National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1169 - 1099: Reorganizing the Task Force

The Audi A6 with a Beijing license plate slowly drove into the yard of the Lanyue City Criminal Police Team.

Huang Qiangmin swung his leg over and got out of the car. After straightening his collar, he walked briskly into the Lanyue City Criminal Police Team’s building.

This scene was completely observed by Dai Mingsheng and others.

Dai Mingsheng stood by the window, staring at the license plate of the Audi A6 for a while, then said, "Did Huang Qiangmin specifically transport this car from Ningtai County?"

"I heard it was driven all the way from Changyang City, with two people taking turns, driving through the night. Just like Emperor Tang transporting lychees, the two young men came and collapsed into sleep, completely exhausted," said deputy Lin Xunlei, knowing what Dai Mingsheng wanted to ask, and directly continued, "This car was always parked in Changyang City later. He doesn’t even drive it when he goes back to Ningtai County, only uses it when he’s in Changyang City."

"Didn’t the Changyang City Bureau provide him a car?" Dai Mingsheng asked.

With a knowing expression, Lin Xunlei replied, "How could they not? The head of the Changyang City Criminal Police Detachment is Yu Wenshu, and he travels everywhere in an old Passat now."

"Old Passat?" Dai Mingsheng, who was currently driving a Passat himself, felt slightly sensitive.

Lin Xunlei chuckled, "The new ones must have been given away. The old ones are more reliably driven."

Dai Mingsheng did not laugh.

Huang Qiangmin knocked on the door and entered, smiling like a chrome-plated grille.

...

Autopsy Room.

On the autopsy bed, which could accommodate two people, were several dozen burnt bone fragments arranged in four trays.

Jiang Yuan was picking bones from a metal tray and sorting them into three smaller trays.

The four trays respectively represented unsorted, female bone fragments, male bone fragments, and unclassifiable bone fragments.

The remaining one-third of the skull belonged to a female and was placed separately in another tray.

The forensic doctors from the Lanyue City Bureau were also assisting Jiang Yuan in sorting the bones, though they could offer little help.

Distinguishing whether a corpse belonged to a male or female is basic in forensic anthropology. Determining whether a bone belongs to a male or female is common but difficult in forensic anthropology. As for distinguishing whether a bone fragment belonged to a man or woman, it is already considered an advanced or excessive problem in forensic anthropology. Determining whether burnt bone fragments are male or female is purely a personal endeavor for the forensic doctor.

The differences between these tasks are akin to driving, driving a good car, driving a racecar, and winning an F1 championship.

The value differences are even greater than those between Qianqing, Douqing, Piao Hua, and Full Green. It’s roughly equivalent to the extreme differences between chubby, strong man, little wolfdog, and handsome wolfdog CEO.

Bring over any complete corpse, and an ordinary forensic intern can detail it thoroughly, but if a leader were to bring a bone fragment to ask an ordinary forensic doctor whether it was male or female, the first thoughts crossing the ordinary forensic’s mind would be: Is this even a human bone? And, is the leader even human?

From this perspective, the forensic doctors of the Lanyue City Bureau being unable to determine these bone fragments came from two people is perfectly normal.

Of course, from another perspective, Jiang Yuan picking up bone fragments, examining them, pondering for a moment, and then classifying them as male or female is also perfectly normal.

The only abnormality on site was the forensic doctors from Lanyue City. Both of them.

One tray containing 43 burnt bone fragments took Jiang Yuan over an hour to classify completely, with 11 identified as female, 7 as male, and 24 unclassified.

Though 24 burnt bone fragments remained unclassified, the two forensic doctors from the Lanyue City could not bear it anymore. The senior one, Yang Zhao Lin, waited for Jiang Yuan to finish the classification and, stretching lazily, asked, "Captain Jiang, did you classify them based on the information on the bone fragments?"

"Certainly classified based on the information on the bone fragments," Jiang Yuan smiled briefly, then quickly realized this wasn’t good. With the first round of intellectual display completed, Jiang Yuan switched to a more emotional approach and warmly said, "Specifically speaking, male and female bones have distinct characteristics, such as roughness; male bones are usually rougher, while female bones feel smoother."

Yang Zhao Lin responded with an "Hmm," understanding the basic reasoning, but is that how it’s applied?

If one were to use an analogy, mixing the fish bones of a carp and a grass carp together, how can one discern which is which solely by the smoothness and hardness of the fish bones?

This is still a much wider species determination.

Jiang Yuan promptly realized Yang Zhao Lin’s query and said, "This case is different from normal burnt bone fragment cases. Because there’s a female skull left at the site."

"Hmm?" Yang Zhao Lin didn’t hear anything particularly special about that.

Jiang Yuan patiently explained, "With this female’s skull, we could actually establish a basic coordinate system to determine the general characteristics of this female’s bones in that environment. For instance, the smoothness we mentioned earlier, smoothness closely relates to bone density; furthermore, the thickness of the bones can also be observed from this female’s skull."

Jiang Yuan: "We set up a coordinate system for this female’s bones, and the burnt bone fragments that fit this in all aspects can be identified as belonging to this female. Those that don’t match this female’s bones are further classified, and those with consistent characteristics that can identify bone texture features belong to another person. You can see, in terms of bone texture, it distinctly leans towards male characteristics..."

Jiang Yuan: "Additionally, cross-sections are always the treasure for a forensic doctor. From the cross-sections of these bone fragments, we can clearly observe some characteristics of male bones. For these specific bone fragments, they can be directly identified as male. Moreover, if necessary, we can establish a similar basic coordinate system for male bones, which would come into play if a third person had been burnt at the scene."

Yang Zhao Lin was shocked: "Is there a third person?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head: "It seems there isn’t one. Actually, there was no need to establish a second coordinate system. It’s all based on environmental conditions, such as the flame temperature at the scene, and surrounding conditions. There are exactly two bodies, male and female, so separating them is enough, no need to refine the coordinate system."

Yang Zhao Lin felt he understood a bit, let out an "oh", and asked: "How is this coordinate system established? I didn’t see you do it..."

"It’s built in the mind." Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Forensic anthropology is something you have to learn through experience."

"Huh?" Yang Zhao Lin was honestly a bit overwhelmed.

The experiential component in forensic anthropology is indeed substantial. It’s like the technical skills of a technician in a factory, where the scientific parts are all written in the technician’s manual, but merely reading the manual leads to endless problems in the production process.

As for learning, the content in the technician’s manual is relatively easy to learn, like college textbooks; read them often, and you’ll eventually understand.

Experience, however, is not that easy to learn. It might be difficult, it might not be, but without a mentor, many people might need a lifetime to conclude.

On the side, a younger forensic doctor seemed to understand and pulled Yang Zhao Lin aside, saying, "Master, haven’t you seen Jiang Yuan’s forensic anthropology cases before?"

"Seen... I’ve seen them." Yang Zhao Lin is the kind who goes home after work; his overtime hours are short, so naturally, he has little time to read journals and bulletins.

The younger forensic doctor whispered, "I’ll find them for you to see later, and you’ll understand."

Yang Zhao Lin took two steps back, distancing himself a bit from Jiang Yuan, and asked his apprentice, "Understand what, just tell me directly."

"Just understand..." The young forensic doctor hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Just understand, some people don’t test for Beijing University not because they don’t like it."

Yang Zhao Lin was stunned for a while, then raised his foot and gave his apprentice a kick.

The apprentice complained, "Master, it’s dirty!"

Yang Zhao Lin: "Alright, you wait until I wash it clean..."

...

Screech...

In the quiet autopsy room, the sound of a door opening suddenly came.

Mu Zhiyang, standing behind Jiang Yuan, was so startled he put his hand on his gun.

The three forensic doctors present were all unmoved. The autopsy room is a forensic doctor’s office, so people coming to the office is nothing unusual, nobody normally grabs a gun just because the office door opens.

Dai Mingsheng and Huang Mingsheng entered side by side, followed by Jian Louyuan and Wei Shikan and other officers, all with somewhat fake smiles on their faces.

"Jiang Yuan, how’s this case going? Can you continue?" Dai Mingsheng asked Jiang Yuan with concern.

"The classification of bone fragments is complete, next we still need to find ways to determine the identity of the deceased." Jiang Yuan didn’t directly answer but instead mentioned the current progress.

Dai Mingsheng frowned slightly: "Can the identity be determined?"

There are many nameless corpses with undetermined identities, and the criminal police team faces even more troubles in this aspect.

Jiang Yuan looked at Huang Qiangmin’s eye expression and then said, "It’s hard to say now, but I think there is a basis to continue."

Huang Qiangmin quickly added, "Our Jiang Yuan’s Taihe Working Group in Ningtai specializes in drowning cases. Determining the deceased’s identity is within professional scope."

"That’s good, that’s good." Dai Mingsheng, of course, hoped for a breakthrough, nodded repeatedly, and looked at Jian Louyuan, saying, "In that case, I suggest reforming the special task force. Let’s call it the East Creek Lake Cremation Case, straightforward and clear."

"Yes!" Jian Louyuan responded, then hesitantly said, "Dai Zhi, shall we wait for more specific clues before reforming the special task force?"

The most important KPI for criminal police is the clearance rate. Therefore, many small or economic cases are difficult to file. The special task force isn’t something you reform just because you say so. In Jian Louyuan’s opinion, we should first run according to Jiang Yuan’s leadership mode of the task force, making full use of the preliminary preparation time, while formal listing and reformation can wait until there are clues and directions.

Dai Mingsheng gave Jian Louyuan a deep glare and said, "Just do what you’re told!"

"Yes." Jian Louyuan stood at attention quickly, and then he was pulled out of the autopsy room by his subordinate, Wei Shikan.

Jian Louyuan felt a little embarrassed and complained in front of his subordinate (allegedly) Wei Shikan, "Dai Zhi is too anxious. If we reform the special task force and the case doesn’t break through for a long time, we’ll be laughed at. Isn’t it stupid?"

Wei Shikan comforted the captain: "The fool is you. Dai Zhi is worried that before we can even reform the special task force, Jiang Yuan might have already cracked the case!"