry, because getting hit by a falling object could be fatal.

Zhou Xiangdong ordered his men to kick the door open, but after a preliminary inspection, they found no trace of Ma Weichang inside.

Yang Chuan said that they checked the office and found no signs of a struggle, so they went to look for another place.

As a result, Captain Zhou pointed to an inconspicuous little wooden house at the foot of the mountain behind them and asked, "What's that for? Is it a latrine?"

The village chief shook his head and said no, it was just a storage room for tools.

Zhou Xiangdong said he would go and take a look.

Then, they found Ma Weichang's body in this storage room.

The reason it was determined to be suicide was because the body was hanged, with a rope attached to the thickest horizontal beam on the wooden roof, and a kicked-away stone at its feet.

Zhou Xiangdong immediately sealed off the entire quarry, instructed Yang Chuan and his team to notify the technical squadron, and contact the county hospital to find a doctor to assist with the autopsy.

When Li Linglong and his group drove through the village and arrived at the quarry on the back mountain, Zhou Yi saw that the quarry was surrounded by villagers, all of whom were kept outside by the police tape.

No wonder we didn't see a single person when the car drove through the village earlier; Zhou Yi had thought Xipinggou was a ghost village.

So everyone's come here to see what's going on.

In the countryside, this kind of thing is a must-see spectacle; everyone from eighty-year-olds to three-year-olds, missing it would be a loss.

Zhou Yi remembers that when she was a child, if someone in her maternal grandmother's family died, the village elders would love to go in groups to "see the dead," just because it was lively.

"Make way, make way, make way, don't block the road!" After getting out of the car, Yang Chuan cleared the way and pushed through the crowd.

Zhou Yi followed Li Linglong and crawled through the cordon.

The quarry wasn't very big, but the fact that Ma Weichang could run such a business in such a place shows that he was quite capable.

The three of them went straight inside, heading towards the small wooden hut where the body had been found.

As they walked, Li Linglong suddenly asked, "Yang Chuan, how did Captain Zhou get injured?"

Yes, the body was found in the storage room, but Zhou Xiangdong accidentally broke his leg, which doesn't make sense.

Yang Chuan slapped his forehead and said, "I'm sorry, Director Li, it's my fault, I forgot to mention. When we were conducting the on-site investigation, Team Leader Zhou was wandering around nearby, and then he discovered over there..."

Pointing to a hillside not far ahead, he said, "Over there, Captain Zhou found something. He didn't call us, he just climbed over to pick it up, but he lost his footing and fell. We rushed to help him up, and he said he was fine, but he just couldn't get up. We think he might have broken a bone."

"What did you find?" Li Linglong asked hurriedly.

"A shoe, a child's shoe."

Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat, and he asked again, "Lady, little girl?"

Yang Chuan nodded: "Yes, it's embroidered with flowers, it's obviously for a young girl, we've already kept it."

Zhou Yi immediately said, "Director Li, this shoe might belong to Ge Fangfang."

Li Linglong's eyes sharpened, and he said in a deep voice, "Let's go check on the body first."

The corrugated steel office is located on the right-hand side of the entrance to the quarry, several dozen meters away from the small wooden house. Zhou Yi had just seen police officers going in and out of the office, presumably conducting a thorough search for clues.

However, since Yang Chuan didn't mention it, it means that no useful clues have been found yet.

Soon Zhou Yi saw the small wooden house and Ma Weichang's body, which had been laid down and was lying stiffly on the stretcher.

He was still wearing the same clothes they had seen at the county hospital yesterday. This man had just been questioned by them yesterday, but he was already dead today.

Zhou Yi was certain that Ma Weichang could not have committed suicide, because he had been observing Ma Weichang's subtle reactions during the questioning at the county hospital yesterday.

No suicidal tendencies or extreme emotions were found in him.

In addition to being asked whether he had ever done anything inappropriate to Ge Fangfang, he also suspected that Miao Genhua had lied to him about Shi Jian and had "cuckolded" him.

But his personality clearly doesn't suggest he's the type of person who would take his own life over something like this.

Merchants are profit-driven and know best how to calculate gains and losses.

A doctor in a white coat was examining the body. Yang Chuan introduced him as Dr. Zhang, who had been invited from the county hospital.

After greeting the other party, Li Linglong asked, "Dr. Zhang, how did the autopsy go?"

"Rigoletto has already occurred, and there are signs of livor mortis, but there are no signs of decomposition yet, so my initial assessment is that the time of death should be within 24 hours."

Then he squatted down and pointed to the ligature marks on the corpse's neck, saying, "I've compared them. The pattern of the marks and the rope are consistent. The angle and direction of the force on the marks also match the characteristics of suicide by hanging."

This Dr. Zhang, who was in his forties, spoke with considerable confidence, as if he had already investigated the matter thoroughly.

Zhou Yi knew that when the police needed to ask a doctor for help in the absence of a forensic expert, they didn't ask an individual doctor, but rather a hospital; it was a matter of communication between departments.

Then the hospital arranged for someone to help, which can be seen from the fact that Director Li did not know Dr. Zhang.

However, in most cases, very few doctors are willing to step forward and volunteer.

Although Zhou Yi was unaware of the hospital's internal attitude towards this matter.

But he knew that for a doctor, this was a thankless and arduous job.

Even if you do it well, you won't get much credit, and next time everyone will assume it's your responsibility.

But if something goes wrong, the matter could be big or small; the leader's dissatisfaction is secondary.

What I fear most is that it will affect my job. After all, news travels fast in small places. If people start saying that you are not good enough, patients will not come to you for treatment, and your unit will not recognize you as an advanced worker. Then you will be finished.

This is why pioneers like Qin Beihai devoted tremendous effort to cultivating and building the public security organs' own professional forensic teams, in order to make up for the deficiencies in autopsy work and make the entire criminal investigation system's workflow more comprehensive and detailed.

The doctor in front of him was just like that; he seemed very confident, but Zhou Yi felt that such a "preliminary autopsy conclusion" was too hasty.

Even if we don't compare them to professional forensic doctors like Song Yiming, they should at least be able to provide some basic information accurately.

"Dr. Zhang, may I ask if you have taken the body temperature?" Zhou Yi asked. Dr. Zhang was taken aback for a moment, then explained, "I... I don't have the professional equipment."

Zhou Yi nodded: "I understand, after all, it's normal for general hospitals not to have specialized equipment like post-mortem thermometers."

Upon hearing the words "corpse thermometer," Dr. Zhang's expression changed slightly, and he looked at Zhou Yi with some wariness.

The next second, Zhou Yi changed the subject and said, "However, in an emergency, a regular thermometer can be used instead. If the liver temperature cannot be measured, at least the rectal temperature of the deceased should be measured."

Li Linglong didn't really care at first. After all, professionals do professional things, and from the surface, Ma Weichang's body didn't seem unusual except for being hanged.

But as soon as Zhou Yi opened his mouth, he immediately caught his attention.

Dr. Zhang looked rather grim, because he was carrying a medical equipment bag on his back.

Zhou Yi wasn't intentionally targeting him, but his perfunctory attitude could potentially affect or even mislead the investigation.

He needs to make Director Li take this issue seriously.

“Of course, if you don’t have any tools at hand, you can use your fingers,” Zhou Yi said calmly.

However, the expressions of those around them were complicated. It was somewhat unreasonable to use one's fingers to measure the rectal temperature of a corpse.

Dr. Zhang, in particular, said with a gloomy face, "Isn't that unnecessary?"

"I think it's still necessary, since measuring body temperature is one of the important bases for preliminary autopsy to determine the time of death. Also, what you just said about rigor mortis and livor mortis was rather vague. Could you please be more specific?"

Dr. Zhang retorted impatiently, "Then tell me, what specific method do you want?"

Zhou Yi immediately got angry and thought to himself, "Fine, then I'll argue with you today."

"What stage has the rigor mortis reached? Is it mild, moderate, severe, or has it entered the remission phase? Is the stiffness mainly manifested in the small joints or the large joints? Among the large joints, there are upper limb joints and lower limb joints. Has the temporomandibular joint been examined?"

"The same applies to the issue of livor mortis. Is it in the deposition stage, the diffusion stage, or the fixation stage? What are the specific characteristics of the color of the livor mortis? Has any observation of the pressure response been conducted?"

"These are all details used to determine the specific time range of the deceased's death, pointing the way for subsequent investigations. What's the difference between simply stating that the death occurred within 24 hours and saying nothing at all?"

"You!" Dr. Zhang wanted to get angry, but he didn't dare in front of Li Linglong.

"Furthermore, Dr. Zhang, you did not specifically mention whether there were any other obvious external injuries on the deceased's body. How can you rashly conclude that it was a suicide by hanging before clarifying the cause of death and ruling out other possibilities of victimization?"

Forensic doctors only describe phenomena and objective facts; they do not draw subjective conclusions based on appearances. Even if they do draw conclusions, they are only for reference by criminal investigators. The actual confirmation is the job of the police.

Having been publicly humiliated like this, Dr. Zhang was utterly speechless with anger, trembling as he pointed at Zhou Yi and said, "Fine, since you all know so much, why did you call me here? I neglected my patients to come and wade into your mess, only to be humiliated by you all. It's unbelievable..."

It's likely the other person originally intended to swear, but because Director Li was present, they swallowed back the last few words.

"Director Li, I'm sorry, I'll go back and tell our superiors that I, Zhang, am not capable enough to help you. Please find someone more capable." With that, he cupped his hands in a gesture of respect and left angrily.

As he passed by Zhou Yi, he angrily bumped into Zhou Yi with his shoulder, but unfortunately, due to the difference in their physical strength, Zhou Yi did not budge, while he stumbled and almost fell.

Fortunately, Yang Chuan, who was standing nearby, reacted quickly and helped her up, preventing an embarrassing situation.

Li Linglong didn't try to stop him, because Zhou Yi's words made perfect sense, and the other party's attitude was indeed rather perfunctory; he had seen many people like that before.

Zhou Yi was surprised that Dr. Zhang was so easily angered and said helplessly, "Director Li, have I caused you any trouble?"

Li Linglong patted him on the shoulder and said, "No, no, don't feel guilty. Although the hospital is helping us, sending a doctor with such an improper attitude is not only not helpful, but may even be making things worse."

"So I need to give my superiors a proper report on this situation and put some pressure on the hospital. Either they send more professional people in the future, or they give me a position and money so I can hire a forensic doctor myself!"

No matter how big or small the matter, funding is the biggest hurdle; otherwise, even if he is the director of the county bureau, he will be unable to cook without rice.

"Zhou Yi, do you know anything about forensic work?" Li Linglong asked with some anticipation.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi shook his head: "I don't understand. I've just learned a bit from my work and accumulated some experience. This kind of professional work still needs to be handled by professionals."

Upon hearing this, Li Linglong couldn't help but sigh: "Alright then. Yang Chuan, go report the situation to the Municipal Bureau and ask them to bring in a forensic doctor from the neighboring city to conduct a full autopsy on the deceased."

Yang Chuan said with some difficulty, "Director, it will probably take several days."

"We'll have to wait several days. First, send the deceased to the county funeral home so they can preserve him properly," Li Linglong ordered.

When Zhou Yi heard that it would take several days, he immediately became anxious. They could wait, but he couldn't.

Today is July 28th. It will take two and a half days to get back, and then another day to go to Wuguang to report after returning to Hongcheng.

In other words, he cannot delay this case in Xipinggou for too long.

Because on August 11th, a horrific murder will occur in Wu Guang's area.

Moreover, it was a cold case with no clues and remained unsolved.

The "August 11 Massacre" was the most heinous murder case Wu Guang had encountered in the following decade, and it was also the biggest challenge he faced when he was working tirelessly in the secret room to organize Wu Guang's unsolved cases.

Because of this murder, the time of the crime cannot be determined! The crime scene has not been found!
Even after DNA technology matured, the police still couldn't confirm the identity of the deceased, because it was a literal headless case.

When Zhou Yi was in the secret room looking at the information he had written, but could not find any way to stop the murder, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Therefore, he arranged to accompany Lu Xiaoshuang home at the end of July so that he could successfully report to Wu Guang on August 1st.

Then, after entering the Wuguang City Public Security Bureau, I plan to find information from the massive amount of case files and information in the area that can be related to the August 11 massacre.

Thus, we can catch even the slightest clue from this black hole.

Therefore, it would be best if the Xipinggou case could be resolved within two or three days. If it drags on for too long, there won't be enough time for Zhou Yi to deal with the August 11 case.

Of course, this does not mean that Zhou Yi will necessarily find any clues just because he went to Wu Guang on time.

Unlike the major case, the identity of the deceased in the August 11 case was unknown, and Zhou Yi could not have made contact with the victim in advance as he had with Lu Xiaoshuang.

"Director Li, isn't waiting for several days too long?" Thinking of this, Zhou Yi quickly asked.

Li Linglong said helplessly, "As you can see, there's nothing we can do about the objective situation. We can only try to overcome it for now."

Yang Chuan added from the side, "If it can be done in a few days, that's considered fast. Last time we had a case where we applied for a forensic re-examination, and we waited for more than half a month."

"Director Li, why don't you let me give it a try?"

"Didn't you say you didn't understand?" Li Linglong asked, puzzled.

"I may not understand it, but I can hire outside help."

"Foreign aid?" Yang Chuan, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but look around, thinking to himself that he didn't see anyone else.

Zhou Yi had already taken out his phone, and seeing Li Linglong nod, he dialed a number.

A moment later, the call connected.

"Hello, Zhou Yi?" A familiar, cool voice rang out from the other end of the phone.

"Xu Nian, it's me."

"Weren't you on vacation? What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

"Are you free right now?"

"I'm free."

"I would like to ask you to perform an autopsy on me."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Zhou Yi realized he had misspoke and quickly corrected himself, "Oops, I misspoke. I meant to ask you to guide me in conducting an on-site autopsy remotely."

"On-site autopsy? Where are you now?" Xu Nian on the other end of the phone looked bewildered, looked up at Song Yiming opposite her, and thought to herself that there hadn't been any cases lately.

Zhou Yi smiled wryly and said, "It's a long story. Let me give you a brief overview of the situation here."

"Okay, go ahead, I'm listening."

Two minutes later, after listening to Zhou Yi's description, Xu Nian asked, "Zhou Yi, besides the information from the initial examination, do you also want to confirm whether this deceased person hanged themselves before death or was hanged after death?"

Upon hearing such a professional question, Zhou Yi immediately breathed a sigh of relief. This was the kind of ability and keen insight a professional forensic doctor should have!

"Yes! That's exactly what I meant!"

(End of this chapter)