Forensic Doctor 2003: I Became a Legend on the Front Lines of Criminal Investigation

At this moment, in the deceased's bedroom, Jiang Chen and Wang Hui looked at each other in bewilderment.

Faced with the results of their investigation, both men were filled with doubt.

In particular, Wang Hui, a professional trace evidence engineer, had just carefully examined the fingerprints on the sleeping pill bottle again.

He has always been very confident in the test results he had previously obtained.

Looking at the scene before him, he suddenly began to doubt the fingerprint identification results for the first time.

So he carefully checked it twice more, and the final conclusion remained the same: there were only the fingerprints of the deceased on the bottle.

If we follow this line of reasoning, if only the deceased touched the medicine bottle, does that mean that the deceased swallowed a large amount of sleeping pills at once?

At this moment, Wang Hui’s firm judgment that the deceased had been murdered by someone else suddenly began to have many doubts.

After a moment of silence, he looked at Jiang Chen beside him and said, "Junior brother, do you think there might be something wrong with our investigation?"

At this moment, Jiang Chen's mind was racing, repeatedly going over every detail of the scene.

He looked around the bedroom, and besides the two of them, there was only a goat in the corner, raising its head and looking at them.

Real-life homicide investigations are nothing like the somber sound effects in movies and TV dramas, nor do they involve crowds of enthusiastic onlookers or so-called extras cheering them on.

Most of the time, forensic experts and technical investigators are silently searching for the truth hidden in the details at crime scenes.

At this moment, Jiang Chen's gaze swept back and forth between the bedside table containing sleeping pills and the simple wooden stool with various medicines on it.

Based on the fingerprints found on the medicine bottle, it can be inferred that only the deceased touched the bottle of sleeping pills from the moment the cap was unscrewed until the pills were taken out.

After a moment's thought, he looked up at Wang Hui and asked in a deep voice, "Senior, you're a professional fingerprint expert. What if the murderer was wearing gloves when committing the crime and then unscrewed the bottle cap to take out the pills?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Hui lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then gently shook his head.

"If this is done, it will inevitably wear down the original fingerprints on the bottle, and may even leave behind fine dust and wiping marks."

"The floor inside is not tiled; it's the original loess ground, which is naturally covered in thick dust."

"I didn't find any traces of dust wiping on the bottle, nor did I detect any texture or indentation left by gloves such as linen or rubber, so the possibility is extremely small."

After a pause, Wang Hui chuckled self-deprecatingly and added, "Unless the murderer, like you, only held the very top of the bottle and the very bottom, without touching the main body of the bottle at all, it would be impossible to leave no trace."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen's lips twitched slightly.

"If the murderer's counter-surveillance capabilities were that strong and their actions that meticulous, they probably wouldn't have chosen the clumsy method of poisoning someone with sleeping pills and then disguising it as a suicide by hanging."

"After all, toxicology analysis is an essential part of forensic autopsies, and this method of committing the crime is hardly sophisticated."

"Too."

Wang Hui's lips twitched, and he gave an awkward smile.

Such meticulous methods demonstrate a truly strong counter-surveillance capability, something that ordinary criminals would find extremely difficult to achieve.

After ruling out the possibility that the perpetrator was wearing gloves, Jiang Chen frowned and began racking his brains to think of how to explain the various contradictions at the scene.

If this contradiction cannot be resolved, it may indeed lead to the conclusion that the deceased committed suicide.

With this thought in mind, his gaze slowly fell on the medicine placed on the small chair next to the bed.

All the medicines were neatly arranged, but the bottle of sleeping pills was placed far away from the other medicines.

Just now, while reviewing the deceased's medical records from a week ago, he noticed that in addition to sleeping pills, the doctor also prescribed two types of medications to dilate the trachea and boost immunity.

Both medications were neatly arranged on the small table, so why was the sleeping pill placed separately?

In an instant, Jiang Chen keenly noticed this unusual contradiction.

Was this intentional on the part of the murderer, or was it due to the deceased's usual habit of storing medicine?

Wouldn't it be more convenient to keep commonly used medicines together if they were placed according to the usual way people take medicine?

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen's gaze turned to the coffee table in front of him.

The table was covered with countless medicine boxes, most of which were brand new, except for one box labeled Vitamin B2, which looked quite old.

In an instant, a bold deduction emerged in Jiang Chen's mind.

Could it be that someone repackaged sleeping pills into this empty pillbox for the convenience of daily medication?

The bottle of sleeping pills contained 100 pills, which was a large quantity. Did the deceased consider the inconvenience of taking the whole bottle and therefore divide it into portions to make it easier to take before bed?

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen bent down, reached out and picked up the vitamin B2 bottle, and gently shook it a few times.

Instantly, a crisp sound of pills colliding came from inside the bottle, indicating that there were very few pills left.

Then, Jiang Chen slowly unscrewed the bottle cap and looked inside.

There was only one pill left in the bottle, and its shape and size were exactly the same as the sleeping pills on the coffee table.

Jiang Chen immediately concluded that this was definitely not vitamin B2.

A week ago, he had taken the medication frequently for mouth ulcers. The vitamin B2 tablets were pale yellow, which was completely different from the appearance of the tablet in the bottle.

Seeing Jiang Chen staring intently at the medicine box with a serious expression, Wang Hui stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this box of Vitamin B2?"

Jiang Chen nodded upon hearing this and handed the medicine bottle to Wang Hui: "Look, this bottle doesn't contain vitamin B2 at all, but another kind of pill."

As he spoke, Jiang Chen immediately poured the pill from the bottle onto the table.

Wang Hui took a closer look and immediately nodded: "You know what, it looks almost exactly like sleeping pills."

Jiang Chen said in a deep voice, "At present, we only suspect that this is a sleeping pill. We still need to send it back to the laboratory for toxicology testing to find out the specific active ingredient."

He then looked at Wang Hui and said, "Senior Brother Wang, could you please examine this medicine bottle again to see if there are any other traces besides the deceased's fingerprints?"

Wang Hui took the vitamin B2 bottle and, following the previous inspection procedure, evenly applied fingerprint indicator powder.

Two minutes later, he looked up at Jiang Chen, his tone filled with surprise: "Just as you predicted, in addition to the deceased's fingerprints, another unfamiliar fingerprint was also detected."

"Oh?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Jiang Chen's eyes, but he quickly calmed down.

But Wang Hui seemed unusually excited and quickly said, "This fingerprint is crucial!"

"Once we get back and compare the fingerprints, if they belong to the suspect, we'll be able to pinpoint the killer."

In contrast to Wang Hui's optimism, Jiang Chen remained calm.

"The box of medicine was found in the room where the deceased and the suspect lived together. If the suspect claims that he used the vitamin B2, he has a reasonable excuse for touching it. Based on just one fingerprint, it is not enough to directly convict him."

After listening to Jiang Chen's detailed analysis, Wang Hui immediately looked puzzled.

He frowned and said, "Then what should we do? With the existing evidence alone, it's impossible to prove the murderer's guilt."

Just as the two were at their wits' end, Wang Hui's phone suddenly rang urgently.

He picked up his phone and glanced at the caller ID, assuming the case had been solved.

"Hey, Officer Li! Has the suspect confessed?"

After a moment's hesitation, Li Jian said, "The two suspects have given a new account. They claim that the deceased committed suicide by taking sleeping pills, and that the family staged the scene to look like a hanging to avoid causing family conflicts."

"When the deceased went to the hospital last week, he specifically told the doctor that he had been suffering from severe insomnia for a long time, so the doctor prescribed a whole bottle of sleeping pills."

Upon hearing this, Wang Hui froze on the spot, turned to look at Jiang Chen, and said in disbelief, "What they said... actually matches the situation on the scene."