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

“The strangest thing is this solder,” Yang Sen said, rubbing his frozen fingers. “Hongwei Building Materials does sell solder, but the specifications are 500 grams per roll, while the scraps we found only weighed 37 grams in total, as if they were deliberately left there.”

Yang Lin watched the sun gradually sink, casting long shadows across the farm. The feeding troughs in the third pigpen gleamed coldly in the twilight. "These clues don't hold water on their own," he said, putting the multi-band light source into his toolbox, "but together they point to two possibilities: either it was a crime committed by an acquaintance who buys pigs, or someone deliberately faked the traces of the pig-buying truck." The cold wind whipped his investigation clothes again. In the distance, a white truck was slowly approaching on the highway; the last three digits of its license plate were 789.

Lu Chuan's car was parked at the entrance of the farm. He was flipping through the preliminary investigation report, his finger repeatedly tracing the numbers "238 kg" and "50 kg". "Have the technical team do DNA comparisons overnight," he said into the walkie-talkie. "Focus on checking the employee list of Hongwei Building Materials, especially those who are left-handed, have an old injury on their left leg, or smoke mint-flavored Hongtashan cigarettes." Outside the car window, Yang Lin and Yang Sen were loading the last box of samples onto the truck. The sound of tires rolling over the frozen ground was mixed with the horn of a pig-collecting truck in the distance.

While Yang Lin and Yang Sen were conducting a wider examination of the scene, the body was transported back to the Criminal Investigation Division that afternoon. Zhang Kai then began the autopsy.

The stainless steel workbench in the autopsy room gleamed coldly under the operating lights. When the body was brought up, its skin was still covered with bits of pig manure that hadn't been cleaned off. Zhang Kai wore double-layered latex gloves, and when his fingertips pressed against the corpse's skin, the gloves immediately wrinkled. "The deceased was male, 178 centimeters tall, and weighed approximately 70 kilograms," his voice, metallic in tone, came through his mask. "His skin was pale white, and rigor mortis was present in the jaw, neck, and upper limb muscles, at level two, consistent with the characteristics of 6-12 hours after death."

Assistant Kobayashi inserted a thermometer into the corpse's rectum, and the reading stabilized at around 22°C. "Ambient temperature 10°C, rectal temperature 22°C," she wrote on the record board. "Based on Henssge's post-mortem temperature formula, the preliminary time of death is estimated to be between 10 PM last night and 2 AM this morning, which coincides with the time the cigarette butt burned at the scene." She used tweezers to lift the deceased's eyelids, and found pinpoint hemorrhages on the conjunctival surface. "Dense subconjunctival hemorrhages, mild corneal opacity, pupils equal in size and round, 5mm in diameter."

Zhang Kai's scalpel made a standard "Y"-shaped incision in the cadaver's chest. The subcutaneous fat was 1.5 cm thick and pale yellow. "No bleeding was observed in the subcutaneous tissue, and the muscle tissue was dark red," he said. He used hemostatic forceps to separate the sternocleidomastoid muscle. "There was deep bleeding in the neck muscles, covering an area of ​​3×4 cm. The greater horn of the left hyoid bone was fractured, and there was significant subperiosteal hemorrhage, consistent with the characteristics of mechanical asphyxiation caused by strangulation."

“Teacher Zhang, look here,” Xiaolin pointed to the mouth and nose of the corpse. “There is a small amount of pig feed residue in the nasal cavity, which is in a semi-digested state. There are bruises on the oral mucosa and feed particles left on the chewing surfaces of the teeth.” She collected samples with a pipette. “We need to do diatom testing to confirm whether these residues were inhaled before death or after death.”

When the sternum was cut open with the power saw, the bone marrow was dark red, indicating active hematopoiesis. "The lungs were not significantly swollen, and the edges were sharp," Zhang Kai reported after weighing them. "The left lung weighed 580g, and the right lung weighed 620g, both within the normal range." He cut open the lung tissue; the cut surface was dry, with no foamy fluid oozing out. "No drowning fluid was found in the alveolar cavities, ruling out drowning as the cause of death, which contradicts the scene."

Xiaolin was examining the digestive tract of the carcass. The stomach contents were about 300ml, containing undigested corn kernels and wheat bran, consistent with the composition of pig feed at the farm. "There are diffuse hemorrhages in the gastric mucosa," she said, carefully dissecting it with a scalpel. "There is a small amount of chyme in the duodenum. The degree of digestion of the food residue indicates that death occurred about 3-4 hours after ingestion, which matches the estimated time of death." She took a sample and placed it under a microscope. "A small amount of pig hair fibers, about 3cm in length, with hair follicles, were found, suggesting that they may have been inhaled or swallowed before death."

Zhang Kai's attention was focused on the victim's neck, where there was extensive bleeding in the deep muscle tissue, particularly in the sternocleidomastoid and suprahyoid muscles. "The strangulation mark was crescent-shaped, about 2 cm wide," he measured with a ruler. "The edges showed epidermal abrasion and subcutaneous bleeding, consistent with pressure applied by the thumb and forefinger, with greater force on the left side than the right, suggesting the perpetrator may have been right-handed." He probed the trachea with a probe. "The tracheal mucosa was smooth, with no foreign object obstruction, but there were submucosal hemorrhages, consistent with respiratory changes in cases of asphyxiation."

“There were small fragments of skin tissue under the deceased’s fingernails,” Xiaolin suddenly exclaimed as she used a sterile cotton swab to collect a sample. “There were also traces of rust, which may have come from the fence or steel pipes at the scene.” The fingernails were neatly trimmed, but there were obvious signs of resistance at the fingertips. “The right thumb and index finger had epidermal abrasion and subcutaneous bleeding, consistent with injuries caused by gripping or resistance.”

Zhang Kai cut open the deceased's heart and found a small number of petechial hemorrhages under the epicardium. "The heart weighed 350g, and the left ventricular wall was 1.2cm thick," he said. He examined the coronary arteries and found no obvious atherosclerosis; the lumen was patent, ruling out sudden death caused by heart disease. The cardiac blood was dark red and did not clot. "Non-clotting cardiac blood is a typical characteristic of asphyxiation; a sample needs to be taken for blood gas analysis to test blood oxygen saturation."

Further examination of the body revealed multiple abrasions on the back, appearing as strips ranging from 5 to 8 centimeters in length. "The edges of the abrasions were irregular, with bleeding in the dermis," Zhang Kai observed with a magnifying glass. "The body showed obvious signs of life, consistent with the characteristics of injuries sustained before death. The abrasions extended from the back to the waist, possibly caused by friction with the ground during dragging, which matches the drag marks found at the scene."

When examining the deceased's limbs, Kobayashi found a 2×3cm subcutaneous hematoma on the left knee. "There is a contusion in the center of the hematoma," she measured the extent, "consistent with blunt force trauma, possibly related to the steel pipe at the scene." She pressed on the surrounding tissue, "No deep muscle rupture was found, and it does not affect movement, so it may have formed during a struggle or attack."

When the autopsy reached the abdomen, Zhang Kai found that the deceased's liver had mild congestion and the spleen was slightly enlarged. "There were a few hemorrhages under the liver capsule," he said as he cut open the liver. "The cut surface was dark red, and the lobular structure was clear, consistent with the changes in visceral congestion caused by asphyxiation." The kidney cortex was pale, and the medulla was congested. "There were a few red blood cells infiltrating the glomeruli, indicating that there was hypoxia before death."

"The cause of death can be basically determined to be mechanical asphyxiation," Zhang Kai said, using a probe to lift the deep sternocleidomastoid muscle in the neck. The dark red hemorrhages between the muscle fibers were particularly clear under the operating light. (End of Chapter)