National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 980 - 916 Moving Forward

"Check this person, it’s highly probable that he’s the victim."

Jiang Yuan forwarded the information on the police service device to Wang Chuanxing.

Wang Chuanxing’s pale eyelids kept twitching: "Identifying identity through a sketch? When did you learn to sketch?"

Using photos to confirm identity is a basic function of the current police network. However, a photo is just a photo; determining identity through a sketch is challenging, as anyone who has experienced an art exam knows. Even eight years of art practice could still result in a portrait resembling a monkey more than a human.

Moreover, Jiang Yuan’s sketches were based on observing corpses, not criminal sketches with eyewitness participation, which only heightened the difficulty.

Jiang Yuan didn’t need to explain just how powerful Level 6 Skills were. He glanced at Wang Chuanxing and said, "I used the time you make PPTs to practice. Call Team Meng and Captain Wu to join us."

Wang Chuanxing slapped his forehead and stood up straight, replying, "Yes."

Having identified a suspect, the first drowning case had made a breakthrough. Jiang Yuan then shifted his focus to the other two cases, which would take up the morning.

By the afternoon, more clarity emerged on another young woman’s drowning case, which seemed less like a crime and more like an accidental drowning, thus treated as an unnatural death.

After wrapping this up, Miao Ruixiang called and asked, "Captain Jiang, the body thawed this morning is a bit soft. Should we start the autopsy now, or wait for further thaw? I’m concerned it might become too fragile."

Anyone who cooks knows that once meat is completely thawed in the kitchen, it’s actually harder to cut. When it’s just slightly soft and not too firm, just right for the knife, that’s the best time to proceed.

Moreover, the autopsy process is lengthy; a complete autopsy taking two to three hours is quite normal. For a forensic doctor at Jiang Yuan’s level, who might have a bit of a public image to uphold and thus takes more photos and videos, managing the thawing time becomes even more critical. You can’t let it thaw completely, which could result in the internal organs turning messy and sticky, complicating the procedure.

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment after receiving the call and responded, "You perform the autopsy. Can you handle it independently?"

"Ah? Just by myself?" Miao Ruixiang was astonished.

He had experience performing autopsies alone, but not all autopsies are the same. His usual autopsies on unnatural death cases were the simplest type, whereas re-autopsying a body that had already been autopsied was much more challenging. If Miao Ruixiang felt overconfident about it, that would be inappropriate.

Jiang Yuan didn’t mention the breakthrough in the case, and simply instructed, "Have someone record and photograph the whole process, take multiple photos, and shoot from different angles. Also, collect more samples. I know samples were taken during the previous autopsy, but taking more now is fine, too."

This set of requests from Jiang Yuan sounded like precautions against Miao Ruixiang’s potential mistakes, but in reality, it allocated significant funds to him—an allowance not typically afforded to just any forensic doctor. The expenses, including collecting and storing additional samples beyond the first round, might not be approved by the commanding officers.

However, experience comes at the cost of funds, and while some spend purely on expenditures, others learn and train simultaneously.

Miao Ruixiang soon grasped Jiang Yuan’s intent and cheerfully proceeded with the autopsy.

Jiang Yuan then tidied up and left work early.

Today, only one body was thawed, and another was determined to be an unnatural death, ruling out criminal involvement. The identity of the last female corpse was hard to deduce from photos alone; Jiang Yuan would have to wait for it to thaw the next day.

As for working overtime, even if Jiang Yuan wanted to, he couldn’t just add another body for examination. And with other types of cases, Ningtai County’s police force was already overstretched, not requiring his involvement at the moment.

In truth, although different criminal cases might appear complicated in execution, the investigative approaches are largely similar. Police officers with a few years of experience are already familiar with most types of cases; it generally comes down to issues of authority, resource allocation, and personnel management.

It’s just homicide cases that differ significantly, mainly due to their low occurrence rate. Police departments often overexert in this area, making the operations of homicide task forces quite distinct from those of regular cases.

The next morning.

Jiang Yuan arrived at work on time and found the office bustling with activity.

"Captain Jiang, the suspect from yesterday’s first body has been brought in for questioning. He has already confessed on the way here," Wang Chuanxing reported with a tense expression.

Jiang Yuan, unsurprised, simply acknowledged with an "Oh," and asked, "Was it a personal connection?"

Only through a personal connection could the suspect have been apprehended so quickly.

"Yes," said Wang Chuanxing. "The suspect is the victim’s husband, who claimed his wife had run away and did not report her missing."

Jiang Yuan nodded; with such a lie in the process, it would be difficult for the suspect to clarify his innocence.

Wang Chuanxing paused before adding, "Miao Ruixiang has completed the autopsy on the first body. Would you like to have a look?"

"Let’s take a look. Have number two and number three been thawed? If they are thawed, let him dissect number three as well," Jiang Yuan straightforwardly assigned the tasks.

He then reviewed Miao Ruixiang’s autopsy video and photos, quickly scrolling through the content. It took less than ten minutes to understand the specific condition of the body, largely because there were no complications and the case was essentially solved.

The third body was an unnatural death, falling into the category of potentially not requiring an autopsy, but Jiang Yuan still preferred to proceed. After all, the body was a waterlogged corpse, which could be misleading.

By the afternoon, Jiang Yuan calculated the time and went to the funeral home’s autopsy room himself.

The second body showed external injuries, so although it, like the third, had entered the water before death, Jiang Yuan believed this body was likely involved in a criminal case.

The autopsy’s findings, however, did not support this conclusion.

From the standpoint of forensic pathology, the victim had simply drowned, and whether the external injuries were related could not be determined with the forensic technology available.

Nevertheless, Jiang Yuan was in no hurry. He first took a lung sample, part of which was sent to the Physical and Chemical Laboratory for testing, then calmly completed the autopsy, and methodically wrote reports and filed them.

The process was slow, but the deliberate dissection of the body was somewhat therapeutic, bringing a sense of calm and reducing anxiety and restlessness.

In the evening.

The autopsy of the second body was finished.

Jiang Yuan casually sketched a drawing but failed to find a match after scanning it several times with the software.

With this, the complexity of the case increased.

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment then called Shen Yaowei to him and said, "The location where number two was found has a lot of silt and reeds, almost like a slow zone of Tai River. Take a team and search the area again, see if you can find any items that could confirm number two’s identity."

This method was like searching for a needle in a haystack, but such demands are plentiful in homicide investigations.

Shen Yaowei, pleased with his important role, sincerely thanked Jiang Yuan and then spiritedly led his team out.