National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 259 - 259 244 Eager to Try

259: Chapter 244 Eager to Try 259: Chapter 244 Eager to Try Whether it’s a dismemberment, a cremated corpse, or a case involving skeletal remains, the key to solving any case that involves forensic anthropology is identifying the source of the body.

Essentially, the pivotal question, “who is he,” is the foundation of solving such cases.

Just like doctors at grassroots hospitals, ordinary grassroots forensic doctors primarily rely on instruments and equipment for identification.

Of course, high-end forensic experts won’t start boiling water right away either.

Normally, DNA is tested first; they’ll attempt to retrieve fingerprints, and if there are none, they’ll look for any unique markings such as fingerprints or medical identifiers like steel plates and screws.

Generally speaking, it is believed that having steel screws implanted in a regular hospital is the most effective proof of identity for an ordinary person.

Steel screws cause less damage and are more concealed; after someone is killed, a forensic doctor can easily find the marking, while the murderer might overlook it due to lack of equipment and the barrier of flesh and bone.

The issues with steel plates and implants are the same; they are less concealed and the surgeries are larger in scale.

Tattoos and scars are even less concealed; if the killer is meticulous, they might cut them out separately.

Moreover, they cannot be used for positive identification searches.

Dental records are very useful in the United States; their effectiveness is average in China because there is no unified database, making positive identification searches impossible.

Thus, in China, dental records can be used for confirmation, but using them to identify a person, to accomplish the task of confirming their identity, is still quite difficult.

On the other hand, steel plates in the head usually have serial numbers and are not easily discovered; if you’re lucky, they might even withstand an attacker’s blunt force hit once.

The risk lies in the head being easy to completely take away, as was the case with the first scattered corpse that was found; no matter how hard they searched, the skull couldn’t be found, likely because the murderer handled it separately.

——Dismemberers always prefer to handle the head separately, and some even bury it in their own homes, as if it’s a kind of madness common to both Eastern and Western cultures.

Generally, for grassroots forensic doctors in identifying the source of a body, these are the three main techniques.

If there was an additional move to add, it would be the items found beside the body.

The clothes the deceased wore in life, their personal belongings, and now, the trash dumped alongside the deceased.

If we evaluate by the standards of current cases, these pieces of trash don’t hold much value.

But for cold cases, even tiny and pitiful pieces of information are still information.

The first thing Jiang Yuan dug out was some packaging bags and beverage bottles.

Wang Lan said, “I’ll take note of the timeline.”

“Good,” Jiang Yuan handed over the trash with easily identifiable time markers to Wang Lan.

At the same time, he also separated some organic matter and set aside still identifiable items, such as fish bones and pork bones.

Theoretically, if there are uncooked bones, it might also be possible to extract DNA from them.

As for what use it serves, it depends on the situation.

At the very least, DNA is one-to-one evidence, with high accuracy, so it is very valuable.

Besides these non-biodegradable pieces of trash and some wet waste, Jiang Yuan also separately sorted out textiles and paper.

These items can also prove the source of the body.

Not necessarily in terms of time, maybe in terms of location.

If it’s possible to determine which clothing articles or papers came from which trash bin, then searching for missing or deceased individuals in the vicinity would become easier.

Of course, all these premises rely on the assumption that the trash came with the body.

If not…

Then the only option is to continue analyzing the body.

Forensic Anthropology is amazing!

The forensic doctors gathering around, who also do tasks similar to what Jiang Yuan was doing on a regular basis, watched as he sorted quickly and effectively, with exceptionally clear categorization—like a seasoned pro at trash sorting—naturally pitched in to assist.

After all, no one wanted to take over the task of sorting trash.

As for how to analyze the trash specifically, everyone had their own insights.

In fact, most forensic doctors have a secondary expertise beyond the body itself.

For instance, most forensic doctors have a bit of a fashion sense.

Because you have to write reports, and in those reports, you need to describe in detail how the body was dressed.

In your jurisdiction, besides plainly dressed working people, there are also fashionably dressed working people.

Terms like dark round-neck ponchos, sleeveless fitted waist hooded hip-wrapping dresses, and similar descriptions come into play.

If enough fashionable folks meet their demise, even the most straightforward of forensic doctors can become petite fashion experts.

It’s easy to imagine that forensic doctors in Paris and Milan would have strong insights into fashion.

If they work long enough, they might even write something like a treatise on the fashion of death.

Chief Medical Examiner Niu, on the other hand, is particularly adept at analyzing paper.

It’s not quite accurate to say he’s “adept” at it; rather, he is exceptionally familiar with paper types and their processing.

Chief Medical Examiner Niu is particularly acquainted with household paper—like tissues, pull-up wipes, handkerchiefs, and toilet paper.

This is mainly because he has worked in an area with weak public security and an industry structure heavily skewed towards offline entertainment, where he regularly fished tissues out of waste bins to test for semen stains.

Doing this frequently, he could tell if it’s GB/T 20808-2011 facial tissue paper or GB/T 20810-2018 hygienic paper just by looking at it.

He could easily differentiate common materials like virgin wood pulp, virgin pulp, pure wood pulp, mixed pulp, or even the more unusual bamboo pulp.

Chief Medical Examiner Niu could also distinguish several common brands by touch and smell.