Animal Detective

Chapter 311 That was a donkey
Upon hearing Luo Xiaolong's speculation that the deceased's wounds contained donkey dung, while everyone was still whispering among themselves, Li Xiaowen suddenly slammed his fist on the table.

"That guy..."

He kept pointing with his finger, the name was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't remember it.

"Duan Dongqiang".

A voice came from the side reminding me.

Li Xiaowen shouted, "Yes, it's Duan Dongqiang, that's right, that's the name, the family that lived at the crime scene, they raised donkeys."

He turned his head sharply, looking for who had reminded him.

His gaze sharpened, and he saw Shen Xin looking at him.

What a quick response.

Li Xiaowen was startled, nodded slightly, and turned to continue, "I've actually been thinking about a logical problem: if there really was a second murderer at the scene, how did he happen to discover that Li Xingping was about to kill someone?"

"Either find out in advance, stake out and follow them, and only make a move when you see that Zhang Kaiyong is not dead."

"A key point here is the bloodstains. Judging from the bloodstains at the scene, it is consistent with the situation where the attack started at point A, then the chase went to point B, and the person collapsed at point B, leaving a large amount of bloodstains at point B."

"But there is no bloodstains beyond point B, which means that the person died at point B."

"Therefore, it is unlikely that after Li Xingping left, Zhang Kaiyong at point B got up on his own, staggered forward, and encountered the second murderer."

"If there really was a second murderer, it could only have been after Li Xingping left, when Zhang Kaiyong was still alive and at point B, that he went up and killed him, which is why the bloodstains are still concentrated at point B."

He got up and drew on the whiteboard to explain his logic.

Everyone was thoughtful.

Shen Xin nodded secretly. It seemed that Li Xiaowen was a master. He not only thought of the logical problems, but also noticed the bloodstains and thought of what had happened before him.

Li Xiaowen paused slightly, giving everyone a few seconds to think, and then pointed to the area between points A and B, saying, "There is actually another possibility, which is that there is another point here, such as C."

He drew a point C between A and B.

“This point C is the point where Li Yao turned his head and saw Zhang Kaiyong get up again. At that time, Li Xingping hit Zhang Kaiyong, but I don’t know how many times he hit him. He fell to the ground, but he didn’t stay down. There was a pool of blood.”

"Zhang Kaiyong got up again and walked forward, which is to say, he reached point B. Then the second murderer made his move and killed Zhang Kaiyong at point B."

"There is a key point here, which is that brick. When we arrived at the scene, the brick still had its outline, so it should have been untouched."

"But it didn't appear near point B. Instead, it was more than two meters away from point B, in the mud next to the cement road, which is probably near point C."

"If there is no second murderer, it can be explained that Li Xingping just threw it casually at point B, and it was thrown a little too far. But since there is evidence to suggest that there may be a second murderer, then this is highly suspicious."

Everyone nodded again, agreeing that Li Xiaowen's analysis was correct.

Hou Yaxin gestured for him to continue.

Li Xiaowen said, "So let's go back to the initial question, which is whether the second murderer knew in advance that Li Xingping was going to kill someone, so he chose to lie in wait."

“I think it’s possible, but not very likely. First of all, when the argument happened at Zhang Haomin’s house, Li Xingping didn’t say anything like ‘You better watch out, I’m going to kill you.’”

"So it was a random event that he came up with the idea of ​​attacking Zhang Kaiyong after returning home."

"Of course, it's also possible that someone saw Li Xingping staking out the area. After all, he had an argument around 10 p.m. and then went down the mountain to stake out Zhang Kaiyong a little after midnight."

“It had been almost an hour since the incident. Li Yao was following him and even saw him picking up bricks. He was holding the bricks, and perhaps someone saw this and thought he was going to attack someone.”

"But apart from the few people who were playing mahjong at Zhang Haomin's house, no one should know that the two of them had a fight that night. For so long, were they secretly watching them?"

"So the more likely scenario is the second one, which is that he witnessed Li Xingping attacking Zhang Kaiyong and then took the opportunity to commit the crime."

"Considering the bloodstains, the only possible source is someone from the vicinity of the crime scene."

He turned around and quickly drew several house diagrams around points A and B on the whiteboard.

Then he turned around to get Zhu Qiuwei's statement, searched through it to confirm, and said: "There are four households whose statements mentioned hearing people arguing, but they did not go out to see what was going on."

“They could be lying, and people nearby could also be lying in their testimonies. But based on the evidence of donkey dung, there is no doubt that he is the most suspicious.”

He slammed the pen into the house representing Duan Dongqiang's family.

Everyone looked at the whiteboard, thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement.

Shen Xin wanted to applaud Li Xiaowen.

Don't let his quiet demeanor and self-deprecating humor fool you; he may not be talkative or have low emotional intelligence, but his professional skills are absolutely top-notch.

It makes sense. Someone like him, who doesn't know how to speak properly and doesn't know how to flatter his superiors at work, could still become the captain of the criminal investigation team and the top person in charge of criminal case investigation in a county. That can only mean he has outstanding professional skills.

On the other side of the screen, Zhao Helin turned to Luo Xiaolong and asked if the donkey's DNA was the same as a human's, and that every donkey was unique.

Luo Xiaolong nodded in agreement.

Zhao Helin said, "That's simple. Just take samples from all the donkeys in the village and compare their DNA to find out whose donkey it is."

He also asked how many households in the village raised donkeys. No one seemed to have noticed, but it was probably more than just Duan Dongqiang.

There is donkey farming in Machang Town, and since it is located in a mountainous area, donkeys are an important livestock.

At this moment, Hou Yaxin waved his hand and said, "I don't think it's that simple. The key is the evidence, especially the murder weapon."

Seeing everyone looking at him, Hou Yaxin continued, "That was a donkey, it would pull wherever it went, how can you prove from physical evidence that the murder weapon that killed Zhang Kaiyong was related to Duan Dongqiang?"

As soon as he asked the question, Li Xiaowen frowned.

Shen Xin also crossed his arms and fell into deep thought.

Indeed, it seems that Duan Dongqiang would take this donkey out to work.

As Hou Yaxin said, a donkey can only go wherever it wants, and it might end up on a brick by the roadside, where someone might pick it up and use it as a weapon.

Or perhaps there was a brick in front of his house where donkeys went in and out, leaving droppings on it. Then the murderer looked around, saw the brick, picked it up, and attacked Zhang Kaiyong, leaving behind traces of donkey droppings.

This is entirely possible.

Therefore, as Hou Yaxin said, there must be sufficient physical evidence to link donkey dung with Duan Dongqiang.

At this moment, Li Xiaowen immediately said, "Director Hou, I request that Duan Dongqiang's house be searched. If he killed him, there will definitely be bloodstains in his house."

But after saying that, Li Xiaowen shook his head violently and denied it, saying, "No, he was the first one to arrive at the scene. He moved the body and even helped the Zhang family carry it. If bloodstains were found in his house, he could easily deny everything."

Zhu Qiuwei nodded in agreement, adding, "That's right. We deployed police dogs this afternoon, and we found that many people had smelled blood in their homes because they had been to the scene."

After saying that, he couldn't help but curse.

The scene was disturbed, and a large number of people entered, which ironically gave the murderer an opportunity to hide himself.

Upon hearing the mention of police dogs, Li Xiaowen quickly turned his head and asked, "Shen Xin, I remember when I took Tian Kui to search this afternoon, his door was closed. Was he out working?"

Shen Xin nodded.

The cordon was pulled up in front and behind, sealing off Duan Dongqiang's house.

But Duan Dongqiang has to go out to work today.

He himself said that he only discovered Zhang Kaiyong when he had harnessed the donkey and was about to leave in the morning.

So Duan Dongqiang didn't leave with the donkey until Li Xiaowen and the others arrived and finished taking their statements.

He was not a suspect at the time. You can't just block someone's front door and prevent them from going out to do their own thing.

Thinking of this, Shen Xin's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly said, "Captain Li, are you saying that Duan Dongqiang might take advantage of the time when he goes out to work to discard relevant evidence, such as the murder weapon and blood-stained clothes?"

No second brick was found at the scene, so the police conducted a large-scale search at the entrance. If Shen Xin were Duan Dongqiang, he would definitely have to find a way to dispose of the murder weapon.

He might even have secretly slipped out after killing Zhang Kaiyong in the middle of the night and thrown away the murder weapon.

There's only one camera in the village, so there are many ways to avoid being monitored from all directions.

Li Xiaowen nodded hurriedly, thinking to himself that Shen Xin was quick-witted, and said, "That's right, that's what you mean. I suspect he might take the opportunity to dispose of the murder weapon. So, can Tian Kui track the scent on the murder weapon and find it?"

"of course."

Shen Xin nodded without hesitation.

Although more than ten hours have passed since the incident, tracking it down should not be a problem.

Li Xiaowen understood the situation and immediately said, "Director Hou, I request permission to search Duan Dongqiang's house for evidence. Then, Lao Zhu, you take your men and quickly investigate Duan Dongqiang's motive for murder. Shen Xin and I will go and track down the murder weapon."

"Old Luo, I'll have someone take a sample right away, and then you can compare the DNA as soon as possible to see if the donkey droppings in the wound are from Duan Dongqiang's donkey."

After finishing the arrangements, he asked Hou Yaxin if there was anything else he wanted to add.

Hou Yaxin crossed his arms and thought for a moment, then said, "Xiaowen, I think we can hold off on searching Duan Dongqiang's house for now."

“Think about it, he went to the scene and even helped carry the body, so if you find any bloodstains in his house, he can deny everything.”

“If you search now, you will only alert him and let him know that we have him under our watch.”

"So a search is definitely necessary, but not now. We'll wait until Xiao Shen finishes his tracking and we've seen the results before deciding what to do."

"We also need to think carefully about investigating motives and taking samples of donkey dung, and try not to alert our opponents."

“You need to investigate this person thoroughly. If he really did commit murder, then he saw an opportunity, made a decisive decision to kill, and after the murder, he was still able to calmly choose to call the police.”

“He is still at the scene, being questioned and given a statement. He has a very strong mentality and is not an ordinary person.”

"So we have to be careful with him. The scene has been disturbed, and we are already a step behind the killer. If you don't make adequate preparations, you may be in a very passive position."

It is highly likely that we will know who the murderer is, but there will be no evidence to definitively prove him, turning a perfectly good case into a complete mess.

(End of this chapter)