National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 85 - 85 84 Long-standing Frustration

85: Chapter 84 Long-standing Frustration 85: Chapter 84 Long-standing Frustration When ordinary trace examiners handle cold case fingerprints and produce results, they must submit them to fingerprint experts for review.

Some provinces and cities have dedicated organizations like “Fingerprint Expert Committee” for fingerprint review.

However, most consider using expert manpower a waste and adopt a model where a designated person collects fingerprints, then assigns them to experts for matching, and finally consolidates their opinions, as in Shannan Province.

However, during a fingerprint battle, there’s no need for such formalities.

Everyone present is an expert, and skipping them to consult other experts would not only be troublesome but might raise doubts among them—whether actively participating in a campaign organized by the provincial department might cast doubt on one’s expert status.

It also aims to increase everyone’s job enjoyment and help them learn from each other.

During the fingerprint battle, the experts present review each other’s work.

As long as 11 experts complete the review and the majority vote “agree to identify,” the fingerprint matching is considered successful.

The provincial department’s fingerprint desk can then send a letter to the local detective team to organize an arrest.

However, even if 11 experts have completed the review, the fingerprint match will remain in the system, awaiting further review by other experts.

If subsequent experts continue to choose “agree to identify” or if the majority chooses “agree to identify,” it won’t affect the follow-up actions for that fingerprint match.

But during the entire process, if someone chooses “identify exclusion,” it may enter into a new round of discussion and judgment.

For this reason, selecting “identify exclusion” is a decision made with extreme caution, as it is only chosen when there is strong confidence and a solid basis for judgment.

Li Zemin, the uncle next to Jiang Yuan, clicked on the system’s message notification as soon as possible.

Always slow to get into the zone due to his age, he couldn’t keep up with the younger generation, hence he often loafed during the first few days and only started to make an effort after three or four days into the fingerprint battle.

However, Li Zemin was still very concerned and curious about other fingerprint experts’ identifications.

The target fingerprints in the fingerprint battle’s database are not simple.

Most of the fingerprints are key ones that have been read and compared by the experts.

No county bureau would casually provide a key fingerprint from a major case to the provincial department without multiple attempts.

And naturally, the experts involved in the fingerprint battle weren’t easy to deal with either.

Being top-notch experts in the trace examination field within a province, with a wealth of experience and professional skills, they would first choose the methods they were best at, pick fingerprints they were most likely to match successfully, and then spend several hours or even days attempting to match fingerprints.

Most fingerprint experts, during the 14-day period of a fingerprint battle, consider it quite a success if they can do one or two such matches.

And to complete such a match, fingerprint experts naturally have to use all their tricks.

Li Zemin’s favorite thing was to watch his colleagues exert all their effort while pretending as if nothing were happening.

There were a total of 12 notifications in the system messages, indicating that 12 cold case fingerprints had been cracked.

Li Zemin had already agreed with the first 11 notifications.

There wasn’t much to say about that; the first batch of fingerprints completed were carefully studied and self-reviewed by the experts, and few were willing to spend a lot of time achieving someone else’s “identify exclusion.”

The latest system notification, upon clicking, revealed two fingerprints that, to Li Zemin’s expectation, could be easily identified as the same after a brief assessment.

Positive matching is relatively easy, like asking an ordinary person to find two pigs that look most alike in a group—it’s naturally very difficult.

But if you bring two pigs to them and ask if they look alike, most people can give a reliable answer.

Not to mention experts.

Li Zemin lightly manipulated the mouse and clicked “agree” on the latest system notification.

Then, Li Zemin looked at the detailed fingerprint information.

At that moment, Li Zemin noticed that the person who signed off on “identify as the same” was Jiang Yuan next to him.

“Lucky guy,” Li Zemin muttered to himself and continued to look at the fingerprints.

The first thing Li Zemin noticed was the quadrilateral structure of the fingerprints.

He couldn’t help but smile and again praised Jiang Yuan’s good fortune.

However, when he saw the details of the characteristic points of the two fingerprints, Li Zemin’s brow furrowed involuntarily.

Well done, well done…

Li Zemin couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Jiang Yuan and said, “Did you do this fingerprint match yourself, and it wasn’t chewed out by the software?”

The matching in the software system has its rules.

The most basic principle is the matching of a certain number of characteristic points.

More advanced systems can use a scoring system, releasing a match when it reaches a certain score.

But as Li Zemin looked at the two fingerprints, even when brought together, they didn’t seem to have enough characteristic points to match.

However, by human standards, or rather, by comparing not just characteristic points but also structures like points, lines, and planes, they could indeed be determined to be the same.

This could be said to be a very old-fashioned way of fingerprint matching.

Before the era of automatic computer system matching, this was essentially the method everyone used.

It’s just that it’s become less common now.

Jiang Yuan’s eyes were glued to the screen.

As he manipulated the mouse, he said, “I was looking at some other fingerprints when I suddenly saw it.

I pulled it over for a comparison, and it matched up.”

“Then you’ve got a good memory for fingerprints.” Li Zemin smiled, understanding what Jiang Yuan meant.

It was quite normal to think of comparing a fingerprint with such a unique quadrilateral structure upon encountering one.

But really, when it comes to fingerprint structures, within such a small area, just one square centimeter, besides quadrilateral fingerprints, there could also be pentagonal, hexagonal, circular, and other structures.

One would need to have a deep memory of fingerprints to achieve this.

“Luck was on my side.” Jiang Yuan replied curtly, very much in a perfunctory manner.

Li Zemin laughed heartily and patted Jiang Yuan, saying, “Now you’re in luck.

You’re young and have already scored a victory in the fingerprint battle.

No more pressure for you from now on.

The pressure’s all on us old guys.”

While he was speaking, others also agreed with Jiang Yuan’s “determination of sameness”, and the “Cold Case Breakthrough Leaderboard” projected on the wall at the front of the office was immediately updated.

Jiang Yuan’s name rose by more than twenty places, reaching a middle position.

To his right, in the column for his achievements, the number “1” appeared definitively.

Li Zemin’s name was still behind, and he had only a “0” in his achievements.

But he wasn’t worried, for going from 0 to 1 was never difficult.

Li Zemin even had time to continue reviewing the case that had just been determined to be of the same person.

“It’s the strong aggravated molestation of a minor girl case from Miao River County.

This person has committed three roaming offenses, right?

I thought it seemed familiar!” Li Zemin took a sharp breath and exclaimed.

Many people looked over, but most only heard the noise and were somewhat moved by it.

Within the accumulated cold cases of the provincial office, there were numerous significant cases, and human memory is, after all, limited.

However, there were forensic officers from Miao River County present in the office, and one of them stood up and came over to ask directly, “Did you solve 515?”

“Not me, Jiang Yuan got the match.

It’s from Ningtai County Bureau, right?” Li Zemin stepped aside and introduced Jiang Yuan, “Qian Ming Yu is a fingerprint expert from Miao River County, and he’s had 20 years on the job as well.”

“20 years doesn’t help.

I’ve been focused on case 515 for several years.

All three victims were middle school students.

After the incidents, the parents came looking for our bureau numerous times.

Eventually, the victims couldn’t stay in the county any longer.

They moved away one after another, only occasionally calling to inquire…” Qian Ming Yu seemed slightly younger than Li Zemin and sighed as he spoke.

Jiang Yuan stated matter-of-factly, “I came across a quadrilateral fingerprint, compared it, and determined it to be the same.”

“Let me see, from where?” Qian Ming Yu, more familiar with Li Zemin, directly looked at his computer.

Li Zemin gave up his place and took a glance himself, saying, “From Wan Xiang City, it’s a bit far.”

Wan Xiang City and Miao River County were located at the western and eastern ends respectively, virtually spanning the bounds of Shan Nan Province.

Qian Ming Yu gave a heavy “Mhm” and nodded to Jiang Yuan before taking out his phone and saying, “I’ll give our squad leader a heads up.

This case has been a sore spot in our county for a long time.”