American forensics, but the gourmet system

Chapter 80 That Damn Regression Equation (Third Update, Please Subscribe!)

The next day, the garbage dump was still filled with busy oxen, horses, and men, but Mannion's navy blue suit seemed a bit wrinkled, and his neatly slicked-back hair wasn't as shiny as it had been the day before.

"Even the interrogation experts have run into a wall," Mr. Chameleon sighed and said to Russell. Ever since Professor Victor showed Russell a rather friendly attitude last night, Mannion has also been willing to take the initiative to talk to Russell.

"They still refuse to confess?" Russell asked Mannion while piecing together the body number fifteen that had just been dug up.

“Yes—” Chameleon nodded. “They all resisted interrogation, especially that guy named Fabian—from what we know, he used the guise of buying blood products to find matching marginalized people in various cities, then kidnapped and knocked them unconscious before sending them to Simmons. Simmons was responsible for harvesting organs and disposing of the bodies, while Fabian drove his organ transport vehicle to deliver the organs to the buyers—”

"Disgusting." Russell shook his head and carefully placed the pelvis that the big man had dug out of the garbage dump.

Mannion's account of the crime was basically the same as Russell's previous reasoning. What Russell didn't expect was that Fabian was using the pretext of acquiring blood products to select suitable organ donors.

This does align with the victim Rachel's experience of selling her blood.

When that destitute young girl tried to improve her life by selling her blood, she never imagined that her organs were already being targeted.

Russell suddenly felt that "disgusting" was not enough to describe what Simmons and his associates had done.

"Have you found evidence of Fabian's crimes? Wasn't he refusing to confess?" Russell asked Mannion as he straightened the pelvis of body number fifteen and examined it.

"Last night, the FBI's Manhattan Enforcement Division organized hundreds of people to review thousands of hours of surveillance footage," Mannion said with a hint of pride. "We used the Rachel Francis kidnapping case as a starting point; she should be the most recent victim. We found clues in the surveillance footage and roughly reconstructed Fabian's modus operandi—we can roughly deduce that the previous victims were probably brought here by him using a similar process."

Russell nodded, glanced at the mostly intact body again, and turned to Professor Victor's student who was taking notes, saying, "Female, time of death more than 65 months. Age at death approximately 36, history of childbirth." "Wait, I have a question," the doctoral student named Antoine interrupted Russell.

"Please speak," Russell gestured to him.

"Sex can be determined by the pelvis, reproductive history, and age can be roughly estimated based on degenerative changes in the bones—but time of death is not."

Antoine paused for a moment, then continued, "In all my knowledge, no one has told me how to tell whether a pile of bones has been dead for 65 months or 60 months—shouldn't there be a large margin of error in that?"

After saying this, Antoine glanced smugly at Sofia beside him.

Sophia and Russell were about the same age. During their conversation this morning, Russell learned that her surname was actually Liu, and her real name was Liu Yiyi. She studied biology at the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate degree and then switched to anthropology for her doctorate.

Clearly, this guy named Antoine had a good impression of Liu Yiyi and wanted to demonstrate his academic level by questioning Russell.

Russell chuckled to himself.

He had seen many men like that before.

He's fine when there are no women around, but as soon as there's an event with a woman he likes, he'll act like a peacock, trying to win her heart by questioning others and showing off.

Fortunately, Russell's forensic anthropology surpassed that of 84% of his competitors.

It's important to understand that due to the immense difficulty of forensic anthropology, even with a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University, a solid theoretical foundation, and a full year of forensic work experience, Russell's level of forensic anthropology could only barely surpass 58% of his competitors before the awakening system was implemented.

Antoine and Liu Yiyi's current level of forensic anthropology is at most able to beat 70% of their competitors.

After graduating with their doctorates, they are already able to teach anthropology research courses independently at most universities around the world.

Russell speculated that those who outperformed more than 80% of their competitors in forensic anthropology were likely mostly veteran forensic scientists and professors with solid theoretical foundations and rich practical experience.

However, Antoine's doubts are indeed valid. There is no universally accepted conclusion in the field of forensic anthropology that can accurately determine the time of death of completely skeletalized remains.

In determining the time of death of skeletal remains, forensic entomology and forensic botany generally play a crucial role.

However, if there are no insects or plants on the bones, it is difficult to make an accurate judgment.

Therefore, it is really hard to believe that Russell said 65 months.

It might even make people feel that Russell was making things up.

"There's a regression formula for the time of death of bodies buried in garbage dumps." Russell took the paper and pen from Liu Yiyi and began to draw on the paper.

「PMI=βo+β1T+β₂D+β3S+β4P+βsW+ε。β₀是常数基準项，我们将它设为2.2。β1=0.18，T是年均有效积温係数，阿尔斯特县这里年均温度比纽约城区低1—2摄氏度，再考虑到四季气温变化和近年来平均温度的升高可以将它按照9.3计算————β₂=

0.74, D is the landfill depth coefficient. You need to take into account the depth of the garbage accumulation and the variation in the looseness of the garbage.

As Russell spoke at length, his gaze toward Antoine gradually became fixed.

Russell was very familiar with this expression; he had a similar expression when he watched Aina operate the computer with such ease.

Even after earning a doctorate, Antoine still had to experience the feeling of knowledge flowing through his mind like water.

Aina covered her mouth and chuckled, while Liu Yiyi blinked, seemingly lost in thought.

Antoine had no choice but to nod repeatedly, pretending that he understood Russell's verification process.

Russell actually wanted Antoine to understand, but Antoine lacked systematic support and practical experience, and had no concept of the presuppositions, constant values, and estimation of various coefficients in this regression equation.

After working through a large sheet of paper, Russell circled the conclusion of 65 months with a pen.

"Did you understand?" he asked Antoine.

"Uh...I think I understand now..." Antoine swallowed, his tone at least 80% more polite than before. "May I ask Dr. Russell, who proposed this regression equation?"

"It was proposed in a French paper about burying corpses in landfills. I made some slight modifications based on the local environment," Russell said casually.

Antoine shrank back like a quail.