Female Forensic Physician: Bone Collector

Chapter 55 Populus euphratica

"Hey, brother, do you know? Something happened to Populus euphratica today!" As soon as Zhao Junjie left the scene, he couldn't wait to call Liu Chunxiao who was still working in the procuratorate.

"Pullar euphratica?"

"Yes, it's the Populus euphratica where Zhang's forensic sister had an accident 20 years ago. I rushed over as soon as I got the news today."

"What about the case?"

"I heard from the serious crime team that it is the remains of a child! It looks old."

"Did Zhang Yetong take over this case?"

"Yes. I didn't expect her to take this case either."

After hanging up the phone, Liu Chunxiao looked serious. Could it really be Zhang Yeqiu who disappeared 20 years ago?

It was past one o'clock in the afternoon when Wang Yanan returned to the bureau from the scene. As soon as she walked into the office, Zhang Yetong's phone call came. Although she didn't say anything on the phone, Zhang Yetong's tone made Wang Yanan very worried.

In the dissecting room, the atmosphere was obviously not right. There were small, off-white bones on the two cold stainless steel dissecting beds, and there was no expression on the faces of Pan Jian and Zhang Yetong.

"How? Is there something wrong with the corpse?"

"There is no problem with the corpse. It is confirmed to be human remains, female, aged between nine and 12 years old, but here are two remains, to be precise, two incomplete remains."

Wang Yanan didn't understand the meaning of Zhang Yetong's words, "You mean two victims?"

Zhang Yetong nodded, "According to the found sacrum and skull, we can confirm that one of the deceased is a female, but we also found two pairs of pubic bones, two pairs of pubic bones of different lengths, and the bone age of the two pairs is nine years old. Between the age of 12 and [-], it can be concluded that there were not one deceased, but two! However, because the skeleton is incomplete, the other one has no skull, so we have no way to confirm the specific identity of the other deceased. You also know that it is more difficult to determine the gender of a child before the puberty period based on the skeleton. Not to mention that there are still many missing bones, so, judging from the clues at hand, I have no way. But I will try my best."

"Then can you confirm the year when the deceased was murdered?"

Zhang Yetong nodded, "According to the carbonization age of the bones, the two victims were roughly fifteen to eighteen years ago. But I'm still waiting for the report from the trace identification and biochemical examination. The results of the biochemical samples will be available today." She thought for a while, then continued, "Yanan, I would like to apply for another survey of the site, what do you think?"

"I also thought of it. There may be more than one victim. I will report to Director Li at the case briefing later."

After Wang Yanan left, Zhang Yetong reached out to pick up the small skull, looked at it carefully, and didn't speak for a long time.

In the conference room, everyone's faces were very serious.After listening to Wang Yanan's report, the entire room fell silent.

Zhao Junjie, who was sitting by the door and listening, suddenly stood up, "I have an idea, can you tell me?"

Director Li nodded.

Zhao Junjie looked at everyone, and then said, "My old classmate, Liu Chunxiao from the Municipal Procuratorate, told me that several children had disappeared one after another in that Populus euphratica forest, and they were all around nine years old. Few, I was wondering, could it be related to the victim of this case we found?"

"Is your news accurate?" Director Li said dubiously.

"Of course it is true. For some special reasons, Prosecutor Liu has been paying attention to the missing children in that area for a long time. One of the missing girls is Zhang Yeqiu, the younger sister of our forensic doctor Zhang! Forensic doctor Zhang was at the scene of the crime. It can be said that she witnessed everything!" When Zhao Junjie talked about his discovery, he seemed a little eloquent, and even a little proud.

"You mean Xiaozhang is an eyewitness?" Li Ju put down the pen in his hand, with a confused expression on his face.

Zhao Junjie nodded, "I originally applied to stay in your bureau because of the unsolved disappearance case of Zhang's forensic sister. This will be a very interesting story, but it's a pity that she can't remember the scene at that time."

"Can not remember?"

Wang Yanan added, "Traumatic stress disorder, the brain automatically isolates a memory in order to protect the owner. My uncle suffered from this disease in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam." She turned to Zhao Junjie, "But , Reporter Zhao Da, haven’t you come here to be an undercover agent for a long time?”

Zhao Junjie touched his head in embarrassment, "As reporters, sometimes we have to sacrifice a little bit!..."

"Okay, okay, don't talk about it," Director Li stood up, "How about this, Xiao Wang, you send someone to investigate the records of missing persons reported in Populus euphratica forest in the suburbs of the city for nearly 20 years, and contact the city procuratorate. Prosecutor Liu cooperates to confirm the identity of the deceased as soon as possible."

"Director Li, forensic doctor Zhang suspects that there is more than one victim at the scene. I plan to conduct another comprehensive inspection of the scene."

"No problem, just let me know if you have any difficulties with manpower and equipment." As he said, Director Li glanced at everyone with a serious expression, "This case is very important, and it involves minors. Everyone should cheer up and start working hard from now on." From the beginning, the holidays have been cancelled, and a 24-hour shift system has been implemented to try to solve the case as soon as possible! Catch the murderer!"

(End of this chapter)