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

When Wang Shuai presented Li Baohua with his business trip certificate, hotel surveillance footage, and meeting recordings, the tense man finally breathed a sigh of relief. “I admit that false registration was wrong,” he said apologetically, “but I really didn’t kill anyone. I just wanted to remarry him but was afraid of being rejected, so I used a fake name. The suitcase contained my change of clothes for the business trip, and I hid it in the garage so my ex-wife wouldn’t see it and misunderstand that I was trying to stay.” His motorcycle was indeed an older model, red, but it was parked in the hotel parking lot on September 10th, as evidenced by the parking record.

By the time Li Baohua was cleared of suspicion, it was already getting dark. Wang Shuai stood at the entrance of the residential compound, looking at the silver suitcase at the lost and found, and suddenly felt that his previous reasoning was a joke. Although he was cleared of suspicion, the investigation was not in vain—at least it was clear that the suspect was not an outsider, but most likely an insider familiar with the compound, or someone who could accurately exploit blind spots in the surveillance cameras.

Back at the Criminal Investigation Division, Wang Shuai filed Li Baohua's file and wrote down new directions for the investigation in his notebook: "Focus on investigating people inside the community, especially men who wear blue polyester overalls, size 44 shoes, smoke Yuxi cigarettes, are familiar with blind spots in surveillance cameras, and have recently exhibited unusual outings or behaviors." Moonlight streamed through the blinds, casting a faint shadow on the words "cleared of suspicion," reminding every investigator that the truth often lies hidden behind seemingly irrefutable clues.

The stainless steel table in the Criminal Investigation Detachment's autopsy room gleamed coldly under the operating lights. When the body was transported from the water tank in Anju Community, fine water droplets still condensed on the surface of the embalming bag. Zhang Kai, wearing double-layered latex gloves, frowned as soon as his fingertips touched the bag: "The body surface temperature is 18℃, the ambient temperature is 24℃, and the water temperature is affecting the abnormal cooling rate of the body." His assistant, Xiao Lin, had already adjusted the incubator; the low temperature of 4℃ could delay tissue autolysis. The moment she cut open the embalming bag, a smell mixed with rust, disinfectant, and decay filled the air.

The body was floating face down in the water tank. It was male, about 175cm tall, wearing blue polyester overalls and black trousers. The water stains on his clothes were half-dry, leaving varying shades of lines on his skin. "Rigoletto is distributed in the jaw, neck, shoulders, elbows, and hips, with a joint range of motion of 10-20 degrees, which is in the development stage," Zhang Kai said, pressing the sternocleidomastoid muscle of the body with his fingertips. "The stiffness is moderate, suggesting that the time of death is between 18 and 36 hours, but the low water temperature may have delayed the formation of rigor mortis, so it needs to be combined with other indicators for a comprehensive judgment." When he turned the body over, the skin on the neck formed obvious wrinkles, and there was a 3×4cm subcutaneous hemorrhage on the right side of the neck with irregular star-shaped edges.

"The livor mortis is located on the back and the back of the limbs, and the color doesn't completely fade when pressed," Xiao Lin noted, the sound of his pen scratching across the paper particularly clear. "It's a dark purplish-red color, consistent with death by asphyxiation?" Zhang Kai shook his head, his scalpel making a precise arc-shaped incision on the left chest of the corpse. The subcutaneous fat layer appeared a fresh, pale pink: "The dark color of the livor mortis is due to the oxygen-deficient environment in the water, so it can't be directly determined as asphyxiation. Notice the abdominal skin; there's a slight green change, spreading from the lower right abdomen. This is a typical sign of the diffusion of putrefactive gases from the intestines, but it's mild and related to the low temperature inhibiting putrefaction."

Measuring rectal temperature is a crucial step in determining the time of death. Zhang Kai inserted the probe of the electronic thermometer 15cm into the rectum. The numbers on the display slowly fluctuated, eventually stabilizing at 19.2℃. "Based on the ambient temperature of 16℃ in the water tank, the temperature difference is 3.2℃," he calculated using the revised formula for cadaveric reflux. "Considering the special characteristics of the aquatic environment, and assuming a temperature drop of 0.5℃ per hour, combined with rigor mortis and the degree of putrefaction, the time of death should be 24±4 hours, which is between 8 PM and midnight on September 10th." Xiao Lin suddenly pointed to the fingertips of the corpse: "The fingernails are clearly cyanotic, the nail beds are bluish-purple, and there are pinpoint hemorrhages under the conjunctiva. These should be signs of asphyxiation, right?"

The neck dissection revealed crucial clues. Zhang Kai gently separated the neck skin with hemostatic forceps, revealing a complete fracture on the right side of the greater horn of the hyoid bone, with sharp ends and slight callus formation. "A complete fracture of the hyoid bone is an important sign of mechanical asphyxiation," he measured the length of the fracture line, "The severity of the fracture indicates a significant force." Deep muscle bleeding in the neck tissues was even more convincing—patchy bleeding in the sternocleidomastoid and omohyoid muscles, dark red in color with clear edges: "This muscle bleeding occurred ante-death, consistent with the force characteristics of strangulation or ligation, and the large area of ​​bleeding suggests a prolonged asphyxiation process."

"So what exactly was the method of asphyxiation?" Xiao Lin handed over a magnifying glass, and Zhang Kai found an important trace on the bruises on the neck: "Look here, there are circular indentations, 1-1.2 cm in diameter, spaced 2.5-3 cm apart," he pointed to the direction of the indentations, "extending from the right mandible to the left side of the neck, in an incompletely closed state, more like finger marks from strangulation than the ligature marks from suffocation." The epidermis at the indentations was clearly peeled off, and dense bleeding points were visible in the dermis, which is a typical reaction to life. There were also skin abrasions between some of the indentations, indicating that there was a struggle.

During the thoracic dissection, the condition of both lungs further confirmed Zhang Kai's judgment. There were obvious hemorrhages in the upper lobe of the left lung and the lower lobe of the right lung, scattered like red millet grains. "Tardieu spots, typical lung changes in asphyxiation," he explained, cutting open the lung tissue. The cut surface was dark red, and colorless foamy fluid oozed out when squeezed. "Accompanied by mild pulmonary edema, indicating that the asphyxiation process lasted for a certain period, consistent with the pathological characteristics of strangulation." There were also a few hemorrhages under the epicardium on the surface of the heart. The muscle tissue of the left ventricular wall was normal in color, without the pathological changes of myocardial infarction, but there was a small amount of bleeding between the myocardial fibers.

The examination of the stomach contents provided supporting evidence for the time of death. Zhang Kai opened the stomach cavity, which contained approximately 150ml of semi-digested food, including rice grains, meat fibers, and vegetable residue. The degree of digestion indicated that the last meal was 3-4 hours before death. "The food residue had no unusual odor, and the pH was 3.6, consistent with a normal gastric acid environment," he said, extracting a sample with a pipette. "No common toxic substances were detected, but a detailed toxicological analysis is needed." A small amount of chyme was found in the duodenum, indicating that digestion was proceeding normally. Combined with rectal temperature, the last meal was estimated to have occurred around 9 PM on June 10th.

When the scalpel made its way to the head, the skull was in a largely normal state. There was a 2x2cm subcutaneous hematoma on the left side of the top of the head; the corresponding outer table of the skull was not fractured, indicating a minor blunt force injury. "This is a non-fatal injury caused by blunt force trauma," he measured the extent of the hematoma. (End of Chapter)