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

"Grid-like skin graft marks can be seen on the surface of the scar, and the collagen fibers in the dermis are disordered, which is consistent with the characteristics of autologous skin transplantation after deep burns." By measuring the maturity of the scar and combining it with the regeneration of skin appendages, it was determined that the injury occurred at least 5 years ago.

After all routine checks were completed, Zhang Kai started the toxicology testing procedure. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometer screened the heart blood, urine, and stomach contents, and the results showed no common toxic drug components; the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer detected trace elements and found no signs of heavy metal poisoning. The lights in the autopsy room were still bright at three o'clock in the morning. Zhang Kai looked at the 23 specimen bottles filling the laboratory table, and the records in his notebook were already densely packed: all the test results pointed to one fact - although a lot of physiological information was obtained, there was still a lot of mystery before the identity of the deceased and the truth of the murder were revealed.

Early the next morning, Lu Chuan gathered relevant personnel and held the first case analysis meeting.

The meeting room of the Criminal Investigation Brigade was filled with smoke. Lu Chuan stood in front of the whiteboard and wrote "Qinggang Village Cornfield Murder Case" in red pen. The handwriting glowed glaringly red under the light. The electronic clock on the wall showed 3:17 in the morning. The faces of the participants were exhausted, but their eyes were focused.

"Let's get started." Lu Chuan turned around and glanced at everyone in the conference room. "Yang Lin, you report the on-site investigation first."

Yang Lin stood up and pointed the laser pointer at the projector screen. A panoramic photo of the cornfield scene instantly covered the entire wall. In the picture, the fallen corn stalks and the dark red blood formed a glaring contrast. "The scene was located in the middle of a 12-acre cornfield in the north of Qinggang Village. The body was curled up and lying on its side. The initial judgment was that the body was moved after the murder." He clicked the mouse and enlarged the close-up photo of the drag mark. "We found a drag mark about meters long at the scene. There were obvious signs of fighting at the starting point. Broken corn stalks and splashed soil were scattered in a mess."

"What's so special about the drag marks?" Wang Shuai asked without raising his head as he quickly wrote them down in his notebook.

"The drag mark has three 90-degree turns and an obvious pause in the middle." Yang Lin called up the 30D modeling screen, and the virtual crime scene rotated on the screen. "After measurement, the width of the drag mark is about 43 centimeters. We extracted light blue nylon fibers, asphalt particles and half a size shoe print from the trace. This kind of diamond grid sole pattern is rarely circulated in the local market, and we are currently comparing sales records."

He switched to another set of photos, showing bloodstains on corn stalks: "The blood splatter pattern shows that the main splatter area is on the right rear side of the body, with an angle of 75 degrees, which is consistent with the trajectory of the murderer holding the weapon high and chopping down. But on some stalks, we found bloodstains that spread in a mist, indicating that the weapon brought up soft tissue when it was swung, and it is speculated that the murder weapon may be a rusty sickle or axe."

"Have any biological samples been extracted?" Lu Chuan frowned.

"Light blue nylon fibers and a small amount of skin tissue were extracted from the nails of the deceased and have been sent to the laboratory for DNA testing." Yang Lin continued, "In addition, three hairs of different lengths were found at the scene, with intact hair roots; dried saliva residue was extracted from the clavicle of the corpse; and five cigarette butts were found on the edge of the field, two of which tested positive for DNA different from that of the deceased."

"Thank you for your hard work." Lu Chuan nodded and turned to Zhang Kai. "What's the situation with the forensic doctor?" Zhang Kai flipped open the thick report and cleared his throat. "The deceased is a male, aged 39±1 years old, and about 175cm tall. The preliminary estimate of death was 72 to 84 hours ago. The cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation combined with heart rupture." He showed the autopsy photos, and the screen showed the indentation on the deceased's neck and the damage in the chest cavity. "The deceased had flake bleeding on the epiglottis cartilage and obvious indentation around the glottis fissure, which are typical characteristics of death by strangulation. At the same time, there were scattered punctate hemorrhages on the surface of the heart, and the root of the aorta was torn horizontally. This type of injury is usually caused by severe concussion, which may be the impact effect caused by a head impact."

"Are there any other injuries on the deceased's body?" Yang Sen asked.

"The third and fourth ribs on the right side were freshly fractured, and the fracture line was oblique and jagged, which is consistent with the characteristics of 6-8kg blunt force." Zhang Kai pulled out the X-ray film. "In addition, the deceased had a 12×8cm old burn scar on the left waist, which was left by autologous skin transplantation after deep burns. It has been at least five years."

"Where are the stomach contents?" Lu Chuan asked.

"There was only a small amount of pasta paste left in the stomach, which was about 80% emptied. Combined with the degree of chyme advancement in the small intestine, the last meal should have been 6-8 hours before death. However, in the toxicology test, no common toxic drug components and signs of heavy metal poisoning were found." Zhang Kai closed the report, "The deceased's muscle content was much lower than that of a normal man, and there were symptoms of iron deficiency anemia. The liver had mild cirrhosis pathological changes. Further biopsy is needed to confirm the cause."

The conference room fell into a brief silence, with only the rustling of notebooks. Wang Shuai was the first to break the silence: "From the scene and the autopsy, this is a case of an acquaintance. The murderer is familiar with the cornfield environment and knows when to dump the body so that it is not easy to be discovered. Moreover, after the deceased lost the ability to resist, he also injured him multiple times. There is a high possibility of revenge."

"But we can't rule out the possibility of stealing money," Yang Sen countered. "The deceased had no property or identification on him. There was only half a pack of damp cigarettes and a lighter in his pocket. This doesn't conform to the normal logic of an acquaintance committing a crime. If it was a revenge killing, the murderer wouldn't have to take away the property and destroy the identity information."

Lu Chuan raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and wrote the two key words "vendetta" and "financial murder" on the whiteboard, connecting them with known clues with arrows: "It's too early to draw conclusions now. The most urgent task is to determine the identity of the deceased, which is the key to solving the case." He pointed to the two key points of "old burn scars" and "liver cirrhosis", "Focus on checking men who have been treated for large-area burns in the past five years, and compare the medical records of the hospital's liver disease department. In addition, the special shoe prints, fibers and cigarette butt DNA extracted from the scene should be compared with a wider range of databases of criminals in surrounding counties and cities."

He glanced at everyone: "Wang Shuai led the team to visit Qinggang Village and surrounding towns, focusing on asking if there are any unfamiliar faces recently; Yang Lin continued to analyze the physical evidence at the scene, especially the source of the fibers and asphalt particles; Zhang Kai followed up on the pathological biopsy of the deceased and tried to find more characteristic information. Remember, any detail may become a breakthrough, take action immediately after dawn!"

After the meeting, Lu Chuan stayed alone in the conference room. He looked at the dense clues on the whiteboard and fell into deep thought. (End of this chapter)