National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 878 - 816: Identification Points

Chief Medical Examiner Niu, gasping for breath, clutched the Lock&Lock box filled with human bones and jogged towards the meeting room.

Everyone who has read up on the subject knows that the bones of an adult male from the north weigh about 8 kilograms, while those from the south are slightly lighter, averaging about 70 to 90 percent of that weight; however, when reduced to ashes, they all weigh roughly the same, about 2.5 kilograms. Therefore, it was genuinely tiring for Niu Tang to run with the Lock&Lock box.

The instructor, with nothing in his hands, followed on the run and still felt tired. He was getting older, spending more time working on documents than in the field, running and shouting, "Slow down, Niu, slow down, there’s no need to rush like this."

"It’s not like I would have to run if you hadn’t held me up preaching about the right mindset," Niu Tang, who normally equates moving bodies with weightlifting and is not adept at running, half pushed, half walked, saying only, "Captain Jiang and Lei Da must be getting impatient."

"Even if you get there, they’ll just pick out your mistakes. Why the rush?" The instructor shook his head at Niu Tang’s regular-sized, non-long legs and said, "I wanted you to understand the situation, not to send you off to your doom. There’s no need to be in such a hurry. Lei Da and I both understand there’s a problem with the report, so don’t worry."

"You’ve got to stand upright when taking a beating. We’re cops who grew up watching gangster movies; we know the basic principles," Niu Tang quipped, jokingly.

The instructor, being old, couldn’t stand hearing such things and shook his head, "Don’t talk nonsense. I’m just worried you’re fixating on it. Jiang Yuan’s standards are very high, and he can be unrealistic..."

"If there are flaws in the autopsy report, then there are flaws. Don’t say Jiang Yuan sets the bar high; no matter how high his standards, he can’t make what’s right wrong," Niu Tang was aware of where his problems lay.

Ultimately, it was related to Niu Tang’s own decision-making approach. Many forensic autopsy reports could be written very conservatively; for instance, an estimated age could be given as "approximately thirty years old" or "under forty." The time of death could be broadened from "within 3 hours" to a particular day or thereabouts...

Even if Chen Shixian from the Eight Tigers came over, he couldn’t fault them; at most, he would say they weren’t meticulous enough.

But Niu Tang had demands on himself. Although limited by innate talent, driven by interest, or compelled by circumstances, Niu Tang had focused his main research on the identification of various paper products. In other areas, even when he wasn’t strong, he did his best to reach his personal limits.

However, reaching the limits meant approaching the edge of error, and if a forensic doctor erred, it meant dozens or hundreds of colleagues had worked in vain—something that should be strictly prohibited. It is for this reason many forensic doctors prefer a more conservative approach, aiming not for merit but for avoiding fault.

The penalties for failure were too severe; it wasn’t a matter of simply saying "I can handle it." Most people couldn’t bear such pressure, not just in their work but in their personal lives as well.

Niu Tang, however, saw things differently. He believed in the power of pushing limits. If everyone contributed their strength, there would be no need to rely on just one piece of solitary evidence. Conversely, if no one else could contribute, and it all depended on that one piece of solitary evidence, then challenging the limits was the right approach.

The instructor naturally knew Niu Tang’s thoughts, as they had discussed them before.

He didn’t have much to say about it. Different people have different understandings of their careers and even their lives, not to mention, to some extent, he partially agreed with Niu Tang.

"Let’s hurry up," Niu Tang said after a brief pause, urging the instructor to move faster.

The instructor sighed, preparing to give Niu Tang some more mental encouragement.

Annoyed, Niu Tang waved him off, "Enough, I’m fine. As long as no one’s pointing fingers and yelling, I can take it."

The instructor felt somewhat relieved, "If you really can’t stand it, just turn around and leave. Don’t argue with them, okay?"

"Mmm hmm..." Niu Tang nodded and, grabbing the instructor’s hand, started running faster.

The instructor was forced to jog. If you only looked at their silhouettes... and disregarded their faces, physiques, proportional differences, and so forth, the two of them looked like they were shining with optimism, just like in a Japanese drama.

...

Thud.

The Lock&Lock box full of human bones was heavily placed on the table.

Lei Xin’s brow furrowed, but before he could criticize, he saw Jiang Yuan, unconcerned, stand up and say, "Come on, clear a spot on the table."

A handful of people immediately got to work, freeing over two meters of the long conference table.

A fake flower in a porcelain vase was moved a bit to the side, serving as a divider on the table.

"First, let’s take a look at the pubic symphyseal surface," Jiang Yuan nodded to Chief Medical Examiner Niu, not saying much more.

Forensic psychology was somewhat on the fringes, and Jiang Yuan didn’t know what state Chief Medical Examiner Niu’s emotions were in, so he spoke matter-of-factly about the task at hand.

Chief Medical Examiner Niu internally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that Jiang Yuan’s "ferocity" didn’t seem too intense, and hurriedly stepped forward to help.

Jiang Yuan’s junior fellow, Rui Xiang, quickly stepped forward, put on gloves, and helped turn over the bone fragments.

Jiang Yuan didn’t even wear gloves. The skeleton’s bones had also been boiled, and who knows if the pot used might have had remnants from previously cooked pork intestines or chicken; sterilization was definitely thorough, and no residual evidence lingered on the bones.

Clang clang, Rui Xiang pulled out most of the bones, and when he turned his head, Jiang Yuan had already pieced together the pelvic structure.

At first glance, the bones of the pubic symphyseal surface looked like a butterfly, rough and uneven in texture.

After examining it carefully for a moment, Jiang Yuan continued, "The previous forensic report thought that the pubic symphysis was rather flat and seemed to have ridges, with the ventral bevel not reaching the top... Of course, flatness is subjective, but to me, the surface feels smooth to the touch, yet the texture is very dense, and there’s no sign of ridges."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan passed it back to Niu Tang.

Niu Tang silently took the bone and scrutinized it. In fact, when the news arrived, he had spent a long time reminiscing, but honestly speaking, with a case six years old, such minute details could be hazy or even mistaken.

Niu Tang couldn’t be sure how he made such a judgment back then; he had no recollection of how he approached writing the report.

Now reviewing it afresh, Niu Tang couldn’t say he was completely in the dark—indeed, it felt so.

This matter was somewhat like appraising antiques, particularly like identifying porcelain from the Qing Dynasty. What characteristics define Qing Dynasty porcelain are clearly written in books, but upon close inspection, most are subjective terms.

Just like the term "dense quality," who knows what level of fineness constitutes "dense quality"? As a comparative unit, the standard becomes the core issue.

Now, with Jiang Yuan saying the pubic bone is dense, Niu Tang couldn’t agree, but neither could he rebut.

"What’s directly affecting my judgment is the ventral bevel," Jiang Yuan gave Niu Tang a moment to examine the bone, and seeing no response, he reminded, "The report mentioned the ventral bevel didn’t reach the top and that the ventral margin was essentially formed, but on close inspection, the upper end of the ventral bevel is actually damaged and not unfinished..."

"This..." Upon a closer look, Niu Tang saw that the upper end of the ventral bevel was indeed rough, as if it had lost some paint, a small piece no bigger than half the size of a pinky fingernail, perfectly obscuring the discriminative feature.

It was very hard to notice with the naked eye, as the bone had just lost a thin layer, which could have been due to prolonged boiling or accidental scraping during assembly. The color and appearance of the lower layer hadn’t changed much, just that the discriminative feature happened to be scraped off. novelbuddy.cσ๓

"This really is... damaged..." Niu Tang wasn’t even sure whether it was broken during storage or had already been broken at the outset, but this conclusion was indeed persuasive.

Niu Tang couldn’t help shaking his head, "I didn’t see it at the time."

"Not seeing it is normal; this bone really can’t be considered typical," Jiang Yuan was half guessing and half shooting the arrow before drawing the target. This wasn’t surprising, much like the process of an experienced appraiser feeling something amiss at first, then upon careful inspection finding similarities, and then starting to pick out the flaws.

Jiang Yuan was a Level 4 forensic pathologist and Level 3 in Forensic Anthropology. In terms of expertise, it wasn’t as abnormal as Tool Trace Identification, where one could easily read the answers.

However, even at Level 3 in Forensic Anthropology, one starts at an expert level, much more advanced than Niu Tang.

"If that’s the case..." Just as everyone was feeling relieved, Niu Tang spoke again, asking, "If the bone surface is damaged, the age would be hard to estimate, right?"

For an unsolved case from six years ago, finding people from that time would not be easy, and having relatively accurate information would naturally make the search easier.

"37 years old," Jiang Yuan didn’t beat around the bush and directly gave an exceptionally precise age.

Niu Tang was stunned, and the question "How did you see that?" reached his lips but was then withdrawn.

What to ask? It was like someone questioning him why he could tell just by touching that a piece of tissue paper belonged to a specific brand. When getting into the details, the explanation would be endless, especially since the other party might not understand, and even if they did, they wouldn’t remember, or if they remembered, they wouldn’t grasp it firmly, and if they did grasp it firmly, they still wouldn’t learn it, and if they learned it, they wouldn’t be able to use it, and if they did use it, they would still be incompetent, so... why bother explaining?

Niu Tang touched his head and quietly listened as the captain gave orders.