Animal Detective

Chapter 215 Case Analysis Meeting

Shen Xin solved many cases through his work with animals.

When solving cold cases, they sometimes specifically look for cases that involve animals.

But this case now.

A house full of dogs.

For Shen Xin, this was the best condition for handling the case.

Before the case even started, the suspect had already been identified, and the facts were basically clear.

We just need to wait for further investigation to complete the chain of evidence.

It feels like a waste of such good conditions for handling cases.

……

Given the current situation, Bai Jifei is undoubtedly the prime suspect.

All investigations revolve around him.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei formed a team and visited the surrounding hardware stores.

The two continued their investigations until dinner time before returning to the branch office.

After having dinner in the cafeteria, Chen Chao sent a message before evening that he would be working overtime tonight.

Now there's more news: a case analysis meeting will be held soon.

The case involved dismemberment, a heinous crime, and Lü Youwei was also present to listen to the proceedings.

Sun Zhao presided over the meeting in the Criminal Investigation Team's conference room.

Chen Chao got up and went to the whiteboard behind him. He first asked Cui Yan if Jiang Qi's DNA had been extracted from the guest bathroom on the first floor.

Cui Yan shook his head directly and said, "No, we managed to extract blood at the scene, but we did not purify human DNA. We can preliminarily determine that it is dog blood."

"Based on Captain Chen's deduction, the suspect had ample time to dispose of the body. Therefore, I can reasonably infer that after dismembering the body in the first-floor guest bathroom, the suspect used a high-concentration bleach to clean it up, destroying the DNA at the dismemberment scene."

"Then they covered the stain with dog blood, and then cleaned it again with bleach."

At this point, Cui Yan pursed his lips and praised, "To be honest, this is the first time I've ever seen a scene handled so cleanly."

Chen Chao nodded slightly and wrote a line on the whiteboard: "Clean up the dismemberment scene."

With certain methods, it is possible to clean up a dismemberment scene very thoroughly.

Just as Cui Yan said, using high-concentration bleach, or even mixing it with hot water, can completely destroy DNA. Then, if animal blood is used for contamination, it becomes impossible to detect human blood.

But the key to this is time.

In many cases, the perpetrator often doesn't have enough time to clean up the scene, which is why various traces are left behind.

If someone like Bai Jifei stays at home and has several days to slowly deal with the problem, it is indeed possible to clean it up very thoroughly.

Lu Youwei interjected, "What about the sewers in other parts of the house? Did you find them?"

Just as Cui Yan was about to speak, he said, "We have examined the entire house and found no other bloodstains, so we have reason to suspect that the guest bathroom on the first floor is the primary crime scene."

"Director Lü, the victim suffers from ALS and is completely unable to move, so he has no ability to resist."

Bai Jifei simply moved Jiang Qi to the bathroom and killed her however he wanted; Jiang Qi had no way to stop him.

"As for the sewers, we also drilled open the floor drains and checked the sewage wells. We found human DNA, but no human tissue."

DNA is present in feces, so it's normal to detect DNA in sewers.

"Captain Chen has a theory, which I think is also possible: that people are ground into a paste, bones and all, and then fed to their dogs."

Meat is easy to handle, and bones can be broken up by shattering them into small pieces.

Sitting next to Shen Xin, Zhao Tianxing craned his neck and almost vomited.

Last time, he was splashed with "meat soup" by Zhu Tianshun, which left him with a psychological trauma.

Lü Youwei frowned slightly.

Before coming here, he went to see Bai Jifei and had a very good first impression of him. He seemed calm and wise.

He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do something so heinous.

But he had seen plenty of hypocrites, so he waved his hand to signal them to continue.

Cui Yan continued, "We examined the murder weapon and plastic film that were dug out of the garden, but unfortunately, we found nothing. The suspect disposed of them very cleanly, as if they were brand new."

"Of course, for example, an axe will show signs of being used for chopping."

"Secondly, we inspected the entire villa, and what's remarkable is that we didn't find any fingerprints."

At this point, Cui Yan said with some surprise, "The suspect runs a kennel, and customers come to see the dogs regularly, so there should be a lot of traces left behind."

"The result is that it's so clean. To be honest, I suspect he has severe mysophobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

They searched every nook and cranny, but found nothing. It can only be said that Bai Jifei put a lot of effort into cleaning.

Chen Chao nodded and then asked if any shoe prints had been collected outside the back door and if they had been matched.

Cui Yan shook his head again: "There are lawns in the green belt and the yard, so no footprints were found. The footprints on the wall show a downward stepping motion, so no useful information can be extracted."

Chen Chao frowned.

In other words, not much was found in terms of traces.

"By the way, have you found the property management's mainframe?" Chen Chao asked Cai Zhe.

Cai Zhe pushed up his glasses and said, "No, but without a doubt, it was hacked."

"However, the other party deleted all traces of intrusion and even used software to overwrite the hard drive multiple times, making the data unrecoverable. I can only say they are professionals."

The property management's computers didn't have high-level firewalls installed, so hacking into them wasn't difficult.

Chen Chao then asked how the search of the surrounding surveillance footage was going. Zhao Tianxing, who was reviewing it, shook his head and said he hadn't finished yet and hadn't found anything.

However, the occupancy rate of the community is not high, and there is a T-junction not far from the main gate. There are road surveillance cameras that are stored for 30 days, so the vehicles entering and leaving the community can be checked one by one.

"Continue to monitor the surveillance, and make sure to find out all of Bai Jifei's activities within a month."

Bai Jifei's family only has one car.

After he finished speaking, he wrote Bai Jifei's timeline of yesterday and today on the whiteboard.

Then he asked Shen Xin if he had discovered anything.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei checked nearby hardware stores, but found no records of Bai Jifei purchasing axes or hammers online on his phone or computer.

Moreover, the axe was very new, most likely purchased from an offline hardware store for the purpose of committing the crime.

"No."

Shen Xin shook his head and visited all the hardware stores within a three-kilometer radius.

It is speculated that he bought it before the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

The problem is that it's still Chinese New Year, and some shops haven't opened until the sixth day of the new year.

There were only a few shops, and the owner had repeatedly looked at Bai Jifei's photo but had no recollection of him.

Chen Chao said, "Then let's expand the search area and look for them one by one. The source of the murder weapon is very important."

This is crucial evidence and must be thoroughly investigated.

Then he asked Zhou Zhongyi if there were any results from the investigation into Bai Jifei's social connections.

Zhou Zhongyi said, "I went to see his parents. The old couple lives in Xinjing Third Village, Hutang."

“They spent the Chinese New Year at Bai Jifei’s villa. Then on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Qi’s parents came to Nanjiang from Songpu, and they had a meal together.”

"The last time they saw Jiang Qi was on the evening of the third day of the Lunar New Year. They heard from a relative that there was an old Chinese medicine doctor in Xinyun and they wanted Jiang Qi to try him out."

"So I video-called Jiang Qi. At that time, Jiang Qi was fine, but she didn't agree."

Chen Chao nodded and wrote down the dates for the third year of junior high school on the whiteboard.

Therefore, it can be inferred that Jiang Qi was killed between the third and sixth days of the Lunar New Year.

Zhou Zhongyi continued, "They only just found out that Jiang Qi is missing, and they are quite agitated. Bai Jifei's father has severe high blood pressure and is having a bit of an attack; he's resting at home now."

"But we can't hide it from them. I reckon they'll be here tomorrow."

“They provided some of the two’s social connections. I contacted two of them, but they both said they hadn’t been in touch with Bai Jifei for a while.”

“He opened a kennel, and a group of dogs can’t be separated from their owners, so he has relatively less time to get together with his friends.”

"By the way, I also got in touch with Bai Jifei's former colleagues."

“They haven’t been in contact for a long time. All I know is that they went on a world tour, and then Jiang Qi got sick and opened a kennel.”

"According to him, Bai Jifei is a very capable and intelligent person, and he is definitely a business elite in their investment bank."

Chen Chao nodded silently.

Judging from Bai Jifei's counter-surveillance awareness, he is definitely a smart man.

Zhou Zhongyi continued, "We still need to investigate other social relationships, and I've also made an appointment to visit Jiang Qi's doctor tomorrow."

Next, the others reported on the situation one after another.

Time is limited, and there are still many things to investigate.

However, Chen Chao already had a plan in mind, and finally concluded: "Today is the tenth day of the lunar month, so let's start from the third day and check all of Bai Jifei's movements over the course of a week."

"We need to find out exactly where they've been and who they've met."

"We still cannot determine exactly how he dismembered the body or whether he disposed of the body."

"We also need to investigate his social connections and financial situation, paying particular attention to his motives."

“Jiang Qi was already seriously ill, so choosing to kill her in such an extreme way at this time is logically abnormal.”

Everyone nodded.

The case has just begun, and it will take at least a few days to clarify the situation.

After Chen Chao finished speaking, he asked Sun Zhao if he had anything to add.

Sun Zhao looked at Lü Youwei and said, "Director Lü, I'd like to meet with Bai Jifei tonight and interrogate him. There are some issues I haven't figured out yet."

After considering it for a moment, Lü Youwei nodded in agreement.

Based on the existing evidence, what happened inside the villa?

The murder weapon used to dismember the body was disposed of and buried, and given Bai Jifei's false report, it's hard not to suspect him.

"By the way, why did he bury the murder weapon in his own house?" Lü Youwei asked rhetorically.

Shen Xin looked up.

Shen Xin later realized that this was somewhat unusual.

Bai Jifei had plenty of time to dispose of the murder weapon, such as simply throwing it into Lushan Lake, which is such a large lake that it wouldn't be easy to find.

But he buried it in his own home.

Moreover, the traces left by the lawn are actually quite easy to find if you look carefully.

Sun Zhao said, "Director Lü, that's why I want to contact Bai Jifei. I have a feeling that there's something wrong with this case."

Seeing that Sun Zhao understood, Lü Youwei didn't say anything more and instructed everyone, "In the middle of the New Year, such a heinous crime has occurred, and the suspect has been preliminarily identified, so you have a week, a week to get the case cleared up."

After giving his instructions, he got up and left.

(End of this chapter)