National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 885 - 823: Solving the Case by Looking at Pictures (Request for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 885: Chapter 823: Solving the Case by Looking at Pictures (Request for Monthly Votes)

How do we find the person with the photos?

In China, it’s very simple. The police can scan the photo to obtain ID information and phone numbers, and recent hotel lodgings and other locations can also be seen. If you’re willing to flip a couple more pages, even more information becomes available.

It could be said that, in front of criminal cases, ordinary people are virtually in a state of nakedness. If technical investigation methods are utilized, the police know more about a person’s movements than the person themself.

Although Dama doesn’t have this capability, Deputy Chief Kamaludin sent the photos back to the police department, where technicians linked computers to a server, then conducted database searches and comparisons to usually find the person.

Deputy Chief Kamaludin, suppressing his excitement, crouched in a corner and began frantically making calls.

Jiang Yuan and others silently ate durian.

Cases where the source of the corpse is unknown, once identified, usually have a high chance of solving the case. This may sound somewhat mystical but is actually related to the perpetrator’s efforts.

Apart from natural and accidental situations, changes in the body are largely related to the perpetrator’s actions. All such actions require the consumption of physical energy, strength, time, and often involve risks.

Take the phrase "throw far, bury near" for instance—it reflects the choices of the killer. Those with familiar environments or convenient transportation will opt to discard the body, and the burial site is often not too far from the killer.

Why not both throw and bury? Does the killer dislike it? Throwing or burying a body is tiring. Although not uncommon in cases involving multiple people or having the victim dig their own grave, doing both by a lone perpetrator involves more physical effort than a normal eight-hour manual labor job, and most killers don’t have the conditions for that.

Correspondingly, teams of killers often avoid dismembering the body—it’s messy and likely to leave evidence, and carrying a whole body is more convenient than parts. Many solo body movers are forced to dismember because they cannot manage the weight otherwise.

In short, a killer’s additional handling of a body always has reasons. The first 12 to 24 hours after a murder are golden for the killer to manage the body—the more time wasted, the easier they are to catch.

In this case, the corpse was beaten beyond recognition, unidentifiable, and the result of the killer’s hits and kicks. From a brutal perspective, this also represents the killer’s input. He chose to distribute his energy, strength, and time into this—causing the victim multiple injuries, ultimately leading to death from broken ribs.

Though to those few who seldom commit murder, the facial injuries might seem like a by-product of a beating, those with even a little experience in deadly beatings would know that to completely disfigure someone is tremendously difficult.

This can be seen in boxing matches, bare-knuckle fights, or bullying scenarios. Most boxers need more than three rounds to see significant swelling or browbone lacerations, a level that still doesn’t qualify as unrecognizable.

Bare-knuckle fights and bullying scenes are similar. To beat someone until even their mother couldn’t recognize them requires meticulous effort. Most swelling occurs the second or even third day after the beating.

Thus, the unrecognizability of the corpse in this case is likely intentional by the killer as a form of disguise.

Why does the killer want the body to be unrecognizable? Why disguise this act?

There’s a high probability that recognizing the corpse would easily expose the killer.

Now that Jiang Yuan is handling more cases, many can be partially deduced from past experience. However, these speculations are unstable, so Jiang Yuan hasn’t determined whether this is a real robbery or a staged one; he’ll confirm the source of the corpse first.

After eating three pieces of three different kinds of durian, Jiang Yuan felt sickened.

Wang Chuanxing adeptly peeled a mangosteen for him and said with a smile, "There are also eat-all-you-can durian stalls here in Dama, but I don’t know how many people could eat their money’s worth."

"The cheapest all-you-can-eat durian is only 9 ringgit, which is about a dozen yuan, mostly in night markets," Zhong Renlong, being ethnic Chinese, had encountered many people from China and gave this tempting piece of information first.

Having already eaten five pieces of durian, Mu Zhiyang’s eyes lit up, "That sounds good, but why is it so cheap?"

"Because the all-you-can-eat durians for nine ringgit are all Kampong durians, which means they are rural durians, all native species without grafting or breed improvement. So, they can taste like anything — good, bad, sweet, bitter, even alcoholic..." Zhong Renlong said with a smile as he explained.

Mu Zhiyang asked, "Can you pick out the good ones?"

"No way to pick," Zhong Renlong said with a laugh, "Durians have a strong locality factor. It’s not at the national level, but at the rural level; the durians from one village are different from those of another village. Moreover, transplantation from one village to another might not even survive. And within each village, each tree might produce durians that taste different. Outsiders can’t distinguish them at all."

Wang Chuanxing also seemed hesitant, wiping his hands, he said, "If that’s the case, the best-tasting durians in the village shouldn’t be sold outside. Since it’s all priced the same, just sell the less tasty ones to the middlemen."

"That makes sense." Mu Zhiyang nodded. As a criminal investigator, you ask him to believe in the light, he’ll first suspect you of fraud.

Zhong Renlong chuckled and said, "That’s why foreigners are better off eating cultivated varieties of durians, they’re reliably tasty. In Dama, new stable varieties of durians can be developed and registered with the Dama Agriculture Bureau, named as Dxx. Like Musang King is D197, Black Thorn is D200, indicating that these varieties were developed later."

"Comparing them, Black Thorn has a strong fragrance..." Mu Zhiyang stuck out his tongue and added, "But if it’s served to me alone, I could only say it’s delicious."

"Because you are comparing Black Thorn with Musang King, you should try Kampong sometime; some of them really don’t taste good." Zhong Renlong laughed heartily and said, "Look at me talking, the durians sent to China must be of very fine varieties. Actually, I used to eat a lot of Kampong durians. Back then, there were a few familiar durian vendors, and stable supply channels, and the taste of some trees’ durians was quite unique, memorable..."

As they chatted, time flew quickly.

Before they knew it, Deputy Chief Kamaludin was back at the table, holding his phone.

Jiang Yuan naturally looked up at him and asked in Indonesian language, "How did it go? Did you confirm the source of the body?"

"Confirmed, confirmed!" Kamaludin nodded repeatedly, swallowed, and then said, "And the case... might be solved too."

This response was not unexpected, but it was pleasantly surprising.

Jiang Yuan felt it was good this way, being able to solve a case directly was more comforting than dealing with endless follow-up issues. With the time saved, they could work on other cases.

"How was it solved?" Jiang Yuan asked while he casually opened another file.

Kamaludin’s eyelids twitched, he measured his words, mentally went over the evidence collected from various sources, reviewed the testimonies of several witnesses relayed by the officers, and then said, "His wife conspired with her lover to kill him."

Zhong Renlong translated simultaneously.

"Oh," Everyone nodded in unison.

"Any other evidence?" Jiang Yuan asked further.

The saying goes that a single piece of evidence is not enough...

"They recorded a video." Kamaludin’s response was very to the point.

Jiang Yuan was briefly stunned, "Why would they record a video?"

"It was supposed to be just a beating, but they lost control," Kamaludin said, his expression somewhat relaxed, "Of course, this is according to the statements of the two murderers."

"Evidence is sufficient," Jiang Yuan said, turning his focus back to the file in front of him.

Kamaludin shrank his neck slightly and turned his head, glaring fiercely at some noisy fellows at the next table.