National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1012 - 948 Garbage Sorting

There are no secrets in the shantytown, especially for the oppressed mushroom people.

In just a quarter of an hour, Meng Chengbiao concluded the interrogation and reported: "There are three known bodies. One died in a fight, and two were strangled to death. The smell you sensed likely comes from the one who died three days ago. No one took care of it then, so the body was dumped next to the rubbish pile. Only today when we arrived did the gang members dig a hole and bury it."

"Then let’s dig it up and have a look," Jiang Yuan sighed. His hands were clean and ready for dinner, which made him somewhat reluctant to handle the corpses.

"People have been sent to dig it already. The other two bodies, probably died two and four months ago, were also buried after digging holes. Whether there were bodies from even earlier is unknown to those who arrived later; we would need to ask the more core members of the gang."

"Sure, no rush, take your time to interrogate. I want to check the scene first and then think about an inspection plan. Except for the necessary personnel, everyone else should withdraw outside the stronghold." Jiang Yuan’s approach was purely technical—the entire stronghold could be considered evidence, so the impact should be minimized as much as possible.

After all, three people died, including one who was clearly murdered. In local terms, scanning an area a few hundred meters wide is not a big project.

However, the complexity of the shantytown, or rather, its information density, is much greater than that of a small district. Moreover, these people have lived in Qi Mountain Stronghold for several months or even over a year. As they embrace their nature, crimes weren’t uncommon among them. Jiang Yuan pondered that they couldn’t merely cover everything under one or two charges; it would be best to keep an open mind and include all mushroom people.

The crimes among the mushroom people are indeed crimes, this is clear.

"Do we have markers of different colors?" Jiang Yuan asked Wang Chuanxing after walking around the stronghold.

"We only brought yellow markers, and not many of them," Wang Chuanxing quickly checked on his PAD. They had brought a lot of equipment, but the investigation equipment was a second priority in the initial supply.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Yuan said, "Then use the caution tape. At the locations I point out, circle them, and they will be the focus of the inspection later."

To Jiang Yuan, the chaotic, dirty stronghold with its odd smells did not repulse him; in fact, he felt a challenging excitement.

Nowadays, most crime scene investigations happen indoors. With so many cameras and surveillance outside, ordinary murderers feel more secure committing crimes indoors, where it’s easier to manage things like dismemberment.

If you consider a scene where ordinary people die in their own ordinary homes, the area that scene investigators need to inspect is around a hundred square meters. It might be larger in small towns and counties, while in big cities, ordinary people might die in areas ranging from thirty to one hundred and eighty square meters. In terms of area alone, the difficulty of investigating Qi Mountain Stronghold is incomparable.

Furthermore, with several hundred people in Qi Mountain Stronghold living, eating, and conducting both legal and illegal activities all year round, the difficulty in unraveling as many crimes as possible is quite high.

But Jiang Yuan was quite confident. He not only had Level 4 crime scene investigation skills, but when investigating the case of the scavenging elderly, he had also achieved Level 4 in waste classification.

This was indeed particularly suitable for this garbage-filled scene.

Jiang Yuan marked various areas seriously, planning to conduct a detailed inspection later.

For criminal investigators, digging out evidence from trash piles is basically a fundamental operation.

For example, starting with Qi Mountain Stronghold, you can first dig out various drug paraphernalia, because although the stronghold’s residents like mushrooms, many are not exclusively into mushrooms. Thus, from the trash piles, one can find items including but not limited to various syringes, aluminum foil, water pipe, drug pipes, plastic bags of various sizes, cooking pots, bottles, etc.

It can be assumed that these objects have not been thoroughly cleaned, disinfected, or stripped of traces. So, what can you get from a simple plastic bag?

First, by performing physicochemical analysis on the bag, you can determine what was inside it—in this case, what kind of drugs.

Secondly, it is easy to obtain fingerprints from the bag, which can then be matched to all the mushroom people who handled this bag.

If there are fingerprints of five Mushroom Men on the bag, conducting urine or hair tests on them, or directly arranging for the toxicology lab to test, can reveal which drugs they have taken. If the drugs match those found in the bag, then it can be concluded that this bag was used by them. As for the rest, they are naturally suspected of dealing. Otherwise, why would your fingerprints be on the bag?

At this point, the burden of proof is reversed, and others have to prove through what means they came into contact with this bag, thus leaving their fingerprints. Being part of a drug party is a lesser evil explanation.

As for other explanations, like claiming to have used the drugs as currency—current laws do not recognize such a mode of transaction. In fact, using drugs as currency equates to drug trafficking, and using drugs to buy a bottle of water, getting sentenced to 7 years makes sense.

If one bag could possibly wrongfully accuse someone, then additional corroborating evidence easily seals the fate of a participant in exotic drug activities, such as syringes, foil papers, or cooking pots among others. If you neither use nor deal, how could your fingerprints be on these items?

Of course, actual field investigations aren’t this complicated. With interrogation, if the suspect confesses, there won’t be the need to dissect every little detail. For the lower-level drug dealers and users who admit guilt and accept punishment above 10 years, prosecutors are generally satisfied. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

As for other charges, particularly ones that come out of mutual snitching and earning merits, they just add up later on.

However, these are meticulous tasks and not something Jiang Yuan can finish in just a day or two by himself. After making his rounds and identifying key areas, Jiang Yuan just waited for more technical staff to assist.

At this time, three bodies were also dug up.

The two older corpses were severely decomposed, but the body that died only three days ago, even being buried in a relatively damp place, was still in a passable condition.

Wang Chuanxing asked, "Should we perform an external examination, or transport it back straight away?"

"Transport the other two back for processing. For this more recent body, I’ll perform the autopsy right here," Jiang Yuan said, and had someone bring over the forensic doctor’s investigation kit.

There’s no need to look for a special place. Inside a large courtyard with no walls and no roof overhead, Jiang Yuan positioned the body and began the autopsy with the help of Mu Zhiyang and Shen Yaowei.

The Y-incision, removing of the organs, all were part of a very normal procedure.

Forensic doctors in the past often performed autopsies outdoors. In fact, forensic doctors in Ningtai County were still conducting autopsies in rural courtyards more than ten years ago because it was troublesome to transport the bodies back; it was beneficial to have the criminal police on site and provide forensic opinions immediately.

By the time Jiang Yuan graduated, the working environment for forensic doctors had already improved significantly. This experience felt like a throwback.

Especially when all the organs were processed and it was time to saw open the skull, and they realized they didn’t bring an electric saw, the sense of deja vu from old times intensified.

"Use a hand saw then." Jiang Yuan couldn’t wait several hours for an electric saw to be delivered, so he had someone get a hand saw and handed it to Shen Yaowei.

Shen Yaowei solemnly took the hand saw and earnestly said, "Captain Jiang, you rest; I’ll call you when I’m done."

Using a hand saw to cut open the skull would take about an hour. Shen Yaowei rolled up his sleeves and began working.

Squeak, squeak...

When one saw blade broke, another was replaced. Sweat dripped off Shen Yaowei. He declined the help from other officers.

After all, this was a task specially assigned by Captain Jiang, and Shen Yaowei naturally wouldn’t allow others to do it!