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

The investigation has once again stalled. Wang Shuai's team has been working tirelessly, everyone exhausted, but they haven't found any valuable clues. The victim's identity is unknown, there are no leads on suspects, there is no surveillance footage in the vicinity, and the forensic examination results offer no further breakthroughs. The entire investigation seems to have reached a dead end, with no hope in sight.

At 19:20 PM on the evening the body was discovered, the forensic investigation vehicle carrying the deceased smoothly drove into the courtyard of the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment's Forensic Identification Center. By then, it was completely dark, but the lights in the identification center building were exceptionally bright. Forensic pathologist Zhang Kai, along with his assistant Xiao Lin, had already completed all the preparations for the autopsy. Zhang Kai had been working as a forensic pathologist for nearly twenty years, handling hundreds of autopsies in homicide cases. He was extremely experienced and widely recognized as a "forensic authority" within the detachment. Upon receiving the order, he immediately adjusted the autopsy equipment, prepared the investigation records, and awaited the body's arrival.

"Professor Zhang, the body has arrived." Seeing the investigation vehicle stop, Xiao Lin immediately went to assist the driver and technical staff in carrying the sealed body bag containing the body to the autopsy table in the autopsy room. The outer layer of the body bag had a small amount of dust and dirt on it, which it had picked up during transport from the abandoned building site. Zhang Kai, dressed in a dark blue forensic autopsy gown, wearing a sterile mask, gloves, and goggles, stood beside the autopsy table, his gaze solemn as he looked at the body bag: "First, we'll conduct the preparatory work before the external examination of the body, recording the original condition of the body and the information about the substances attached to the body bag, and then we'll open the body bag."

Xiao Lin nodded in response, took out a digital camera, and photographed the sealed body bag from different angles. He then used tweezers to extract a small amount of dust and soil samples from the outer layer of the body bag and placed them into an evidence bag labeled "Body Bag Attachment-001." "Teacher Zhang, the attachment extraction is complete. The body bag is undamaged and well-sealed," Xiao Lin reported, and together with Zhang Kai, they unzipped the body bag. As the zipper slowly opened, the deceased's body was gradually exposed under the operating lights of the autopsy room—it was the same adult male corpse that Yang Lin and Yang Sen had discovered on the third floor of the unfinished building during the day.

"First, conduct an external examination of the body to observe its general condition and record basic information such as height, weight, and clothing." Zhang Kai, holding dissection forceps, gestured for Xiao Lin to open the investigation logbook and begin recording. Xiao Lin took out a measuring tape and carefully measured the body's height: "Height 175 centimeters, preliminary weight estimated at 65 kilograms. Clothing: white shirt, black trousers, black diamond-patterned leather shoes. The clothing is intact with no obvious signs of tearing, but there is a tear in the shirt at the chest, consistent with Yang Lin and his team's description during the on-site investigation."

Zhang Kai approached the body and carefully examined the details of the clothing: "Pay attention to the shape of the tear in the shirt, whether the edges are neat, and whether there are any signs of fiber tearing." He gently lifted the fibers at the tear with dissecting forceps. "The tear is an irregular triangle with obvious signs of fiber tearing at the edges. The tear is about 6 centimeters long and 2 centimeters wide, which is basically consistent with the size of the blade of the single-edged dagger extracted from the scene. It is preliminarily determined to be a tear in the clothing caused by a sharp object." Xiao Lin immediately took a close-up photo of the tear in the shirt with his camera and made detailed notes in his notebook: "Clothing: White pure cotton shirt, with an irregular triangular tear between the 4th and 5th buttons on the left side of the chest, 6.0cm long and 2.1cm wide, with torn fibers at the edges; black polyester trousers, undamaged; black leather shoes, diamond pattern, size 41, with slight wear on the soles."

“Next, examine the general characteristics of the body.” Zhang Kai’s gaze fell on the deceased’s face. “The face is pale, the lips are cyanotic, the eyes are tightly closed, the conjunctiva is congested, and the cornea is slightly cloudy.” He gently pressed the deceased’s eyeballs with his fingers. “The corneal opacity is relatively mild, and the light reflex is absent. Combined with the ambient temperature, the preliminary judgment is that the time of death is not too long.” Then, he examined the deceased’s skin color: “The skin is pale all over, with no obvious lividity, only a few light red bruises on the back, buttocks and other pressure points, which are diffusely distributed.”

Xiao Lin asked doubtfully, "Teacher Zhang, livor mortis usually appears 2-4 hours after death. The livor mortis on this body is so faint, does that mean the time of death was relatively short?" Zhang Kai nodded in response, "That's possible, but we can't judge solely based on livor mortis. The environment at the unfinished building site is complex, with higher temperatures during the day and lower temperatures at night, and the body being wrapped in plastic sheeting will affect the formation and development of livor mortis. We also need to consider multiple indicators such as rigor mortis, the degree of corneal opacity, and the digestion of stomach contents to make a comprehensive judgment."

After speaking, Zhang Kai began to examine the rigor mortis. He gently moved the deceased's jaw joint: "The jaw joint is not stiff and moves freely." He then examined the deceased's neck, upper limbs, and lower limb joints in turn: "The neck is not stiff, the shoulder and elbow joints can move freely, the hip and knee joints have a slight stiffness, and the ankle joints move freely." He explained as he examined: "The development pattern of rigor mortis starts from the jaw and neck, gradually spreading to the upper and lower limbs. It generally begins to appear 1-3 hours after death, develops throughout the body in 6-8 hours, and reaches its peak in 12-24 hours. This corpse only has slight stiffness in the lower limb joints, indicating that rigor mortis is in its early stage. Combined with the degree of corneal opacity, the preliminary inference is that the time of death was between 3-6 hours after death."

"What other indicators are needed to confirm the exact time of death?" Xiao Lin asked while recording the results of the rigor mortis examination. Zhang Kai pointed to the deceased's abdomen: "Next, we need to check the body temperature, and then examine the digestion of the stomach contents through an autopsy. These two indicators are key to determining the time of death. In particular, the stomach contents can provide important evidence for the accurate determination of the time of death."

Then, Xiao Lin brought out an electronic post-mortem thermometer and, following Zhang Kai's instructions, inserted the probe deep into the deceased's rectum: "Teacher Zhang, the post-mortem temperature measurement result is 34.2℃." Zhang Kai nodded and took out his notebook to record: "Ambient temperature 22℃, post-mortem temperature 34.2℃, post-mortem temperature drop rate approximately 0.8℃/hour. Combining rigor mortis and corneal opacity, the preliminary time range of death is narrowed down to 4-5 hours after death." He looked up at Xiao Lin, "Do you remember Yang Lin and Yang Sen's report during the on-site investigation? They received the alarm at 9:17 AM and arrived at the scene at 9:42 AM, initially determining that the deceased's time of death should be between 3 AM and 5 AM this morning. The subsequent autopsy will focus on verifying this time range through the stomach contents."

After the initial examination of the cadaver was completed, Zhang Kai issued the autopsy instructions: "Begin the autopsy, starting with the thoracic cavity, focusing on the chest wounds to confirm the location and depth of the fatal injuries." (End of Chapter)