National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 380 - 380 347 Command

380: Chapter 347 Command 380: Chapter 347 Command “Traffickers often tend to be repeat offenders,” Gao Changjiang frowned as he responded to Jiang Yuan, saying, “We have already screened all the traffickers released from prison recently, with a dozen officers working on this.

So far, we’ve found nothing.”

Jiang Yuan straightened his back, wanting to continue speaking.

Gao Changjiang, feeling that Jiang Yuan’s understanding of the case was still insufficient, pretended not to see and continued, “Based on the current crime scene, the killer really left very few traces.

That’s precisely why we have requested the ministry and invited all of you experts to assist…”

The experts present each looked through the case files, none of them spoke up immediately.

Gao Changjiang sighed, saying, “Although there are few traces, the support from our superiors is very high.

As long as there’s the slightest clue, we can follow up on it…”

“Director Gao, we have already screened for any valuable clues as much as possible since yesterday.

By now, it has become very difficult to filter out any genuine leads,” the expert sitting opposite Jiang Yuan countered Gao Changjiang.

The difference between cases can be enormous, some offenders are inexperienced and careless, leaving clues all over the place.

The main job for detectives or experts is to find the most straightforward clue and, by the way, make sure the evidence chain is complete when catching the culprit.

But some offenders are indeed cautious, and with a bit of coincidence or luck, they leave very few clues behind.

In such cases, choosing the direction of investigation becomes extremely important—some investigative directions can result in immediate arrests, while others, once overlooked, are useless if you try to come back to them later.

For cases of missing children, facing the second scenario often poses a tremendous challenge.

Assume that one or more offenders, at a location with no surveillance, take a child away using rather covert methods.

As long as they are not stopped during the act, they are likely to leave almost no trace.

Particularly in places like a market, with people coming and going, traces such as footprints or fingerprints can only be described as a complete mess.

Gao Changjiang’s previous strategy of using sheer manpower was to sift through the multitude of fingerprints, attempting to filter out past criminals.

His reasoning was not bad, but the current reality of processing fingerprints is not that fast; maybe in the future AI technology will improve things, but as for now, handling hundreds or thousands of fingerprints is still quite impossible.

The most likely and suitable method is to monitor comings and goings, but the problem is that even the actual whereabouts of the offender are currently untraceable.

The most clear and reliable clue the police have is when and where the child was lost.

Beyond that, they have almost no confirmed information.

You cannot deduce certainty from a pile of uncertainties; the difficulty is too high.

“I know the case is difficult, but we can’t just wait, can we?” Gao Changjiang used a not so clever tactic to persuade everyone, saying, “I suggest we work with Professor Liu to do a crime scene reconstruction and review the case again to see if there are any other clues…”

Professor Liu, the one being mentioned, frowned but indeed did not object.

The other experts all had similar expressions.

As the technology goes deeper, certainty becomes less.

To make the impossible possible is the daily routine of every expert present.

If it weren’t so, how could they possibly be listed by the ministry?

Although the difficulty persists, everyone indeed has the confidence to make a breakthrough by force.

Jiang Yuan could only follow the group to Erma Lane Market where the incident happened.

Gao Changjiang had in fact already sealed off the market.

So, when he said they would start searching tomorrow morning, the actual work had already been done ahead of time.

Professor Liu walked around the market twice to examine the scene.

Jiang Yuan followed as well.

Crime scene reconstruction is a mandatory subject for every student of forensic science.

Whether one can learn it well is another matter—you might as well compare it to calculus and discrete functions.

Professor Liu, with notebook and pen in hand, watched and sketched.

Occasionally he would speak, and his assistants would take rapid notes.

Jiang Yuan, through his Bloodstain Analysis skills, also had some ability to reconstruct crime scenes, but faced with such an undistinguished scene, he was at best a level 1.5—barely showing no embarrassment.

Thus, he also kept silent and just observed.

Jiang Yuan had already mastered Level 4 crime scene investigation techniques early on, which allowed him to take full advantage of such environments.

Theoretically, if the last child’s disappearance site could be found, Jiang Yuan had the capacity to isolate almost all the DNA at the scene, which had a high probability of including the trafficker’s.

However, comparison was still a major issue.

Considering that the numerous fingerprints at the scene had already been compared, going over the DNA again wouldn’t be particularly meaningful.

If the criminal wore gloves or something of the sort, the chances of leaving behind DNA were not great.

Bang!

Another super bright iodine lamp was switched on, this type of lighting equipment often used at construction sites could illuminate an area of 1000 square meters when hung high.

Several lamps hung together ensured that the brightness inside the market was no less than during daytime.

This helped in the search for fingerprints and small pieces of evidence, if there were any.

“How’s it going?” Gao Changjiang also hadn’t slept for 30 hours and was struggling to keep his eyes open.

Professor Liu shook his head, “The criminal didn’t make any violent movements when taking away the child, it’s very likely abduction of some sort.

The probability is higher that they followed the flow of people, and among the several doors here, I believe the west door is more probable…”

Gao Changjiang was quite disappointed.

If it was just to this extent, he could also come up with a bunch of possibilities, albeit more carelessly.

“We can’t just keep waiting for the criminal to act again!” Gao Changjiang cursed resentfully.

Many cases end up like this in the end.

If no culprit can be found from previous cases, one can only wait and see in later cases.

If the criminal stops due to some reason, the case is pretty much done for.

“Look at previous cases then,” Jiang Yuan suggested after inspecting the market, which was the main scene, only to become more certain of his approach.

Gao Changjiang had no other choice, so he turned to Jiang Yuan and said, “We haven’t matched it with the right old cases yet.”

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be in this province, he must have practiced to reach the current level of proficiency.

Also, think about the method of selling, if there wasn’t a way to dispose of them, there would be no need to abduct four children at once,” Jiang Yuan, after handling so many cases, was becoming increasingly aware of the levels of criminals.

Gao Changjiang pondered for a moment, then asked, “Then through what means do we find these old cases?”

He could hear Jiang Yuan’s suggestions, but they seemed to deviate from his investigative range.

Jiang Yuan wasn’t entirely sure either, but after having solved so many cases, his confidence was soaring, and he naturally said, “First, sort out these cases, and then look for similarities.”

Of course, this task was no small feat, but Gao Changjiang was not short of personnel.

He expressed a bit of regret, “I was originally hoping to use technological means to quickly solve the case.”

“The process of sorting out cases will definitely make use of everyone’s technology,” Jiang Yuan spoke his mind, as he was in a neighboring but unfamiliar province and was neither working under Director Gao nor indebted to him, so he spoke with credibility.

Gao Changjiang looked at the other experts, and seeing that they had no objections, he decisively nodded and said, “Then let’s go back and sort out the cases, what do you need?”

“Get some experienced officers to dig up all the disappearance and abduction cases from this province and the surrounding areas in the past two years,” Jiang Yuan felt like he was taking charge of the investigation.

This had become somewhat of a habit for him.

When he was in Ning County, he held a high position, and after moving to Changyang City, given his independent Cold Case Squad, he was now accustomed to commanding and giving orders.

By contrast, the other experts, although well-established, had a single technical specialty that had taken many years to build up, so they tended to provide technical support rather than lead investigations.

Gao Changjiang hesitated for a moment, but still did as Jiang Yuan suggested.

It was a newly established investigation strategy, and with the authority of an expert dispatched from the ministry—although he was now the Director of the city bureau, Gao Changjiang hadn’t handled many ministerial-level cases.

Thus, everyone regrouped and simultaneously allocated manpower to start sifting through cases during the night.

The eight people brought by Jiang Yuan were more familiar with this mode of operation and began to help each other, forming small groups as if they were being commanded by Jiang Yuan himself.