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

Yang Sen squatted in the reeds and carefully observed the ground with a magnifying glass: "There is a set of size 42 sneaker prints here, but judging from the wetness of the soil, they should have been left by someone who went fishing this morning." As he spoke, he measured the spacing and depth of the footprints with a ruler and recorded the data in detail in the survey book.

Yang Lin took the metal detector and moved slowly along the river bank. When the detector beeped intermittently, he immediately squatted down and carefully dug up the surface soil. "I found it!" he shouted excitedly. Yang Sen came over and saw a metal bottle cork buried in the soil, with green copper rust on the surface. "It looks like a red wine bottle cork, but it has been in the water for so long that I guess I can't extract any useful fingerprints." Yang Lin put the bottle cork into the evidence bag with some disappointment.

The two continued to expand the scope of the investigation. Twenty meters away from the place where the body was dumped, Yang Sen found several broken branches with some fibers remaining at the broken ends. "These branches were broken not long ago, and judging from the texture of the fibers, they look like they were from clothes." He carefully collected the fibers, "Maybe they were left by the murderer when he dumped the body." However, when they compared these fibers with the samples in the database, they did not find any matching results.

At the same time, in the forensic autopsy room, the shadowless lamp illuminated the operating table. Forensic doctor Zhang Kai, wearing a white autopsy suit, a protective mask and gloves, stood beside Li Xiaomin's body with a focused expression. He picked up the scalpel and made the first incision on the chest of the corpse. The moment the blade cut into the skin, a strong stench of decay hit him. The assistant wrinkled his nose, but Zhang Kai seemed to have been used to it and continued the operation without changing his expression.

"There are no obvious external injuries on the body of the deceased. Apart from the swelling and discoloration of the skin caused by immersion, there are no other signs of violence." As Zhang Kai spoke, he lifted the deceased's eyelids with tweezers and carefully observed the eyeballs.

The autopsy room was filled with the pungent smell of formalin and decay, and the shadowless lamp cast a pale cold light on Li Xiaomin's swollen and deformed face. Zhang Kai wore a medical magnifying glass, the tip of the tweezers was almost touching the eyeball, and his Adam's apple rolled up and down with the swallowing movement - the cornea in front of his eyes was cloudy, and had completely lost the clear luster unique to living people.

"Get the slit lamp." He extended his hand to his assistant. Amid the sound of metal instruments colliding, a light blue beam of light accurately swept across the surface of the eyeball. The cornea, which was grayish white under ordinary light, now showed spider-web-like fine cracks under the slit lamp, like the cracks on a dry lake bed. "Look at these radial cracks," Zhang Kai circled on the anatomical recording plate with a laser pen. "When corneal epithelial cells die and lose water, such typical patterns will be formed. According to the density and direction of the cracks," he called up the reference map in the database for comparison, "It is consistent with the characteristics of being immersed in 15℃ water for about 15 days."

The moment the assistant handed over the rectal thermometer, Zhang Kai noticed that the little finger of the corpse's right hand was abnormally stiff. "The secondary stiffness formed after the rigor mortis was completely relieved," he spread his fingers and carefully observed the dark red indentations at the joints, "which means that the body was fixed in a curled-up position within 10 to 15 days after death." When the metal probe was inserted into the rectum, the solidified corpse wax tissue wrapped in black and green decay slowly overflowed. "The current rectal temperature is 18℃, combined with the environmental water temperature record, the time after death can be reversely calculated." He tapped quickly on the calculator, "Taking into account the factors of refrigeration or insulation in the early stage, the error range can be reduced to ±12 hours."

When the scalpel cut open the rib cartilage, the dark red color of the jagged cross section caught Zhang Kai's attention. "The blood-stained phenomenon of the rib cartilage," he picked up the tissue sample with tweezers and placed it on a slide, magnifying it 100 times under a microscope, "The degree of hemoglobin penetration into the cartilage matrix is ​​15% consistent with the samples in the database 97.3 days after death." "More importantly, the corrupted venous network on the surface of the liver, those purple-black lines that meander like tree roots, glow with a strange luster under the dissecting lamp, "This network of vascular congestion is only formed when the corrupt gas compresses the veins, usually about two weeks after death."

When the stomach was cut open, the semi-liquefied stomach contents gave off a sour smell. Zhang Kai scooped up the gray-white mucus with a spoon and dripped the reagent into the culture dish. The mixed liquid instantly turned blue-purple. "The activity of pepsin completely disappeared," he compared the enzyme activity decay curve. "Combined with the degree of autolysis of gastric mucosal epithelial cells, the time of death will not be earlier than 14 days, nor later than 16 days. "The undigested kelp fiber in the intestine showed a unique alginate crystal form under an electron microscope. "The degradation rate of this seaweed polysaccharide takes 15 days to reach the current state in a 15°C water environment."

After this series of observations, Zhang Kai finally concluded that Li Xiaomin died on the 15th day, which was exactly the time period when Li Xiaomin disappeared. In other words, Li Xiaomin had been killed when she disappeared.

The autopsy continues.

He used scissors to cut open the deceased's mouth and checked the inside. "The oral mucosa was intact, with no damage or bleeding, which ruled out the possibility of suffocation or poisoning."

Then, Zhang Kai began to examine the neck of the deceased. He gently pressed with his hand and found a circle of faint strangulation marks on the neck. Although it was a little blurred due to soaking, the direction of the marks could still be seen. "This is a horizontal strangulation mark, about 1.5 cm wide, with uneven edges. It should be caused by a weapon such as a rope." He picked up a magnifying glass and carefully observed the details of the strangulation mark. "The skin at the strangulation mark has slight subcutaneous bleeding, indicating that the deceased died of mechanical asphyxiation caused by strangulation."

To further confirm the cause of death, Zhang Kai began to dissect the deceased's trachea and lungs. He carefully cut open the trachea and found a small amount of bloody foam in the trachea, which is a typical feature of death by suffocation. "There is obvious congestion and edema in the lungs, which is also caused by suffocation." He took out the lung tissue and placed it on a tray for slice observation.

At the end of the autopsy, Zhang Kai began to examine the deceased's lower body system. After a careful examination, he determined that the deceased had not been violated before his death. "No semen stains or other foreign objects were found in the body, and there were no signs of trauma or tearing." He took off his gloves and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It can be confirmed that the cause of death of the deceased was mechanical asphyxiation caused by strangulation, and he had not been violated before his death."

However, when Zhang Kai examined the deceased's intestines, he found a strange phenomenon. The food residue in the intestines showed that the deceased's last meal before death was seafood and rice, but according to the degree of digestion of food, these foods had been in the body for no more than 3 days. (End of this chapter)