National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 887 - 825 Continuation

Zhong Renlong cradled the phone, sitting at the other end of the long table and furiously dialed.

By rights, he would normally find a corner to make his calls, just as Kamaluddin had done before. But now he was afraid that if he left, Kamaluddin might say something inappropriate, so he held onto his mobile phone to make the calls.

Jiang Yuan stretched languidly and casually opened the next case file.

There were actually not many files to begin with, and he had already looked through this one as well. However, just because it had been initially filtered out during the early review did not mean this case was unsolvable.

For Jiang Yuan, solving cases in Malaysia was somewhat easier than dealing with the backlog of domestic cases.

Mainly because domestic technology had advanced very rapidly, with the integration of cybersecurity, image investigation, and technical investigation units, akin to how X-ray, CT, and MRI are used in hospitals. They are costly to deploy, but their effectiveness in significantly raising the lower bound cannot be denied.

By contrast, Malaysia’s investment in police work was not as extensive as in China, nor was the level of priority given to murder cases. Many of the cases handed to Jiang Yuan were still active...

Logically speaking, except for some experts’ regular duties, domestic active cases that would call for a Level 3 expert were either geographically special, involved a special person, or featured an unusual method of the killing.

It’s just that Jiang Yuan was not very familiar with the environment in Malaysia and many technological means could not be utilized. But these factors did not have a significant impact on him. After all, when he was called upon in China, the cybersecurity, image investigation, and technical investigation units had already been through at least two rounds of use.

"Can you do a large-scale search? Are you willing to?" Jiang Yuan looked at the new file and suddenly asked.

Zhong Renlong had just finished a phone call and was momentarily stunned before hesitantly responding, "How large of a search? I will have to report this to my superiors..."

"Then let’s not consider it for now." The large-scale search Jiang Yuan mentioned was on the scale of China. Not to mention the standard of Beijing, even a large-scale search organized by the Ningtai County Bureau would be composed of a high-quality team with hundreds of core members and over a thousand auxiliary staff. In China, for murder cases, this scale of search could always be initiated if necessary.

Now that Zhong Renlong was uncertain, Jiang Yuan did not press further. There were many cases, and it wasn’t necessary to exhaust the entire force of the Malaysia Police on one case. Not to mention, there wasn’t just one way to solve this case.

"Let’s do this, I’ll give you a few suggestions, and you can check them out in your investigation." At this moment, Jiang Yuan was examining another violent murder case, but unlike the port’s violent murder, the victim here was killed on a rooftop with a blunt object, with relatively little blood at the scene and few other traces.

As it was a death caused by a single blow, this case was a bit difficult for bloodstain analysis, but it was only a bit challenging.

Normally, a Level 2 technician could easily determine the type of weapon, the positions of the victim and the assailant, and their relative positions at the time of the incident, and so forth.

However, to confirm more details, even a Level 3 expert might not suffice. Even a Level 5 expert would require more information from the scene.

Jiang Yuan watched as Zhong Renlong pulled out a pen and said:

"First, it’s highly likely that the murderer and the victim knew each other. Their relationship may not necessarily have been good, but they were acquainted. This can be inferred from the scene on the rooftop and the footsteps left behind by the two."

"Second, the murderer was strong; the victim’s skull was severely indented."

"Third, regarding the murder weapon, it’s made of metal, with rust and linear indentations. It could be a metal rod or pipe picked up at the scene, with a thicker diameter, more likely a pipe."

Jiang Yuan paused here, looked at Zhong Renlong, and said, "It’s been almost 10 days since the murder occurred. If we delay further, it will turn into a cold case. I suggest organizing as much manpower as possible to find the weapon. Given its thickness is about the size of a fist and its length is over 50 centimeters, possibly up to seventy or eighty centimeters, it would be hard to hide. It’s highly possible that the murderer discarded it at the scene." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Zhong Renlong hesitated for a moment, then murmured, "We’ve considered that aspect and searched the building’s internal and external trash bins, but found nothing."

"Search again," Jiang Yuan said, a bit more sternly.

As a criminal detective, Jiang Yuan had been the core decision-maker of the special case team for most of his career, and often was the person in charge of the cases as well. For responses like the one Zhong Renlong gave, even as an outside force, he wouldn’t let go easily.

Zhong Renlong was startled and hurriedly bowed his head in agreement.

Kamaluddin shrank his neck at the side, feeling a chill breeze amidst the sweltering heat of Southeast Asia.

Jiang Yuan waited a moment, took a sip of water, then changed his tone, "The crime scene building is an old office building, isn’t it? There are no cameras inside, but there are surveillance cameras at the entrances and exits. The office building doesn’t have an underground parking lot, and the nearest spot where you could take a car or other transportation is several hundred meters away. It isn’t easy to carry a weapon for that distance without either being seen by witnesses or having to abandon the weapon somewhere."

Jiang Yuan looked at Zhong Renlong and continued, "To say we definitely need to find the weapon now might be a bit late, but at the very least, we should try our best to look for it. The weapon had rust, which suggests it was likely picked up from the ground, a pipe perhaps. The attacker struck with concentrated force; there could well be traces left..."

If this were in China, Jiang Yuan would certainly have pushed for a mass search for the weapon without delay. This approach would greatly increase the chances of confirming the weapon and the killer. More importantly, it would decrease the likelihood that the culprit could tamper with the weapon again and would also lower their chances of escape, thereby reducing the need for a manhunt.

In Malaysia, however, the difficulty of conducting such a search was too high, so they had to stop there.

Xu Taining wasn’t by his side either. If there was an oversight in the search that led to missing a strategic opportunity, it would be a great waste.

Thinking this, Jiang Yuan further instructed, "We need to check the entire office building, look through the nearby flowerbeds, stores, as much as possible..."

"This... This might require too many search warrants," Zhong Renlong said, startled, interrupting promptly.

Jiang Yuan waved his hand, "Let’s leave it at that for now. See what you can do, then we’ll analyze the situation more specifically."

With so few traces left at the crime scene and so much time passed, the likelihood of solving the case purely based on files was not high; this was the time when teamwork and support from other members were needed.

Only upon leaving China did one realize how much they missed the organization and trust back home.

When conducting searches in China, even without utilizing Xu Taining, an average criminal investigation team would still be able to assign one or two experienced persons to take charge. There was no doubt in the police team’s organization, with 7*24 hour searches being common practice. For example, when Jiang Yuan previously demanded a search through Garbage Mountain, Lei Xin and others, though reluctant, went ahead with it.

This level of dedication would be unimaginable in many countries. It wasn’t about the amount of money offered; from top to bottom, from public institutions to private companies, it would be impossible to find a team with such a level of organization and obedience.

In some legendary locales, if police clocked out on time, then what was the point of searching? It would be equivalent to just going through the motions during the day and letting the tiger return to the mountain at night.

Zhong Renlong squatted down in the corner and continued to make frantic calls.

Jiang Yuan finished the tea in the teapot and stood up decisively, "Let’s take a walk."

The group, having had their fill of durian, nodded in agreement and began to stroll grandly through the streets.

From the head of the street to the tail, a hurried Chinese police officer came.

Kamaluddin immediately showed a smile, pulling him along to find Jiang Yuan.

As they made their way to Jiang Yuan, Zhong Renlong cut in front of them with even greater speed.

"God, the port murder case has been solved. The killer has been caught!" Zhong Renlong said in Malay confidently, planting his feet firmly.

Kamaluddin frowned upon hearing this and halted his attempt to jockey for position.