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

However, as the investigation deepened, Wang Shuai discovered that these clues were unrelated to the murder case. Li Erzhu committed most of his crimes during the day, while the forensic doctor speculated that the victim was murdered late at night; among the physical evidence collected at the scene, there were no traces related to Li Erzhu; his mobile phone location records showed that he was playing mahjong in another urban village at the time of the incident, and the surveillance footage and the testimonies of his mahjong partners formed a complete alibi.

“Continue to expand the scope of the investigation.” Wang Shuai rubbed his throbbing temples and re-examined the clues. He led his team to visit all the workers in the demolition area. During a casual chat in the break room, a worker inadvertently mentioned, “Erzhu has been saying lately that he’s going to get rich, and that he has some dirt on certain people.” This sentence shocked Wang Shuai, and he immediately re-interrogated the scrap metal recycling station owner.

Under intense psychological pressure, the boss finally confessed some details: "Li Erzhu once said that he had some evidence of embezzlement. The construction waste that should have been cleared away actually contained valuable metal scraps. Someone deliberately left it uncollected so that he could steal it and sell it." Wang Shuai immediately retrieved the material clearing records from the demolition department and found that 17 truckloads of construction waste had gone missing in the past three months. The person responsible for signing off on the records was a close confidant of the demolition manager.

Although this clue unexpectedly led to cases in other areas, Wang Shuai understood that it was still completely unrelated to the murder case at hand. He stood in front of the whiteboard, listed Li Erzhu's theft clues separately, and heavily crossed them out with a red pen. Dusk was deepening outside the window, but the new direction of the investigation remained shrouded in mystery, and the body buried in the soil seemed to be waiting for the real truth to surface.

While Wang Shuai was investigating Li Erzhu's situation, the body had already been sent back to the Criminal Investigation Detachment's autopsy room.

The automatic door to the autopsy room slid open silently under the action of the hydraulic system. Zhang Kai adjusted the angle of the operating light, and the cold white light poured onto the autopsy table like a waterfall. The deceased's face was deformed from being crushed by the soil, and his gray lips were slightly parted, as if a final, silent scream was still frozen in time. He put on double-layered latex gloves. The scalpels and bone saws in the metal instrument tray gleamed coldly under the light, and the smell of disinfectant mingled with the stench of the corpse amidst the hum of the ventilation fan.

"The deceased is male, preliminarily estimated to be 55-60 years old, 172cm tall." Zhang Kai began recording into the voice recorder, his fingertips lightly touching the stiff knuckles of the corpse. "The lividity is dark purplish-red, located on the lower back where there is no pressure, and it does not fade when pressed; the cornea is highly cloudy, and the pupils are no longer visible; rigor mortis has spread to all major joints, with the jaw joint being particularly stiff." He opened the deceased's eyelids and shone a flashlight on them; the pupils had already diffused into a hazy gray. "Based on the post-mortem findings, the time of death is more than 72 hours, but the exact duration needs to be calculated by combining temperature and humidity data."

An assistant handed over a rectal thermometer, which read 22°C. Zhang Kai frowned as he checked the autopsy room's temperature control system: "The room temperature is 25°C. The thermal conductivity of the soil will affect the rate at which the body cools down." He flipped through his notebook, referring to the formula. "Estimating a decrease of 0.4-0.7°C per hour, and considering the burial environment, the time of death can be revised to 72-96 hours ago." Suddenly, he noticed the soil under the deceased's fingernails. "Take a sample from the fingernails and compare it with the composition of the soil at the scene to check for any differences."

As the scalpel sliced ​​through the skin of the corpse's chest and abdomen, the blade made a hissing sound as it rubbed against the subcutaneous fat. Zhang Kai precisely separated the muscles along the ribs, exposing the thoracic organs. "No pleural effusion on either side, no rib fractures." He severed the trachea, removed a lung lobe, and placed it on the measuring table. "Petechial hemorrhages are visible on the lung surface, resembling marble patterns, weighing 1300g, indicating mechanical asphyxiation." The moment the dissecting scissors cut through the pericardium, coagulated blood mixed with fibrin spilled out. "There are petechiae on the surface of the heart, and the blood in the heart chambers is dark red and fluid, consistent with death by asphyxiation."

Zhang Kai was extremely cautious when examining the neck. There were obvious strangulation marks on the deceased's neck; the skin was dark brown, but the epidermis had already peeled off due to decomposition. "The strangulation mark was about 8cm wide, consistent with the size of an adult male's palm, and showed signs of life," he said. He used a probe to examine the mark, noting "deep muscle bleeding and a fracture of the left thyroid cartilage, suggesting death by strangulation with one hand." Suddenly, he discovered a small wound on the deceased's right lower jaw. "This cut is L-shaped, with irregular edges, and about 0.3cm deep; the murder weapon was likely an irregular, sharp object."

The stomach dissection provided crucial clues. Zhang Kai cut open the stomach wall, and dark brown chyme mixed with undigested vegetable leaves poured out: "The amount of food residue in the stomach was about 150g, mainly green vegetables and rice. The food was intact, suggesting that the person was killed 1-2 hours after eating." He divided the sample and sent it for testing, "to test for trace elements and drug components in the stomach contents to rule out the possibility of poisoning." However, when examining the intestines, no abnormalities were found, ruling out the possibility of death by poisoning.

The screeching sound of the chainsaw cutting through the skull echoed through the autopsy room as they processed the head. Zhang Kai removed the skullcap, exposing the brain tissue: "No subarachnoid hemorrhage, no contusions found in the brain parenchyma, but..." He suddenly magnified the microscope image, "There are minute axonal injuries in the frontal cortex, indicating that the head had suffered a violent shock, possibly from a fall or a blunt object blow, but not a fatal injury." He carefully examined the scalp and found a circular dent behind the left ear. "This contusion is about 3 cm in diameter, with obvious subcutaneous bleeding. It should be a ante-mortem injury, and the weapon was likely a round blunt object."

During the examination of the deceased's reproductive system, Zhang Kai discovered an anomaly: a small amount of semen was found in the crotch area of ​​the deceased's underwear, but there was no erection. "We need to extract the semen for DNA typing. Although the high degree of decomposition may affect the test results, we must try." He turned to his assistant, "Contact the technical department and compare the results with the missing persons database, especially for elderly men who have recently been reported missing."

The final skeletal examination revealed more secrets. Zhang Kai used a bone saw to cut open the right femur and observe the medullary cavity: "The ratio of red bone marrow is normal, and the bone density is consistent with the characteristics of a man around 60 years old." Suddenly, he found a trace of healing from an old fracture in the left ulna. "This fracture occurred at least five years ago, and the X-ray showed poor reduction, which may affect the fine motor skills of the left hand."

The autopsy lasted six hours. Zhang Kai removed his blood-stained protective mask and summarized into the recording pen: "The deceased died of mechanical asphyxiation, with strangulation of the neck as the primary cause of death, and head contusions and lacerations to the right lower jaw as secondary injuries. The time of death was 72-96 hours ago, and the stomach contents indicated that the last meal was vegetables and rice. Currently, no biological evidence has been found to directly identify the perpetrator; we need to await the results of DNA testing and physical evidence analysis." (End of Chapter)