Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

"Let's open the chest cavity first and take a look at the internal organs." Zhang Kai said to his assistant. As the scalpel moved, the skin and muscles were separated layer by layer, and the chest cavity was gradually exposed.

Zhang Kai carefully observed the organs in the chest cavity and found that the lungs were obviously edematous and gray in color. "Severe edema in the lungs means that the deceased may have been breathing when he entered the water and inhaled a lot of water. But this is not necessarily the direct cause of death. Further examination of other organs is needed." He gently picked up the lung tissue with tweezers to observe and take samples for subsequent pathological analysis.

Then, Zhang Kai began to examine the heart. He carefully separated the tissues around the heart and took the heart out intact. "There are some blood spots on the surface of the heart, and the myocardium is soft, which may indicate that the deceased had some problems with his heart function before death, or that the heart was affected in some way during the death process." He placed the heart on a tray beside him, ready for a more detailed examination.

When examining the abdomen, Zhang Kai found that there was almost no food residue in the deceased's stomach. "The stomach was empty, and there was no obvious food residue in the duodenum, which indicates that the deceased had not eaten for a long time before death. Preliminary speculation is that it may be more than 6-8 hours." As he said this, he carefully took out the stomach and duodenum for further examination.

Zhang Kai continued to examine the deceased's liver and found that it was enlarged and had some scattered bleeding spots on the surface. "These changes in the liver may be related to the cause of death, or they may be caused by some changes in the postmortem decay process, which requires further analysis." He took samples from multiple parts of the liver in order to observe the pathological changes of liver tissue from different angles.

When examining the skeletal system, Zhang Kai focused on the skull, ribs and limb bones. He used professional tools to carefully separate the tissues around the skull and carefully observed the integrity of the skull. "There was no obvious fracture in the skull, but a slight bone crack was found in the temporal region. This bone crack may have been caused by external force, but due to the decay of the body, it is impossible to accurately determine when it was formed and whether it was a fatal injury." He recorded the fracture in detail and performed an X-ray scan on the skull to observe the fracture more clearly.

When checking the ribs, Zhang Kai found that the 4th and 5th ribs on the left side had signs of old fractures. "The fractures of these two ribs have healed, but the shape and healing of the fracture lines can be seen, indicating that the fractures occurred some time ago, about 3-6 months ago, which may be related to the life experience or work environment of the deceased." He took photos and recorded the rib fractures to provide a basis for subsequent investigations.

When examining the limb bones, Zhang Kai found some signs of wear on the right wrist bone of the deceased, which may indicate that the deceased had been engaged in work that required frequent use of the right wrist. "These wear marks are quite special, and may be caused by holding a certain tool for a long time. We can infer the deceased's occupation based on this." He informed his assistant of these findings one by one, and the assistant carefully recorded them.

Next, Zhang Kai began to determine the age of the deceased. He carefully observed the deceased's teeth and found that they were severely worn, and some teeth were decayed and missing. "From the degree of tooth wear and the condition of periodontal tissue, the deceased's age is probably between 35 and 45 years old. But this is only a preliminary judgment. We can further determine the age by examining the morphology of the pubic symphysis surface." As he spoke, he carefully separated the tissues around the pubic symphysis to expose the pubic symphysis surface.

Zhang Kai carefully observed the characteristics of the pubic symphysis and found that its surface had a certain degree of wear and bone hyperplasia. "Based on the morphological characteristics of the pubic symphysis and the condition of the teeth, we further determined that the deceased was about 40 years old, with an error range of ±3 years." He is confident in his judgment, and these professional judgment bases provide important clues for determining the identity of the deceased.

During the autopsy, Zhang Kai also collected and tested the body's blood, urine and other body fluids. He put the collected blood samples into a centrifuge to separate the serum and blood cells, and then tested the serum for a number of biochemical indicators. "The alcohol content in the blood is zero, which rules out the possibility that the deceased died of alcohol poisoning. However, the content of certain enzymes in the blood is abnormal, which may be related to the deceased's health status or cause of death before his death, and further analysis is needed." He recorded the test results in detail and kept the blood samples for further testing later.

After several hours of careful autopsy and examination, Zhang Kai initially determined the cause of death. "Combining the results of various examinations, the direct cause of death was a blunt force blow to the head that caused craniocerebral injury. Judging from the fracture of the skull and the degree of damage to the brain tissue, the force of the blow was large, which directly destroyed the normal structure and function of the brain tissue, leading to death." He told his assistant in a firm and confident tone.

To determine the time of death, Zhang Kai conducted a comprehensive analysis based on the degree of decay of the corpse, the digestion of the stomach contents, the pathological changes of the organs, and the environmental factors at the scene. "Based on the degree of decay of the corpse, combined with environmental factors such as the water temperature and water quality of the Beishan Reservoir, and the emptiness of the stomach, it is preliminarily determined that the time of death of the deceased is about 3-4 weeks. But this is only a rough range. We can also further accurately determine the time of death by measuring and analyzing the temperature of the liver of the corpse." He used a professional temperature measuring instrument to measure the temperature of the liver of the corpse and calculated it according to the relevant formula.

"After calculations and combining other factors, we finally determined that the deceased's time of death was about three weeks, with an error range of ±3 days." Zhang Kai kept a detailed record of the process of determining the time of death. These data and analysis results are of great significance to the investigation of the case.

After the autopsy, Zhang Kai took off his mask and gloves tiredly but relieved.

The entire autopsy process lasted six or seven hours. The body was severely decomposed, so making some judgments, to be honest, was a big challenge for Zhang Kai.

Although Zhang Kai, a forensic doctor of the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Detachment, has not been here for a long time, he has a lot of experience. However, he has definitely come into contact with more corpses than in the Criminal Investigation Detachment. In fact, when Zhang Kai worked in the Criminal Police Brigade, he came into contact with fewer rotten corpses. Over the years, he had only performed two autopsies. However, when he came to the Criminal Investigation Detachment, he had come across two cases in a short period of time. (End of this chapter)