National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 382 - 382 349 The Same Traces

382: Chapter 349 The Same Traces 382: Chapter 349 The Same Traces “We’ve contacted the officer who handled the case that day,” Wang Chuanxing came over with his phone, paused, and then said, “Since it was an attempted crime, progress on the case has been quite slow, and there hasn’t been much advancement.”

“I’ve asked them to send over a copy of the photos and other materials, and I will organize them immediately.”

“We’ve reached out to the family of the victim.”

One by one, subordinates came to report, and at this time, Jiang Yuan looked up and said, “I’d like to speak with a family member of the victim, who is available?”

“The victim’s mother.” Tang Jia dialed the number and handed the phone directly to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan acknowledged with a “hmm” and took the phone, waited two seconds, and said in a deep voice, “Hello, this is Jiang Yuan.

Are you Xue Zhou’s mother?”

“Yes, that’s me.

Is there something the matter?” The woman on the other end of the line was very nervous.

“We just want to understand some details…

Could you tell me about the circumstances when Xue Zhou was lured away?

What did the perpetrator look like?”

“It was a middle-aged woman around her forties or fifties, she appeared to be well-maintained, my son said her skin was quite good, fairly pale…”

Under Jiang Yuan’s guidance, Xue Zhou’s mother described the perpetrator, then said anxiously, “She won’t come after us again, will she?

Ever since that incident, we haven’t dared to go to crowded places with Zhouzhou, and several times, when he finds himself alone in a room, he starts crying…”

Jiang Yuan offered what reassurance he could and then handed the phone back to Tang Jia to continue the comforting efforts.

In the eyes of the police, a criminal case is just a task, complex and severe as it may be, but it’s not a deeply personal pain.

To the victims and their families, however, even an attempted crime can cause years of anxiety and distress.

Jiang Yuan shook his head and returned to the conference table, pondering for a moment before saying, “Let’s break down the tasks.”

The eight individuals he had brought with him immediately focused their attention on him.

The other experts, as well as the detectives from the Guqi City Criminal Police Team, also pricked up their ears.

“Send two people to the scene.

It’s a rural fair with a high volume of people, so the likelihood of leaving traces is small.

However, the rural fair is relatively secluded.

Could the perpetrator’s choice of this location be related to her personal experiences?

Is she a local or does she have any relatives in the area?

Make sure to thoroughly investigate these possibilities.”

Jiang Yuan didn’t call out any names; this had become a small tradition within Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad since its establishment.

Initially, Jiang Yuan didn’t even know everyone’s strengths or remember all their names.

After some time of self-management, the detectives proved very effective.

In fact, all of them were highly experienced and intelligent, capable enough to lead a squad on their own if needed.

The eight people could self-assign tasks for discussions of this level with just a few glances at each other.

Shen Yaowei and Meng Chengbiao looked at each other and then said, “The two of us will head there.”

Both were adept at interpersonal communication, though Meng Chengbiao tended to be a bit more heavy-handed, but his skills were still useful.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said, “Besides paying attention to the scene, the priority is to find any witnesses, check for surveillance, their mode of transportation, whether accommodation was needed, if they stayed overnight…”

Jiang Yuan shared his initial thoughts, adding, “In an attempted crime, if it wasn’t solved at the time, the clues they can leave now will be limited.

You’ll have to rely on yourselves.”

“Understood,” both Meng Chengbiao and Shen Yaowei responded.

Before Jiang Yuan could issue further orders, Wang Chuanxing took the initiative and said, “Based on the provided time and location, I gathered some photos from social media.

Since many people know each other at rural fairs, and it was a child abduction case, quite a few shared posts on WeChat Moments and on microblogs.

I’ve organized what I found and will bring it over.”

“Good,” Jiang Yuan nodded in approval.

Another two took the initiative to contact the cyber police and to review surveillance footage.

Without assigning further tasks, Jiang Yuan began to review the photos they already had.

To solve new cases by studying old ones is a method most often used in serial killer investigations.

The principle is essentially the same.

Serial killers, due to their higher number of killings, accumulate more experience, often selecting the least detectable methods for homicide and body disposal.

In such cases, if one can find the very first case committed by the serial killer and concentrate all efforts on it, there is a high chance of cracking the case.

It’s like a student who’s worked hard to become top of the class, producing flawless exam papers that leave teachers unable to deduct any points.

What to do then?

Find the earlier papers they’ve written, identify them by certain answering patterns, confirm their ownership of these papers, and then deduct 41 points in one fell swoop.

How satisfying that would be.

That’s the theory, but in practice, it’s far from easy.

Proving that the same person or the same group of people committed two cases and thereby combining them for joint handling is, in itself, quite difficult.

At least, for an ordinary criminal police team of a municipal bureau, achieving this step already leaves them gasping for breath.

On the other hand, cases that are relatively simple are only relatively so.

Including this abduction attempt at the rural market.

If it had been a case that could be solved in the blink of an eye, the local police, even if very busy, would have tackled it in queue.

It is precisely because of a certain degree of difficulty that it wasn’t pursued further.

And this difficulty is a hindrance in itself.

Like Jiang Yuan, who now needs to immediately crack this attempted case, still feels somewhat at a loss on where to begin.

No matter the size, cold cases actually all have a certain level of difficulty in investigation.

This is especially true if the police handling the current case do not treat it seriously, and if the dossier is poorly organized, then it’s even harder to investigate subsequently as a cold case.

Jiang Yuan’s mood, though, remains stable.

At the Wen Township Police Station, he can work through the cold cases in order; here too, he possesses ample confidence, it’s just that he needs some time to accumulate and sift through information.

The meeting room entered a brief moment of calm.

Those who needed to leave did so, and those who had work to attend to did it.

Buzz.

Jiang Yuan’s phone vibrated.

Jiang Yuan pressed the speakerphone button and said, “I’m on speakerphone.”

“Oh, Captain Jiang, this is Wei Yin.

I’m reporting to you that Tan Yong, the principal offender in the 326 kidnapping and murder case you previously solved, was executed this morning,” said Wei Yin, an administrator for the squadron, relaying the news to Jiang Yuan after receiving it.

Jiang Yuan paused for a moment before nodding and saying, “Well executed.”

“We also said that kind of person would even emit black smoke when burning…

The victims and their families must have received the news too, and someone even sent a silk banner over; Director Huang instructed to hang it on the fourth floor,” Wei Yin added two more sentences before ending the call.

Jiang Yuan ended the conversation and continued working on his case.

To everyone else, Jiang Yuan, who’d just brought a killer to justice, seemed to radiate an aura.

In the evening.

A large amount of information began to converge.

It wasn’t just Jiang Yuan; two more experts quietly joined in as well.

One was Wu Xia, who specialized in fingerprints, and the other was Professor Liu, an expert in crime scene reconstruction.

Neither of them wanted to rest while being currently unoccupied; they too started analyzing the rural market case.

At this moment, a description from an eyewitness caught Jiang Yuan’s attention.

He quickly turned on his computer and began searching.

After several verifications, Jiang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, “These guys, they have a habit of stealing cars.”

Hearing his tone, everyone looked over at him.

“In the rural market case, someone reported seeing a culprit leave in a red car.

I noticed in the police bulletin that a red Santana was reported missing.

Then I checked the cases here in Guqi City, and it turns out cars were stolen here too these past few days,” Jiang Yuan pointed to his screen, and Tang Jia quickly approached to connect his screen to the projector.

As everyone naturally looked over, someone said, “Although cases of car theft are rare nowadays, there are still people who steal cars for various reasons.

Just because there was car theft in both doesn’t necessarily confirm the cases are related, right?”

“One reason is that the car stolen at the rural market was quickly abandoned, and many traces were left inside.

On Guqi City’s end, I found that a rental car company’s vehicle was maliciously abandoned by the side of a national road.

The company filed a report, and the traces in the photos they provided are similar,” Jiang Yuan, having identified traces on both vehicles using Level 6 trace identification, was naturally quite certain.

Wu Xia, also an expert in trace identification, perked up upon hearing this and eagerly asked, “What kind of traces?”

So Jiang Yuan showed Wu Xia several photos.

Wu Xia: This?

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