2,The bridge that intercepted the female corpse is a main road connecting several prefecture level cities in the surrounding area, which is not completely consistent with the places where the river passes through.
A questioning voice gradually prevailed: could the black suitcase have been thrown off the bridge?
If it is a highway dumping, cars are often involved. Under this approach, the location where the body was found may be far away from the first crime scene. If that's true, our investigation scope will have to be expanded, and the difficulty can be imagined.
Sometimes, casting a net everywhere is also a part of the case handling process, in order to give these troubled cases a glimmer of hope.
But I don't see it that way.
What do you think about the first scene? "One day, the captain suddenly called me to the office.
I still believe that the perpetrator threw the body near the river.
My judgment is based on the girl's luggage and clothes, which appear to be of average material and not from any expensive brand. I have inspected these two items no less than 6 times and am very familiar with them.
I suspect that both the deceased and the perpetrator were migrant workers with weaker economic strength, and it is unlikely that they had access to large-scale transportation. Other modes of transportation, whether motorcycles or bicycles, carrying a corpse exposed for a long time, no murderer would be foolish enough to do so.
I still insist that the focus of the investigation should be on several migrant villages within two to three thousand meters of the surrounding area.
A wrong judgment can consume limited manpower and energy, and may even render subsequent investigations futile. Should the investigation circle be expanded or reduced? We are now standing at this' crossroads'.
How about we experiment with two boxes? "I asked the captain.
A week later, my colleagues from the technical team and I arrived at that bridge. We were carrying two suitcases with nearly 40 pounds of padding, weighing the same as the torso of a headless female corpse.
In winter, the riverbank is covered in a gray haze, and not a single pedestrian can be seen along the several hundred meter embankment. The river is rippling with murky waves.
I am at the place where the female corpse was salvaged, looking at the bridge.
The phone is ringing. This is the agreed signal: ready.
Suddenly, a block shaped black figure fell rapidly from the bridge with a loud bang, as if detonating a small bomb. The box burst open as soon as it touched the water surface, splashing water very high. The loud noise pierced through the noisy traffic and rushed straight into my ears.
When it was retrieved, all the zippers and seams of the box were torn open. The impact force is significant.
We threw down another box and got the same result. This means that if the perpetrator had thrown the body from the bridge, the box would have been severely damaged, while the suitcase containing the headless female corpse was intact and even in a relatively sealed state when discovered. It was only because the body had decayed that the box floated to the surface.
It can be confirmed that the dumping site is not on the bridge, it is likely on the upstream riverbank, and it should not be far away.
My persistent approach has become the direction of solving the case.
After the luggage experiment on the bridge, on the way back to the police force, I received the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) test and identification results of the female corpse. The last few collected uterine cotton swabs came in handy.
A male's DNA typing was detected and matched the single parent genetic relationship with the deceased female's DNA typing. Simply put, the deceased girl had a developing fetus in her belly.
One corpse, two lives.
Who is the father of the fetus? Could the girl have been killed because of this fetus?
What's even stranger is that even in an accident, a pregnant girl disappeared for more than half a month without her boyfriend or relatives reporting her.
Do you think it's possible that the deceased had no other family or friends besides knowing the murderer? "I couldn't help but mutter to my colleagues as I looked at the hurried faces.
Who knows, maybe no one cares about her, "said the colleague with a helpless expression.
I imagined the girl's face. If it weren't for this incident, she would be running around like these pedestrians in the rush hour traffic
The death and even dismemberment of the girl was so quiet that it was somewhat frightening. We did not match the identity of the deceased in the DNA database, nor did we have any clues about the father of the fetus, and neither of them had a criminal record.
The glimmer of light in solving the case vanished in an instant. The girl on the dissecting table is waiting, and I am also waiting.
Sorry, I'm just a forensic expert.
When I was in college, not many people knew about this major. There were 29 students in the class, including myself, and 28 of them were transferred. Before entering the industry, I thought it was meaningful for forensic experts to uncover the surface of death and reveal the truth to the deceased. But more than a decade has passed, and less than one-third of my classmates are still on the job. I have also compiled over 50 unsolved cases myself. Among them, there are those who have complete physical evidence but cannot be caught, and there are also those who know the identity of the murderer but cannot find him.
The longer you work, the more heavy cases you have on your hands, and each one is a hurdle in your heart.
Only by overcoming these obstacles can we take on new cases. But once they cross over, they will feel guilty again. Who will give these dead people an explanation? Especially for girls like this who nobody knows or cares about?
Sometimes solving a case only requires an opportunity, but whether the opportunity will come tomorrow or never, I have no way of knowing.
This is the fate of this profession.
The rental houses in several surrounding villages have become the focus of investigation, where many migrant workers live.
If the first scene of the crime is a rented house, the perpetrator is likely to immediately clean it up and vacate it. And the Chinese New Year is coming soon. The murderer will quit his job and return to his hometown. No one will doubt anything. At that time, we were really searching for a needle in a haystack.
There is not much time left for us.
I was a bit impulsive and went to the rental houses in the surrounding villages with my colleagues to investigate.
One by one, there was no blue fluorescence in the field of view - the typical reaction of luminol reagent encountering bloodstains.
I put down the sprayer in my hand and stood up. The low blood pressure caused by prolonged squatting made me dizzy. The room was pitch black except for the flashing lights of the law enforcement recorder.
Turn on the lights
The colleague next to me put down the camera, turned on the light in the rental house, and asked, "How many rooms are there"
22 rooms. "I looked back at the notebook, which recorded all the rental houses we had surveyed in the past month.
Could it not be these villages? Lost while driving? If you didn't find your head or limbs, what if they really drifted from some distant places upstream? "My colleague gradually lost confidence in this seemingly aimless search.
Will it be the next one? The light from the rental house above my head shone on my face, cold and pale, reminding me of the girl on the dissecting table.
The Chinese New Year is only a week away, and there are more and more vacant rental houses, but the first scene still hasn't been found.
I am not an investigator, nor an intelligence officer. I cannot see video surveillance or analyze data. There are still many bodies waiting in line for investigation every day. What I can do for this girl seems to have come to an end.
At that time, I didn't know that it was the closest I had ever been to the murderer.
Half of winter has already passed.
On the last day of the year, the police organized a simple New Year's Eve dinner.
Not only has the case of dismemberment of a girl not been solved, but there has also been a second female corpse case recently, which is also headless and has not been reported by relatives. However, the second crime committed by Fayuan is completely different from the previous one, and it should not be a murderer.
I know the pressure on the investigation side is even greater. Several brothers have been working overtime for a month, leaving early and returning late every day. Everyone knows that the dismemberment case requires finding the source of the body, but both cases are stuck in this loop, with no family members reporting missing and no factory reporting employees missing.
Tomorrow is the New Year, haven't the families of the two girls noticed that someone is missing?
The bone chilling cold hit the window glass, creating a layer of white mist. The room was filled with noisy voices, and everyone raised their glasses.
The captain toasted at the table. When it came to me, I picked up the cola.
Hey, are you on duty again today? "The captain was somewhat surprised.
I still have work to do when I go back later, "I said in one gulp.
What can we say after the New Year? "The captain looked up and the cup was already at its bottom.
Under the pretext of being on duty, I slipped back to the office. The computer is still on, and the screen still shows photos of the dismemberment scene and the headless female corpse.
I can't count how many times I've opened these photos. With my eyes closed, I can even clearly restore the size, depth, and direction of each wound.
I created a new folder and put all the files related to the girl's dismemberment case inside. Unsolved homicide case "- I renamed the folder. There is another unsolved case.
In my 18 years of work, I have encountered family members of the deceased who refused to shake hands with me, and acquaintances who refused to eat with me at the same table;
In the past 18 years, I have been to various "bloody" scenes and couldn't get off. I paved a path with pedals;
In the past 18 years, I have encountered floating corpses many times, and the skin of the deceased has turned white and fallen off. So I put on his finger skin, like wearing gloves, to help him fingerprint;
For 18 years, at the scene of highly decomposed corpses, I had to constantly stomp my feet, drive away annoying maggots, and be careful not to let them crawl into my pants.
We are forensic experts, facing silent corpses, we can only talk desperately and crack the codes they left behind.
At the moment I turned off my computer, I seemed to see a girl slowly sinking into the water.
After that, every sleepless night, I would click on the 'unsolved murder cases' folder to browse through it and then close it. I can't change this habit.
The case sank, but my heart kept floating there.
In November of the following year, winter came again.
Throughout the year, new cases have occurred and been solved, and the file bag of this case has been lying in my cabinet, covered in a layer of dust.
On November 5th, as I was about to finish work, I received a WeChat message. As soon as my eyes caught a glimpse of the short line of text on the screen, I suddenly put down my cup with a "bang" sound.
The others in the office were startled. It's okay, it's okay, "I chuckled awkwardly.
What kind of happy occasion? "Everyone looked at me with confusion.
I'll treat you to dinner later! The dismemberment case from last year's New Year's Eve was a hit
The father of the fetus has been found.
From the collected information, it appears that the suspect was operating in a nearby migrant worker village. That was the place where I focused on inspecting rental properties initially.
I was once incredibly close to him.
For the past year, I haven't given up tracking, but he has given up hiding.
A man and his colleague were fighting, and someone reported to the police. The police registered the information of several people involved and collected his blood sample, which led to the current comparison results.
It's time to sort out that dusty archive bag.
At around 11 o'clock that evening, I received a call from the team captain. The suspect arrived at the scene and had given a preliminary account of the murder process. Tomorrow morning, identify the scene.
Hanging up the phone, I sat quietly in the darkness for a long time, flapping in vain countless times. This time, we finally held the hand of the sinking girl.
The first site is a rental building on the first floor, with a room of less than 10 square meters. The bedroom is connected to the toilet, and there is only one bed and a low cabinet in the room.
I am too familiar with such structures and decorations. During the month when I took the initiative to investigate rental properties, I looked at no less than 20 rooms like this. I just didn't expect that because the landlord refused to refund the deposit and the man didn't want to lose the few hundred yuan, after the murder, he actually stayed at the scene of the crime for another two months, just avoiding our round of investigation for terminating the rental house.
Recently, I was only separated from the murderer by a 5-meter alley.
Found him. The waiting and suffering of the past year have taken on meaning.
This room has experienced two tenants after the murderer, and the scene has been cleaned multiple times, even the bed board has been replaced once. Despite repeated searches, there are no traces related to the case.
Although there is surveillance at the entrance of the rental house, after more than a year, there is no valuable information left.
How do I kill her? "I took off my gloves and asked the skinny young man in his early 20s.
He lowered his head and occasionally glanced at me. On that young face, I couldn't see any emotions except for the haggard look of sleep deprivation.
Pinched to death, I don't want to either. I accidentally made a mistake. "The thin and frail man timidly buried his head, avoiding my gaze.
At that time, the girl lived with him in this small room.
The girl has never had a stable job and occasionally asks the man for money. The two of them often argue over trivial matters.
One day, a girl was caught chatting with another member of the opposite sex by a man, and the two got into an argument. The girl slammed the door and left, leaving for two weeks. When she came back, she told him she was pregnant and asked him to take responsibility, but the man didn't believe her.
The pregnancy issue has been entangled for two months. On the night of the incident, the girl mentioned her pregnancy again and asked the man to give her money, saying that she needed to go to the hospital for a check-up. The two argued again. Later, the argument escalated into a fight, and in anger, the man accidentally choked his girlfriend to death.
Listening to him say the word 'pregnant' sounds harsh to me.
I opened my mouth several times, wanting to tell the man in front of me that the girl is really pregnant and the child is yours! But just as he was about to say it, it turned into an emotionless question: 'What happened after being strangled?'"
He went to the internet cafe to play all night, and the next day at noon, he pushed open the door and entered the house. His girlfriend's body was still lying there.
The man knew there was surveillance at the door and couldn't handle the body directly. He could only use a kitchen knife to chop his girlfriend into several pieces. The next day, taking advantage of the darkness, he threw the suitcase containing the body into the river.
Still missing the girl's head and limbs.
The man led us to a small river more than 200 meters away from the rental house, indicating that this was the dumping site.
The surface of the small river is only seven or eight meters wide, and the water depth in the center of the river is only 2 meters. It is connected to the large river where the bodies were found. When the tide recedes and the gates are opened, the water flow in the small river becomes turbulent, and it is very likely that the luggage drifted into the river along with the water flow when the gates were opened.
I touched the cold river water and said, 'Let's start fishing from here!'"
The police called two experienced security personnel with salvage experience and borrowed two sets of one-piece rubber suits.
If the remaining parts of the body cannot be found here, it will be up to the water police and professional divers to search within a 3-kilometer-long river channel between the dumping location and the discovery location of the torso.
A team member put their foot into the river, and the water gradually overflowed to their chest. As soon as they reached the designated location of the suspect, the team members raised their hands and gestured, saying, "I stepped on something"
What was salvaged was a skull, white and colorful. I quickly put on my gloves and carefully took them over.
The slender cheekbones, flat brow bones, small mastoid nodules behind the ears, and overall small skull - all of these features remind me that this is a female skull.
It's her.
At the moment the skull was retrieved, the weak chain of evidence was intact.
If it weren't for the fight between the men, this scene might have been delayed for many years.
I put my skull aside quietly, and the man with ankle shackles and hands bound by police ropes slowly crouched down beside the skull.
After a year, this impulsive and violent man finally pushed himself, along with the truth, in front of me.
He tilted to one side as if his bones had been pulled out, and two detectives next to him struggled to hold onto his arms. That terrifying night a year ago may be replaying in his mind now.
Subsequently, at the same location, two lower limb and one upper limb fragments were found, with the human tissue on top completely saponified, like a large dark black sludge covering the white bones.
Not family, not boyfriend, but me, seeing her for the first time in a year.
We finally met.
Three days later in the afternoon, I went to the second floor with the appraisal report and on-site files of the girl's dismemberment case to find Wang Mas from the criminal investigation team. He started working in the same year as me and has a very generous personality.
He was leaning against the wall of the hallway smoking, and I handed him the file bag for him to sign. After enduring a few times, I still asked the question that had been pressing in my heart for over a year: "Does this girl not have any family members here"
Yes, I work in the neighboring city with my parents and an older brother, "Wang Mas took the pen and hastily signed his name, answering without looking up.
Through the confession of the suspect, Wang Mas obtained the name of the deceased and found the girl's home based on her identity information.
She is not what we imagine, working alone away from her hometown. Not only does she have parents and older brothers, but her address is also very close to the crime scene. This family has been working locally for nearly 10 years and their economic situation is not bad. They have a small second-hand house and have settled down.
This is a girl from such a family. Her parents and brother have not received any news about her for a year, but there is no doubt about her. Until Wang Mas found it,
They only found out that the girl had been murdered for over a year.
We asked her parents about the girl's condition, and they said they only heard that her daughter works in the town, but they are not sure about her specific workplace or where she lives. They know their daughter has a boyfriend, but they don't know his name, let alone his phone number.
My biological daughter seems to be a non-existent transparent person.
I don't know how many secrets there are behind this family.
Wang Mas told me that when he told his family that the body needed to be taken back for their own disposal, their biggest concern was whether they needed to pay a storage fee to the funeral home. If necessary, we won't come to handle the body.
They still want the murderer to compensate, "Wang Mas looked gloomy, exhaled a cigarette ring, and then took out a piece of paper from his pocket, saying," Here, you can sign this. "It was the girl's death certificate.
When you are striving to speak up for the deceased, what the person closest to her by blood cares about is whether she can finally make a fortune.
I really want to use a few vulgar words, but when it comes to my lips, it's just a sigh. Behind every corpse lies a cold and ironic world. The body of another similar girl is still lying in the funeral home, with no news from relatives or friends.
Wang Mas leaned against the wall, his gloomy expression obscured by the swirling smoke.
I have many opportunities to see the girl's appearance, as long as I enter her information into the police system.
But I know she needs the truth, not sympathy.
Taking the girl's death certificate, I neatly wrote five words in the cause of death column: mechanical asphyxia. I have to sign hundreds of copies of this paper every year, but this time I sincerely hope that the name on the next one belongs to another girl who is still at the funeral home.
A beam of winter sunshine shone on the glass of a nearby building, and then reflected back. I squinted my eyes and looked out through the glass, with golden eyes in my eyes.
Until today, I still don't know what this girl looks like.