Zhao Xinli hurried over and took a photo of Zhou Ning together with the adjacent scale ruler.
Zhou Ning stood up and walked out of the main house. Xu Dayuan, seeing him, quickly came over. Zhou Ning actually wanted to catch his breath, for although the protective mask reduced the harm of toxic substances in the putrid smell, it could not block the odor.
"Xu Da, the male victim has a grey-black mole behind his right ear, about the size of a fingertip with hairs on it, and he is 172 centimeters tall," Zhou Ning said. "Judging by the size of his clothes, I estimate his weight to be between 130-140 jin. He wore size 39 shoes and went shopping at Ligun Supermarket on October 18. Do you think this information could help us identify the victim?"
As he spoke, Zhou Ning showed the receipt from the evidence bag, and Xu Dayuan, looking through the bag, examined it carefully.
"It's not practical to check the supermarket; too many people go there. Even if we find him on surveillance, we can't identify him. However, this also indicates that the victim died after October 18 at 15:23. Have you deduced the time of death?"
Before Zhou Ning could reply, the veteran detective came over, put on his reading glasses, and glanced at the photos in Zhou Ning's camera.
"Hiss, I seem to have seen someone with that mole before."
After thinking for a bit, he slapped his thigh.
"I know, that's Li Delin from Yujia Village next door. It seems that he started some company in the city. Wait for me; I'll go and ask around."
Seeing the veteran detective leave, Xu Dayuan also breathed a sigh of relief. It would be good to find the victim's information as it would save many steps.
"Do you have the time of death?"
Zhou Ning nodded; he had just calculated that.
"Based on the length of the maggots, the condition of the pupae, and the state of decay of the corpse, I deduce that the male victim died between 5-9 days ago. The victim was injured with a chopping wound in front of the bedroom door and died crawling at the doorstep.
His shoes and pants were scattered about, as if he was in a rush. That's all the information we have for now. If you have no other instructions, Xu Da, I'll proceed to examine the female victim in the bedroom."
Xu Dayuan waved his hand, very pleased with such a proactive subordinate.
Zhou Ning quickly stepped inside, checked the kitchen on the left side of the living room, and then came to the pool of blood in front of the bedroom door.
Zhao Xinli followed him to the bedroom door, placed the surveying mat, and Zhou Ning entered the bedroom. The room was surprisingly clean, with almost no extra items—just a bed, a wardrobe, and two single sofas.
There were no blankets or pillows on the bed, and not even a crease on the bedsheet, only a wooden chair lying in the center of the bedroom and a pair of red slippers, neatly arranged.
However, there were obvious signs of incontinence on the chair and slippers, a common occurrence for hanged individuals, especially women.
The house appeared to have been renovated, but the main beam was quite low and not enclosed in a false ceiling, hanging about two meters above the floor with a white cloth strip suspending the body.
The victim was barefooted, dressed in white and black, neatly attired, with short ear-length hair obscuring part of her face, her head drooping slightly and no protrusion of the tongue. Her abdomen was flat, but post-mortem lividity was clearly visible on her hands and feet.
Zhou Ning turned on the ultraviolet light, squatted down, and saw not even a strand of hair on the floor. However, hearing the sound of a bird, Zhou Ning stepped back.
Only then did he notice a small window about two meters high on the north side of the living room, opened a crack. No wonder there were so many flies; they must have come in through there.
But with such a clean room, why were there no insect screens?
Zhou Ning didn't think much of it and entered the bedroom carrying the investigation kit, with Zhao Xinli following closely behind.
As Zhou Ning placed number tags, Zhao Xinli followed with his camera, clicking away. After taking the photos, Zhou Ning gestured.
"Call two people in to take down the body."
Zhao Xinli called for help, and they were all impeccably suited up, even wearing shoe covers. They cut the white cloth strip and placed the body in a body bag on the stretcher before taking it out. Zhao Xinli then placed the white cloth in an evidence bag.
Zhou Ning carefully inspected the body once more. Rigor mortis was not severe, the rectal temperature was the same as the room temperature, and the pupils were not light-permeable. There was a distinct U-shaped ligature mark on the neck, and there were bruises on the right cheek. He raised his hand and compared, noting it was likely a palm print but smaller than his hand.
Only around the edges of the ligature mark, inner corners of the eyes, and behind the ears were there fly eggs. No maggots were found on the body.
Lifting the victim's shirt, he saw a network of decomposing veins on the abdomen, but the abdomen was not bloated. With these findings, the estimated time of the victim's death was between 48-36 hours ago.
Zhao Xinli kept clicking away beside him.
Zhou Ning fell into deep thought, as the crime scene was closed off and the two victims had distinctly different times of death.
No matter how you looked at it, it appeared to be a murder-suicide case. However, if it were a murder-suicide, the system wouldn't be set up this way.
If there was a murderer present, why did the woman die several days after the male victim?
Could it be that the murderer lived in the room with the woman and the male victim's body?
But the room's interior lock was engaged, and there were security bars on the windows. How did the murderer leave?
With that thought, enlightenment flashed before Zhou Ning's eyes.
He got up and ran towards the living room. Reaching the living room, he looked up at the small window high on the north side, and indeed, there were no security bars outside that window.
Approaching the window, there was a stove below, presumably for heating. The stove was an eco-friendly metal type, with tiles surrounding it, forming a large platform.
When illuminated with a UV light, there was a scuff mark on the tiled wall, not a shoe print, but seemingly from a knitted material.
As Zhou Ning's gaze dropped, he saw what looked like a footprint with some smeared blood traces. It wasn't a shoe print, but that of a sock, indicating someone had stepped on the stove and then climbed through the north window to escape. However, due to the height constraint, the window wasn't closed tightly.
"Doctor Zhou, what did you find?"
Zhao Xinli followed, his excitement matching Zhou Ning's quick actions.
"Found a sock imprint with blood on it, hand me the tape measure."
Zhao Xinli dug into the investigation kit for a tape measure and handed it over to Zhou Ning who, standing at 184 cm tall, edged close to the window by the stove, his head just reaching the ceiling.
After measuring, Zhou Ning jotted down notes on his investigation suit. When fully opened, the window's width, height, and diagonal measured 33, 25, and 41 centimeters respectively, and the gap from the stove to the window was 158 centimeters.
Zhou Ning stared at the window, pausing in his actions. He waved backward, and Zhao Xinli, with a puzzled expression lifting his chubby face, stepped closer and asked,
"What's up, Doctor Zhou, what do you need?"
"Magnifying glass, tweezers, evidence bag."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Xinli knew Zhou Ning had found something. He scurried to fetch the items and stood on tiptoe to pass them to Zhou Ning.
Using the magnifying glass, Zhou Ning closely inspected the window and saw a row of eight glove fingerprints at the top.
Before he could feel disappointed, he noticed two drifting hairs with follicles on the edge of the window's felt. Zhou Ning picked them up with tweezers and placed them in an evidence bag, then handed it to Zhao Xinli.
"Found hairs with follicles. Go check outside the window for any footprints or similar traces. And look for a stick or something – it wouldn't have been easy to close the window from this height."
Zhao Xinli hurried off and returned shortly, shaking his head.
"There's a hardened road surface behind, and the crevices between the wall and the road are full of wild grass. No footprints or the stick you mentioned. However, the household behind has a big pile of firewood and a long bench for renovations in front of their door."
He nodded and continued to study the small window. Climbing up to this height with bare hands would be somewhat difficult; at least the person would need to be thin, otherwise they'd get stuck.
There was a moment's pause, and the system provided no hints.
Having analyzed so far, isn't this considered a preliminary analysis?
As Zhou Ning pondered, the intermediate task content popped up: "Based on the evidence at the scene, perform a preliminary analysis to state the cause of death for the two victims, time limit 60 minutes."
Ah, that's right, the cause of death.
With a sigh, Zhou Ning jumped down.
"Sample the water from the mop, broom, and bucket, and if there's any trash, take it too. Photograph the kitchen thoroughly, I will go find Xu Dayuan and others."
Zhao Xinli didn't delay, quickly grabbing the sampling bottles and leaving. As they entered, they had seen various cleaning tools placed at the kitchen entrance on the other side of the living room.
Zhou Ning didn't wait for Zhao Xinli; he stepped out of the main house, stripped off his protective suit outside the door, and discarded his gloves, hat, and gas mask into a bag. After thoroughly sanitizing and smelling his hands to confirm they were free of the scent of decomposition, he walked to the courtyard entrance where Xu Dayuan and his group were standing.
Seeing Zhou Ning come out, the old police officer approached eagerly, rubbing his hands, yet his tone carried a hint of condescending advice.
"So, young comrade, what have you figured out? Your mentor couldn't guide you, don't worry. It's fine if you haven't found anything significant. What do you think, is this a case of 'self-produced, self-sold'?"
Xu Dayuan remained silent, not revealing his stance. However, they had already conducted some investigation on the perimeter, likely at the old police officer's behest.
Zhou Ning was slightly resistant. As the forensic doctor for the criminal police unit, and with his direct superior present, he looked at Xu Dayuan and firmly shook his head.
"After the scene investigation, I found numerous traces but I don't think this is a 'self-produced, self-sold' case. The murderer is someone else."
The old police officer obviously didn't believe it, his facial expression turning a bit stiff. He was just about to speak when Xu Dayuan raised a hand to stop him.
"Don't rush, let's hear your findings."
...
PS:
[1] Ligature mark: A ligature mark is a groove-shaped trace formed by strangulation, an important indication in determining death by strangulation. It presents as a characteristic of being tightly sealed, usually in one or two bands, width roughly corresponding to the width of the ligature used, with a consistency in depth and pattern impressions of the ligature on the surface.
[2] "Self-produced, self-sold": This is slang commonly used within forensic circles, implying that after committing the murder, the perpetrator commits suicide. The crime generates the murderer, and then as the murderer suicides, there is no one to incarcerate, and the case is directly closed, hence the term 'self-produced, self-sold.'
For forensic experts, such cases are the most challenging because there are no victims, eyewitnesses, or suspects to provide testimonies. The determination of the case relies entirely on criminal technology, demanding the highest standards of evidence.