American forensics, but the gourmet system

Chapter 73 Jesse VS. the Junkyard (Fifth update, please subscribe!)

After driving about 300 meters along the mountain road, Xiao Ka suddenly turned downhill.

There is a narrow and winding mountain road here.

"Oh?"

Russell was taken aback.

This area was not included in their planned search area.

But if that raccoon is an energetic creature, it might walk a few more steps to find food.

Little Ka was still running slowly ahead, and you could see that its tail was getting higher and higher, which was a positive sign.

This place resembles an abandoned hunter's trail, with withered weeds and bare shrubs growing on both sides.

Decades ago, hunters would come to the mountains with guns and traps to hunt hazel grouse, cottontail rabbits, and white-tailed deer.

However, with the development of surrounding farms, population loss, and the control of hunting, there are very few hunters in the area anymore.

Even licensed hunters choose to hunt in more remote mountainous areas rather than setting traps near human-occupied areas.

As a result, many of the paths worn out by hunters were gradually abandoned.

Most of these hunter's trails have been overgrown with weeds and thorns again, but the trail that Ka led them on was still barely passable.

This is highly suspicious.

This at least indicates that someone has been frequently using this path recently.

Rounding a dense thicket of bushes, a half-collapsed loess cliff came into view. The snow piled up at the foot of the cliff was uneven, and it was unclear what lay beneath it.

Little Ka stopped, turned around and barked twice at Aina, wagged its tail, and peed into the bushes by the roadside.

"They must have done something to mask the smell," Russell said, pointing to the cratered snow. "This earthen cliff is half collapsed; is it possible they deliberately caused it?"

"Was it deliberately collapsed?" Jesse, carrying a bag, caught up, while Clarkson, panting, lagged behind. "Why don't we clear out some of it first and see what's underneath the snow?"

Russell hesitated for a moment, but Jesse was a man of action. He shoved the backpack into Russell's hand and stepped off the path.

"Oh! Fuck!" Jesse yelled as his entire lower leg sank into the snow the instant he stepped down. The snow was only a dozen centimeters thick, far too deep to bury an adult's lower leg.

"Damn! It's all garbage down there!" Jesse exclaimed in disgust, pulling his leg out of the snow. "It's disgusting!"

A dirty potato chip bag was hanging on his pants.

Thankfully it's the cold winter; if it were summer, who knows how foul the stench from this pile of garbage would be.

"Using household garbage to bury the body?" Russell examined the uneven layer of snow in front of him. "Collecting garbage isn't difficult. If someone passes by, even if they smell something strange, they'll mistake it for the stench of garbage—"

That's a great idea.

"And the smell of the garbage might have interfered with Ka's judgment," Aina added. "I don't know if this trick works on police dogs—but it took Ka a long time to find this place."

"Don't analyze the case yet." Jesse stumbled a few steps in the snow, making a clattering sound as plastic packaging and cardboard boxes collided. The snow layer collapsed, revealing a colorful pile of garbage. "Pull me up, Russell. This is disgusting—"

"Wait a minute, let me take a picture of you first." Russell grinned mischievously and took out his phone. "I'm going to tell Captain Hansen that you had to search through tons of garbage for a body, and maybe he'll grant you a few more days of paid leave—"

After taking photos of the reluctant Jesse, Russell reached out his hand to him.

"I'd rather not have a vacation than swim in a garbage dump—" Jesse complained as she grabbed Russell's hand. "Wait, I think I stepped on a can. Let me switch feet."

Jesse's expression suddenly changed.

"What's wrong?"

Russell quickly asked.

"Damn—what I stepped on doesn't seem to be a can—"

Jesse released Russell's hand and was about to bend down to touch something under his feet when Russell stopped him.

Russell took a pair of nitrile gloves out of his pocket and put them into Jesse's hands.

"Be careful, there might be shards of glass in the trash heap. Don't get cut," Russell earnestly advised. "Although it's less likely to get infected in winter, you still need to be careful."

99

Jesse put on gloves, bent down again, and rummaged through the knee-high pile of household garbage.

His movements suddenly stopped.

The next second, Jesse straightened up and pulled the thing in his hand out of the trash.

It was a round skull.

Aina took a deep breath and raised her hand to cover her mouth.

"My God—what is this?!" Mr. Clarkson, who had finally managed to get down the path, was startled.

Little Ka started barking, adding a touch of liveliness to the tense atmosphere.

"Ha, I knew you guys would need me—" Jesse calmed down considerably when he saw the skull in his hand. "I found Jennifer's skull in less than six hours after I arrived in Ulster County—you absolutely need me, Russell."

"Perhaps." Russell examined the skull Jesse was holding. "But there's a problem. You're not holding Jennifer's skull. Jennifer was a young woman, and this skull undoubtedly belongs to a middle-aged man—do you still want to get out of the junkyard, Jesse?"

Half an hour later, thanks to Jesse's efforts, Russell pieced together a roughly complete skeleton in the snow. The skeleton was still covered with a lot of dry, grayish-brown tissue and had not yet completely turned to white bone.

"A Black male, approximately 178 cm tall, aged 45 at the time of death, died six months prior, with abnormal wear and tear around his knees and ankles, and his occupation was likely related to sports —"

Russell quickly made his judgment using his forensic anthropology knowledge, which had outperformed 84% of his competitors.

"This person is in the accidental death information provided by Sheriff Monroe." Aina tapped and drew on the iPad, found the information, "Ian Williams, cause of death: traumatic brain injury from a low fall — remember the person Andre mentioned who fell off his Segway and died of brain death? It seems to be him."

Jesse, covered in trash and debris, crawled out of the garbage heap, sweat still dripping from his forehead. "Now we should notify the Ulster County Sheriff's Department. A second body that should have been cremated—they can't just sit idly by, can they?"