1995, Starting as a Criminal Investigation Expert

"That's right, where's the head?"

Peng Rong, who was standing nearby, let out a strange cry.

The manhole was only a few meters deep. In broad daylight, you could see right to the bottom and only see the corpse submerged in the water; you couldn't see its head.

"Wang Wenyu, where's the head?" Han Jianjun asked a middle-aged man wearing glasses.

His hair was styled in a defensive, spiky fashion, and he said with a serious expression and a sharp tone, "I don't know."

He stood there helplessly, not moving forward.

He was wearing a white coat; if he could get into the scene at this time, he must be a technical police officer.

Li Shu glanced at him curiously, sensing a somewhat sordid connection between him and Han Jianjun.

Han Jianjun glared at him: "Wang Wenyu, this is work, don't give me that attitude."

Wang Wenyu pretended not to hear and turned to leave.

A young man next to him quickly stepped forward to smooth things over, pointing to the manhole and saying, "Captain Han, we didn't see any heads when we came here. We guess they were probably washed away."

Wang Wenyu had already led his men to the next manhole cover.

While instructing everyone to get to work, Han Jianjun also pulled a young man aside to inquire about the situation on site.

"Brother Yong, what's going on?" Li Shu secretly asked Zhao Yong.

Wang Wenyu must be from the technical squadron of the Donglin City Public Security Bureau.

Zhao Yong squinted, resisting the stench, and whispered, "Captain Wang was originally from our Municipal Bureau. He and Captain Han were like brothers. When Captain Li retired, they both had a chance to become captains, but Captain Han came up. Captain Wang got angry and went to Donglin."

Li Shu understood. It was just like in martial arts novels, where fellow disciples turned against each other for the position of sect leader.

Peng Rong was clearly more concerned about the corpse, and asked Qin Wenbao with a hint of sarcasm how to deal with it.

Qin Wenbao gestured to the cave entrance and looked at Li Sheng.

Master is a bit fat and can't get down.

Li Sheng sighed, noticing that Peng Rong's eyes were crinkled with laughter, and snorted, "What are you laughing at? You'll be in for a world of hurt when they're looking for their heads later."

Peng Rong's smile froze on his face instantly.

If your head really gets washed away, then you'll have to crawl down the sewer.

Old Wei took the photo first.

After taking the photos, Li Shengcai carefully crawled down.

The bottom wasn't large, and the body was lying on its side, with little room to maneuver.

He gripped the handrail, not rushing to put his foot down. He frowned as he examined the corpse, then looked up and said, "Master, how do we get this up there? It's all liquefied. If we exert any force, the flesh will fall off. The worst part is, it's not even dressed."

If you wear clothes, you can at least cover up some of it.

Qin Wenbao squatted at the entrance of the hole and asked Li Sheng how long he estimated the hole had been there.

Li Sheng hesitated for a moment, then said, "It's hard to say. This manhole is damp and sealed. I estimate it's been there for at least two months."

Qin Wenbao thought for a moment and told Li Sheng to come up first and figure out how to get the body out.

He told Zhao Yong to go first, but not to touch the corpse.

Zhao Yong looked at Li Shu and the other young men, hesitated for a moment, and said, "I'll go first."

Peng Rong was overjoyed.

"What are you laughing at? Come down with me." Zhao Yong's next words almost made him vomit blood again.

Just as Li Shu was about to say that he was fine and could get out of there, Zhao Yong said, "You two, that's enough. Don't throw up here again."

With that, he went inside first.

Before he could go down, Han Jianjun came over and called out to him.

They told us to stop digging and start digging, to dig up the entire area around the sewer.

He had noticed that the body was badly decomposed and the opening was too small, making it almost impossible to get it out intact.

Therefore, the best option is to dig it up completely, which will also facilitate subsequent site investigation.

Qin Wenbao nodded quickly. He had also considered it. Forcibly dragging him up would be too difficult and might damage body tissue, affecting the subsequent autopsy.

First, we need to inspect the area around the manhole cover.

Nothing was found.

Li Sheng said that more than two months is a very long time, and with wind and rain, the probability of preserving traces of the body being disposed of is extremely low.

After completing the survey, we told people to start digging immediately.

The plan was to dig a hole with a diameter of two meters. This was no small project; it would be too difficult to dig by hand, so a small excavator was hired.

They had already dug it up when it got dark.

During this period, the initial visits have concluded.

The search for the victim's head, which involved opening the manhole cover and following the downstream sewer, was also completed, but nothing was found.

It's speculated that it's either stuck in the middle of the pipe, or it wasn't left here at all.

Having examined the body, Qin Wenbao observed rough friction marks on the broken cervical vertebrae, leading him to speculate that after death, once the blood had congealed, the head was likely sawed off using a tool such as a saw.

The edges of the neck are rather rough, not like it was sawed after being frozen.

They dug up the soil, broke up the cement pipes, and it wasn't until almost 9 p.m. that they finally cleared the site.

"Old Qin, keep an eye on your body for any unusual signs," Xu Qiang instructed, squatting down by the cave.

The body was dumped there for so long before it was discovered, so the people around didn't know there was a body in the well.

No women were missing nearby, and no one noticed that a body had been dumped.

This area is a small grove of trees, and very few people go in.

At the edge of the woods, several nearby factories would dump some garbage here, and over time, even household waste started to be dumped here.

It already smelled bad, so no one would notice the stench of a corpse.

The manhole where the body was dumped was a municipal bypass sewage pipe. It wasn't severely blocked, so the municipal authorities wouldn't come to inspect it.

The root cause of this overhaul was a heavy rain last month that caused blockages and backflow in the downstream pipes.

The municipal authorities investigated and found that a downstream pipe was blocked by garbage.

The problem was ruled out at the time.

After a while, it got blocked again. After several such incidents, we decided to investigate the upstream area along the pipeline.

That's when they discovered the body.

An analysis was also conducted, concluding that the blockage in the downstream pipeline was neither caused by a corpse nor by a lost head.

This is a bypass, the sewage flow is not large, and it didn't even wash away the body.

So it was discovered purely by accident.

The first problem to solve right now is to confirm the victim's identity.

The corpse's head had been sawed off, and it was naked; its identity could only be determined by certain physical characteristics.

With space available, they found a stretcher, laid out a plastic sheet, and Qin Wenbao and his companion carefully turned the body over, revealing the lower half submerged in sewage.

"Hey, Master, this has formed adipocere."

Li Sheng pointed to the victim's right arm.

The right arm, hip, and part of the right leg, likely due to prolonged immersion in water, have a yellowish-white, waxy appearance.

The key is the formation of adipocere, which generally takes three to six months.

Then the time required to dispose of the body would be even longer.

Qin Wenbao bent down to observe, then shook his head and said, "Not necessarily. Look, only a small part, such as the right arm, that was soaked in sewage has formed adipocere. As for the other parts, I think the degree of decomposition is consistent with that of a little over two months old."

"And this environment."

He looked around.

The sewage well contains sewage, but it is not completely submerged; it is half dry and half wet.

And because it is covered by a manhole cover, it is relatively enclosed.

It's the end of September now. If we go back two months, the body was dumped in July.

It was hot at that time, but because it was underground, several meters deep, the temperature was relatively much lower.

It's probably around ten or twenty degrees Celsius.

This temperature is just right for the formation of adipocere.

"And look at the deceased's arms, they're thicker. I think the deceased was rather well-off and a bit overweight in life."

Being overweight, with excess subcutaneous fat, is also a key reason for the formation of adipocere.

Be careful.

The state of adipocere is a good thing, as it preserves more features to a certain extent.

The two men carefully moved the body onto a stretcher, wrapped it in plastic, and then hoisted it directly to the ground.

"Old Han, I'm going back now."

Qin Wenbao took the body back to the municipal bureau.

The remaining work is the responsibility of the trace evidence team.

Zhao Yong led two men to investigate the location of the body.

Li Shu, along with Tan Guoxiong and other young people, crawled through the pipes to search for the victim's head.