National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 876 - 814: Lethal Tools

Early morning.

After a good wash and some sleep, Lei Xin appeared energetic in front of Jiang Yuan.

The captains of the detective squads are all veterans accustomed to staying up late; even after returning from Garbage Mountain, they wouldn’t just collapse on the floor like ordinary trash, unable to get up.

"Captain Jiang, give us your orders. We are all ready," Lei Xin had clearly motivated himself.

The other detectives had also been rallied by Lei Xin, their expressions calm and composed like corpses.

"Actually, we don’t need so many people," Jiang Yuan counted the number of people and added, "I originally planned to send officers from the Cold Case Squad. You just need to coordinate with a couple of them..."

"It’s not like we’re only here to work," Lei Xin declared boldly. "It’s just Garbage Mountain we climbed, not like we slept there; let’s do what needs to be done."

A detective who was persuaded to come along smiled and said, "If I went home to sleep, it would still be like I was sleeping on Garbage Mountain."

"My wife is used to it," Lei Xin glanced at him carelessly and asked, "Have you been sleeping at work these days?"

"Yes, I figured during these days at Garbage Mountain, better not to trouble my family by going home!"

Liu Jinghui, standing nearby, shook his head and said, "If you do that, you won’t be able to go home for a week. The smell from Garbage Mountain, even if you shower daily, won’t come off. People who haven’t smelled it would still find you unbearable even a week later. But if you just go home and sleep for one night, she’ll get used to it in two or three days."

The slightly complaining detective paused and seriously said, "You make sense, but..."

Liu Jinghui asked, "You’re sleeping in the company dormitory? How do you feel about the smell of stinky feet?"

"That’s definitely unpleasant."

"And you can still sleep with that smell? Don’t you think it gets fainter day by day?"

A married detective grimaced, "I can still smell it, though."

"To be honest, the smell in your dorms is really strong, better than Garbage Mountain, but all of you who climbed out from Garbage Mountain are sleeping there; you don’t smell the stink, ever wonder why?" Liu Jinghui, confident in his grasp of wisdom, enlightened the opposite detective, "It’s just like fishermen."

"Fishermen?"

Liu Jinghui explained, "When you first go to the seaside docks, you might feel that the wind itself carries a fishy smell, but fishermen will tell you that only old fish has a slight fishy odor, nothing else. Similarly, people from the grasslands don’t think a sheepskin coat that hasn’t been washed for a year smells, a sturgeon restaurant smells pungent when you walk in, they call it fragrant, and then there are durian restaurants where some people cover their noses and others drool as they walk in..."

"No wonder..." the married detective appeared to have an epiphany and nodded distantly, "I sometimes ask about a sweet smell when I get back to the dorms, and they say it smells like instant noodles..."

Liu Jinghui’s points scattered all over, "That’s not what I meant..."

Jiang Yuan coughed twice, "Let’s talk about the case."

The group quickly gathered around him.

"Case 802, also a homicide from this year. Qinghe really has had a lot of cases this year," Jiang Yuan opened the file, casually making a remark.

Lei Xin shook his head with a wry smile.

"No wonder Huang said that when it comes to the combat power rankings, Lei Da doesn’t respond," Liu Jinghui started laughing, reveling in the excitement.

Jiang Yuan didn’t let Liu Jinghui continue to digress but brought the conversation back, saying, "The victim’s head was struck by a blunt object, leaving bamboo fragments behind. The crime scene is in the victim’s backyard, where construction bamboo was found, but it was not confirmed as the murder weapon after comparison. Additionally, multiple bamboo items inside the house were examined and couldn’t be identified as the murder weapon either..."

Jiang Yuan briefly explained the situation, then continued, "The victim, Wang Shouhu, was 52 years old, in good health, and there were no signs of struggle on his body, no defensive wounds, which mostly confirms it was someone familiar to him... I saw you also checked his known associates, any findings?"

Lei Xin shook his head helplessly, "No suspects that meet the criteria. The rural population here is already very small, mainly consisting of elderly and middle-aged people like the victim, who was relatively younger. A few young people, like the victim’s own son, mostly stay indoors all the time, there are no eyewitnesses or motives."

Murders in the countryside are both straightforward and complex, difficult yet challenging. Compared to the city, relationships in rural areas are stable and secretive; many grudges accumulate over years, and the final "trigger point" might be something extremely minor, often passionately regarded by the murderer but hardly sufficient as a reason for murder.

On the other hand, surveillance cameras, cell phones, and even DNA and fingerprints might not always be useful in such environments. For instance, finding a strange fingerprint on a window in a city burglary might identify a suspect, but in a village, it’s not unusual to find any local’s fingerprints on any window.

"Can we use Legal Botany in this case?" Lei Xin asked, hopeful. Although they had standard technological methods available, Legal Botany was almost a specialty of Jiang Yuan. The technicians capable of using this method were extremely rare, not to mention the time it consumed, making it difficult for Lei Xin’s team to even get scheduled.

Jiang Yuan was amused and turned to explain reluctantly, "I should probably give you an introduction to Legal Botany sometime. Just having some bamboo fragments here doesn’t relate to Legal Botany. Legal Botany involves a variety of plants, examining their botanical charts. For a single type of plant, comparing mitochondrial DNA is sufficient. Moreover, these bamboo fragments likely came from a tool."

Lei Xin nodded, half understanding.

Jiang Yuan pondered, considering asking Pang Jidong and his team to come over and give a lecture.

This thought crossed his mind briefly, then Jiang Yuan continued, "A few days ago, when I had some free time, I speculated about the murder weapon in this case. First off, the bamboo stick guessed in your investigation files is definitely incorrect."

"Incorrect?" Lei Xin wasn’t surprised but still felt somewhat helpless, thinking to himself, Chief Medical Examiner Niu has been focusing on tissues every day, and now he’s been wrong about the murder weapon, again.

Jiang Yuan strategically took a sip of water before continuing, "It’s not entirely Chief Medical Examiner Niu’s fault; it was just one speculated direction... Anyway, if the head were struck by a bamboo stick, it would indeed create crushed wounds, but the scalp wouldn’t show complete severance, particularly the skull wouldn’t sustain such comminuted fractures, the damage to the skull wouldn’t be so severe. There’s a saying, ’bamboo strikes hollow,’ which refers to the marks left by blunt stick injuries. Based on the photos, I think the reason to consider the bamboo stick as the murder weapon isn’t sufficient, the assumption doesn’t hold."

Assessing the murder weapon is indeed a very difficult task. Generally, a Level 2 capability could only differentiate between sharp and blunt instruments, along with a few common items, which is the limit of Chief Medical Examiner Niu’s skill. He did speculate on several types of tools but can’t be said to have completely erred.

However, it must be mentioned that having a Level 2 capability in Tool Trace Identification already makes one an elite forensic doctor. People’s abilities vary, especially in forensic fields, and many people’s wounds and manner of death are actually not typical. Requiring a definite result when you’ve never encountered such cases, nor read similar books, and if the deceased was a very unique individual, then what can be done?

Forensic reports rarely give negative results; in fact, some forensic autopsies yield no results at all. "Inconclusive" is actually an answer.

In comparison, Jiang Yuan’s skill in Tool Trace Identification was Level 6, much higher, enabling him to easily offer conclusions.

He then said, "Regarding the murder weapon, because Wang Shouhu’s skull showed comminuted fractures, even with some degree of depression, and bamboo fragments were mixed in the bone fragments, it indicates the murder weapon should be a high-momentum blunt object."

"High-momentum?" Liu Jinghui translated, "A blunt object with high weight and high speed?"

"Right."

Liu Jinghui pondered.

Jiang Yuan had already been considering this for two days and didn’t wait for him, directly providing the answer, "A mallet or a hoe, considering the bamboo fragments, it’s highly likely the murder weapon was a hoe."

Jiang Yuan gestured, "A bamboo-handled hoe, striking the victim’s head with the back of the hoe..."

Those present could only nod. freēwēbnovel.com

Jiang Yuan added, "Now we just need to see whose hoe it was, start by checking if any families have recently changed their hoes. If not, then bring back the bamboo-handled hoes from each house for examination."

"This is good, this is good!" Lei Xin felt suddenly enlightened, and the hives on his body stopped itching.