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

"Understood, Teacher Zhang, I'm ready to cooperate with you at any time!" Xiao Lin gripped the dissection tools in his hand, his tone firm. Although he was still a little nervous, he was more professional and meticulous. He knew that every detail of the following dissection work could affect the course of the case, and there was no room for error.

Zhang Kai nodded, picked up the scalpel, and first made a standard Y-shaped incision on the deceased's chest. The incision started from both sides of the shoulders, extending downwards to the midline of the sternum, and then downwards again to above the pubic symphysis. The incision was neat and of moderate depth, just enough to cut through the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and muscle, avoiding damage to the internal organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. After making the incision, he carefully separated the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and muscle with hemostatic forceps to expose the sternum and ribs. The movements were gentle to avoid damaging the tissue around the wound, ensuring that the shape and extent of the injury were not altered.

"Xiao Lin, hand me the rib shears and bone chisel. We need to open the sternum and ribs to expose the thoracic cavity and check for damage to the organs inside." As Zhang Kai spoke, he carefully separated the muscles and connective tissue around the sternum with tweezers to ensure that the sternum was fully exposed.

Xiaolin quickly handed over the sterilized rib shears and bone chisel, while gently suctioning away the small amount of blood accumulated at the incision site to ensure a clear view: "Teacher Zhang, the rib shears and bone chisel have been handed over, the suction device is ready, the view is clear, we can begin to open the chest cavity."

Zhang Kai took the rib shears and carefully cut the deceased's ribs, starting from both sides and cutting them one by one, severing a total of 12 ribs. During the cutting process, he moved gently to avoid damaging organs such as the heart and lungs inside the chest cavity with rib fragments. He then gently pried open the sternum with a bone chisel and removed it, fully exposing the internal structures of the chest cavity. At this point, the accumulated blood and blood clots in the chest cavity were clearly visible, with an amount of approximately 800 ml of blood, roughly matching the amount of blood found in the pool of blood on the ground, further confirming the judgment that the deceased died from excessive blood loss.

"Record: Approximately 800 ml of blood has accumulated in the pleural cavity, with a large number of blood clots. There is no damage or bleeding to the inner wall of the pleura, and no rupture or adhesions in the pleura. This is consistent with the presentation of acute massive hemorrhage." While observing, Zhang Kai instructed Xiao Lin to record the findings. At the same time, he carefully used a suction device to remove the blood and blood clots from the pleural cavity, gradually exposing the heart, lungs, trachea, bronchi, esophagus, and other organs inside the pleural cavity.

“Teacher Zhang, the organs in the chest cavity are in normal positions, with no displacement or deformity. Focus on examining the heart and lungs, as these two organs are the core areas of this injury.” Xiao Lin leaned closer to examine them and said earnestly, while carefully using tweezers to separate the connective tissue in the chest cavity to facilitate Zhang Kai’s examination.

“Okay, let’s check the heart first.” Zhang Kai’s gaze focused on the heart, which was located in the middle left of the chest cavity. It was dark red, of normal size, with a small amount of blood clots attached to the surface. The heart capsule was intact, without rupture or hematoma. He carefully cut open the heart capsule with scissors to expose the internal structures of the heart, including the left ventricle, right ventricle, left atrium, right atrium, and coronary arteries.

"Carefully observe the damage to the heart, focusing on the wound in the left ventricle, which corresponds to the third wound on the body surface. Confirm the depth, length, and shape of the wound, as well as the damage inside the heart." As Zhang Kai spoke, he carefully used tweezers to open up the left ventricle of the heart and carefully observed the details of the wound.

Xiaolin held his breath and carefully observed the wound in the left ventricle of the heart: "Teacher Zhang, there is a wound in the left ventricle of the heart that corresponds exactly to the third wound on the body surface. The wound is 2.5 cm long and 0.7 cm wide. The wound edges are neat and the wound wall is smooth. The wound penetrates the left ventricular wall and reaches the ventricular cavity. There are a large number of blood clots in the ventricular cavity. There is tearing of the myocardial tissue. There is no damage or stenosis of the coronary arteries. There are no underlying diseases such as myocardial infarction or myocarditis. The heart valves are not damaged or deformed, and the heart function is normal."

“Very good, the record is accurate,” Zhang Kai nodded approvingly and continued his analysis, “The wound in the left ventricle of the heart corresponds precisely to the third wound on the body surface. The characteristics of the wound edges and walls are consistent with the wound on the body surface, confirming that this wound is a fatal injury that caused massive cardiac hemorrhage and is the direct cause of the deceased’s death; there is no damage or stenosis to the coronary arteries, ruling out sudden death caused by myocardial infarction; there are no underlying heart diseases, indicating that the deceased’s heart function was normal before death and there were no potential fatal heart diseases, further confirming that the deceased died from cardiac rupture and excessive blood loss, and there were no other fatal underlying diseases.”

Zhang Kai then carefully extracted a small amount of myocardial tissue sample with tweezers, placed it in a sterile test tube, and labeled it "Myocardial tissue sample, for pathological examination and DNA testing." He also collected a blood clot sample from the heart and labeled it "Heart blood clot sample, for blood biochemistry testing." "Xiao Lin, carefully preserve these two samples, label them properly, and send them to the laboratory for expedited testing. The focus will be on detecting the degree of myocardial tissue damage, indicators related to the time of death, and the blood components in the blood clot, to provide support for accurately estimating the time of death."

"Understood, Teacher Zhang. The samples have been collected. Please label them, store them properly, and send them to the laboratory simultaneously." Xiao Lin took the test tube and carefully placed it into the sample storage box to ensure that the samples were not contaminated or lost.

After examining the heart, the two began examining the lungs. The deceased's lungs were divided into left and right lungs. The left lung had two lobes, and the right lung had three lobes. The surface of the lungs was dark red with a few petechiae. There was a wound in the upper lobe of the left lung, which corresponded perfectly to the second wound on the body surface. The wound was 3.0 cm long and 0.8 cm wide, with neat edges and smooth walls. The wound penetrated the upper lobe of the left lung, causing rupture and bleeding of the lung tissue. There was a large amount of blood and blood clots in the lung tissue. The right lung was undamaged and without bleeding. The hilar lymph nodes were not enlarged or abnormal. There were no foreign bodies or bloodstains in the bronchi, ruling out death caused by underlying lung diseases.

"Record: One wound in the upper lobe of the left lung, corresponding to the second wound on the body surface, 3.0cm long and 0.8cm wide, with neat edges and smooth walls. The lung tissue was ruptured and bleeding, with blood accumulation and blood clots inside; the right lung was undamaged and without bleeding; the hilar lymph nodes were normal, and there were no foreign bodies in the bronchi; there were no underlying lung diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, or lung cancer. The rupture of the upper lobe of the left lung was an auxiliary fatal injury, accelerating the blood loss process and speeding up the death." Xiaolin quickly recorded the information and, together with Zhang Kai, collected lung tissue samples from the injured area of ​​the left lung and normal lung tissue samples from the right lung, clearly marked them, and properly preserved them.

“Teacher Zhang, the shape and size of the wound in the upper lobe of the left lung are completely consistent with the wound in the left ventricle of the heart and the three wounds on the body surface. All of them were caused by a single-edged sharp weapon, further confirming that the injuries were caused by the same murder weapon,” Xiaolin analyzed earnestly. “Moreover, the depth of the wound in the upper lobe of the left lung is basically the same as the depth of the second wound on the body surface, indicating that the force of the stabbing was uniform. The murderer did not deliberately increase or decrease the force, suggesting that the murderer was in a stable state of mind at the time of the stabbing and may have premeditated the crime.” (End of this chapter)