National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 994 - 930 Dredging

Pusui Town.

The incident occurred at a fish pond not far from the highway exit, covering an area of about one hectare, or 15 mu, approximately 10,000 square meters—roughly the size of a sports field with a 400-meter standard track. A football field, which news reports often like to mention, is about 7140 square meters, roughly 10.7 mu.

The water in the pond had been drained, and sunlight shone on the mud’s surface, baking a thin, crispy crust. But with a light touch, the fragile crust broke apart, revealing the thick, sticky mud underneath.

Yao Wei, wearing a full set of thick leather clothes, jumped into the mud. Before he could speak, he felt himself slowly sinking down, deeper and deeper, as if there was no bottom.

"How deep is the mud?" Yao Wei was not panicking, although his sensation was similar to someone falling into quicksand or getting stuck in a swamp.

On the shore stood a police officer from the Chang Le City Bureau, who truthfully said, "The shallow part is about one meter, the deep part might be over two meters."

"Two meters? Isn’t that over my head?" Yao Wei started to panic a bit.

The police officer on the shore chuckled and said, "It’s okay, I’m holding onto a rope."

"How can it be this deep?" Yao Wei continued to murmur as he sank, "I’ve checked the books; aren’t normal fish ponds only a few tens of centimeters deep?"

"For a normal fish pond, there’s no need for leather clothes," the police officer also laughed and pointed out Yao Wei’s logical mistake.

Yao Wei looked down at his leather jacket and then at the approaching mud, feeling slightly panicky: "Is this okay now...?"

"You should be almost at the bottom; it’s the edge after all. Normally, fish ponds only have twenty to thirty centimeters of mud. So, this pond is problematic—one, it hasn’t been dredged for a long time, and two, it hasn’t been used to raise fish for too long. The mud has accumulated, making it thick. Initially, we suspect someone familiar with the area did this..." The police officer on the shore began to ponder the case.

Gurgle, gurgle.

Yao Wei felt bubbles starting to form around him.

"Guys, pull a bit, it’s really a bit deep here," the police officer said cheerfully and then instructed Yao Wei, "Stretch out your arms, and wave them about."

Yao Wei hurried to comply.

The police officer on the shore, counting one, two, three, along with three others, pulled Yao Wei out.

Plop...

A rope flew swiftly out of the pond, and Yao Wei felt a momentary lift before sinking again, his body suddenly tilting.

"What now?" Yao Wei was truly panicking now. Images from various moments in his life started flooding back, particularly clear was the scene from Su Island where he aimed and shot a criminal on his first try.

That was a highlight moment for Yao Wei.

"Yao, hold onto this," in a moment of urgency, a police officer yelled and threw the slippery muddy rope towards Yao Wei.

Yao Wei grabbed the muddy rope, and as the officers counted again, they pulled him up.

"Phew..." Yao Wei climbed onto the shore, bringing the smell of the pond’s mud along with him, which mixed with a freshly baked smell, becoming even more pungent.

"Give Yao... a rinse," the leading officer instructed, and someone grabbed a rubber hose, squeezing it to produce a weak jet of water that splashed onto Yao Wei’s leather clothes, much like washing a pig in the village.

Yao Wei gasped for air, having inhaled enough foul smell, he rolled up and asked someone to spray his back while pondering how on earth they could search the pond the size of a sports field: "How do you expect to turn up anything from inside?"

"Exactly, but when I told the leaders, they didn’t really understand," the leading officer seemed aggrieved, all his words condensing into one line, uncertain what else would be appropriate to say.

"If we were normally searching for evidence, we usually just dig around the body in the mud and search the surface; we wouldn’t necessarily drain the water," Yao Wei also felt somewhat perplexed.

With such a vast pond, not to mention flipping all the mud inside, even just swimming through it seemed like it would exhaust all of one’s life’s energy. Finding evidence was never going to be easy.

In fact, searching for objects in muddy waters is already extremely challenging, let alone in the mud. This plan itself is a bit hard to realize.

The leading criminal police could only sigh, thought for a moment, and then said: "Honestly, we’ve managed to solve all murder cases for three consecutive years..."

"Understandable." Shen Yaowei nodded: "It’s about maintaining a good reputation without wanting to spend the money."

The people nearby all chuckled in response.

"Saving at every corner, and in the end, they still turn to Captain Jiang." Shen Yaowei curled his lips, considering Huang Qiangmin’s stingy nature, he’d definitely not let Chang Le City take on both ends.

Shen Yaowei stood up, water cascading out from his leather jacket, asking: "What do you all think? How should we proceed?"

"The condition of the corpse in this case is quite special. First, the body was tied up by the murderer with ropes and stones and submerged in the pond. The clothing on the corpse is intact, suggesting it has been soaked in the water for over three months. During this period, Chang Le City experienced several heavy rains, and a lot of water entered the pond. Therefore, we suspect that some objects on the corpse, if they fell off, might have been washed away as well."

As the leading officer spoke, he gestured and continued: "The situation with the mud is almost the same; this pond is old and poorly maintained, and many mudslides occurred during the rain. If it were a well-maintained pond, there would be measures to block this, but nobody cares about this pond, so the incoming silt could have buried the evidence again."

Shen Yaowei nodded: "Makes sense, so how do you plan to handle it?"

"If we can’t trace the origin of the corpse through the body itself, we have to rely on the items found around it." The officer emphasized, continuing: "We suggest using an excavator to dig out all the mud in the pond, at least a few dozen centimeters thick, but this will be quite expensive. Director Lang has always encouraged us to be proactive, but how can we manage such thick mud?"

"That’s easy. Hand me my phone," Shen Yaowei stretched out his hand.

Someone handed the phone to Shen Yaowei.

Shen Yaowei made a call to Huang Qiangmin, explained the reason, and after a couple of affirmatives, he hung up saying: "It’s settled, an excavator will be here soon, and we need to find another place to dump the mud, somewhere convenient for washing the evidence."

"Director Lang agreed?" The leading officer was surprised. Director Lang always believes in spending wisely, so how could he agree so readily?

Shen Yaowei smirked: "Now that the Cold Case Squad is in charge of the case, Commissioner Huang’s decision is enough."

Of course, the subsequent expenses are definitely for the Chang Le Bureau to bear.

The leading officer realized, "Director Lang is reluctant to spend, so you all spend for him?"

...

Shen Yaowei requested 4 excavators at once, along with a truck and several village tricycles, to start cleaning the evidence.

Huang Qiangmin gave the rest of the Cold Case Squad a three-day vacation, and by the time everyone came back from the break, Shen Yaowei’s mud removal work was almost complete.

The cleared debris was enough to pile up a room.

Now, the challenge they faced was suddenly not a lack of evidence, but too many items, not knowing which ones were evidence.

Shen Yaowei didn’t bother with that, he spent money to hire vehicles to transport it all back to the Changler City Bureau Criminal Police Brigade.

The courtyard of the brigade immediately began to stink.

Director Lang, seeing these items dug up at the expense of his own budget, most of which wouldn’t be evidence, began to doubt whether he had wasted too much.

Meanwhile, after briefly reviewing the corpse and its photographs, Jiang Yuan decided to abandon the corpse’s flesh.

The weather in Chang Le City is hot, the decay of the body in the pond was quick, and with fish in the pond, by the time the body was retrieved, although there were still some organic materials attached to the corpse, making a DNA test was difficult. In the end, the body had to be boiled, with only the bones preserved.

At this time, although Jiang Yuan still had Skull Restoration Skill to rely on, it indeed took too much time.

In contrast, Forensic Anthropology seemed more noble, only needing to look at the bones one by one to read a wealth of information.