Chapter 383 The image of the murderer is sketched in the wind and rain [2 in 1]
There were roaring thunder and crackling rain everywhere. The weather was getting worse and worse, as if the water that had been stored for a long time was filled into a basin and then poured out all at once.
The door of the dilapidated shed in Wuwu Village that had been idle for a long time was suddenly opened. Chen Guangyao stepped in wearing a raincoat, pushed off the raincoat hood, and reached out to take the umbrella from Teresa who followed in. After the other party walked into the house, he helped to fold the umbrella.
Yi Jiayi and others who were standing at the innermost of this temporary command center stopped discussing and turned to look at the people at the door.
Jiayi walked to the kitchen, picked up the kettle and poured a few cups of warm water, and handed them to Brother Da Guangming and Teresa, a senior chemist at the Central Police Station in turn.
After receiving the water, several people whispered thanks, then took off their raincoats, shook off the rain on their bodies, and sat quietly in the back row of detectives.
Tannen then continued to elaborate on the description of arsonists in the "Criminal Psychology" professional course:
"...about 80% of arsonists are men;
"There are several motives: a. revenge, resentment or jealousy; b. world-weary emotions that challenge authority; c. concealing or transferring the crime, such as killing someone and then setting the body on fire to cover up the crime scene; d. making a profit, defrauding insurance; e. intimidation, blackmail and other evil plots; f. pyromania. "
Jiayi stood on the other side of the whiteboard, listening and taking notes in her notebook.
"Because Officer Yi Jiayi found the location where the suspected murderer watched the fire scene, and based on the profile of the arsonist, excitement-driven pyromaniacs often choose to watch the fire from a safe location. Therefore, we can preliminarily determine that the murderer is a pyromaniac - his motive for arson is likely that he desires to gain some kind of excitement through this incident, and the Eight Immortals Taoist Temple, because of its remote location and other factors, just happens to meet the conditions for his selection of targets.
"The murderer vomited after watching the fire, which could be a reaction caused by excessive excitement. At the same time, it is very likely that although he is a habitual arsonist and has the characteristic of getting excited after arson, this is the first time that arson has caused death, so there are also some physiological reactions caused by fear.
"Therefore, we should mobilize all arson case files in the New Territories in the past year to find habitual offenders whose arson crimes have escalated layer by layer and finally led to the serious level of 'burning down a Taoist temple'. Then we should interrogate and investigate them one by one to find the real murderer."
Tannen paused after speaking, turned to look at Yi Jiayi, and asked humbly:
"Madam Yi, what do you think? "
Jiayi turned her head to look at Wang Jiewang, and when she saw him nod, she spoke:
"I very much agree with Tannen's direction of screening. I think the idea of habitual offenders and pyromaniacs is ok."
Then she looked at Wang Jiewang again.
Sir Wang, who had worked with Yi Jiayi before, tacitly got that Yi Jiayi was asking for his opinion and waiting for him to give orders, so he immediately turned around and pointed to his three detectives, arranging for him to return to the police station to retrieve the files.
After receiving the order, the three immediately put on raincoats, held umbrellas, and plunged into the heavy rain.
"Tannen, in addition to what you said, I have another idea that I would like to share with everyone. "Jia Yi said, picking up the copies of several old files that Sister Yan had personally driven thousands of miles to bring her from the police station, and showed Tannen and the other detectives the parts she had marked when she had just read through:
"Looking at the arson cases that have occurred in Hong Kong in the past few decades, in fact, most of the murderers' motives are complicated.
"They are often not so pure. For example, the murderer in this case set the fire for the purpose of covering up his crime, but after setting the fire, he also chose to watch the fire nearby.
"For example, in this case, the murderer set the fire to intimidate his neighbors, but at the same time, he also had the trait of liking to set fires since he was a child...
" "So we initially judged that the murderer might be a pyromaniac, but we cannot completely determine the murderer's unique motive for the crime when we know too little information."
Tannen nodded seriously, and after thoroughly understanding Yi Jiayi's meaning, he took out his notebook and began to take notes.
The other detectives were also reminded by Tannen's actions, and the sounds of taking out notebooks and writing could be heard in the wooden house.
"We can do a divergent screening of the murderer's motives."
Jiayi wrote the motives mentioned by Tannen on the whiteboard, and then pointed to the words [profit, insurance fraud] and said:
"We have confirmed that this one is not true."
"Let's look at this one." Then, she pointed to [intimidation, extortion, terrorist acts] and crossed it out:
"All the investigation results from the fire to the present do not meet the conditions of terrorist acts. Detective Tan Sanfu led the team to collect statements from the villagers, and no traces of intimidation or extortion were found for the time being."
"Regarding the transfer of crime... I want to ask the forensic officer and my colleagues in the forensic department a few questions." Jiayi looked at Da Guangming and Teresa and asked:
"May I ask how the murderer set the fire?"
"About two barrels of gasoline. Judging from the highest temperature point of the fire and the division of the severity of the fire, the front door and the back door were spilled with the most gasoline. The murderer's starting point was probably to trap everyone in the Taoist temple and burn them all to death." As a very experienced fire investigation expert, Teresa immediately gave a more definite answer.
After thanking him, Jiayi called Xu Junhao who had already gone to the hospital with the team to perform an autopsy:
"Sir Xu, I would like to ask, among the 17 bodies, are there any bodies whose cause of death was not caused by fire?"
"The preliminary results of the assessment show that all the bodies show the characteristics of death caused by fire, and there is no objection for the time being." Although Xu Junhao will perform in-depth autopsies one by one to determine whether the other deceased had incurable diseases, premature poisoning, etc., it is basically certain that regardless of whether these 17 bodies were poisoned or had a terminal illness, at least they were alive before the fire.
"Thank you." After Jiayi hung up the phone, she put a small question mark and a big cross behind the motive of [covering up the crime]:
"If the murderer is covering up the crime and diverting the public's attention, then the extent to which he had to use two barrels of gasoline to burn everyone to death must be a sign of homicide. And Sir Xu has already determined that there is no one in the Taoist temple who died without being burned, so this speculation that everyone in the Taoist temple was burned to death to cover up the crime is not so tenable."
Unless the murderer is super crazy, but in such extreme cases, if there are too many clues, the sorting can be temporarily postponed.
Everyone looked up at the whiteboard and found that the remaining motives for the crime were:
[revenge, resentment and jealousy]
[wanton destruction to challenge authority, venting of nihilism]
【Pyromania】
Jiayi put a check mark behind 【Pyromania】 and pointed to the other two motives and said:
"If the murderer also has the motive of 【revenge, resentment and jealousy】, then we can look for insiders and interview all the citizens to try to dig deeper into those who have come to the Taoist temple recently and passed by Wuwu Village, and seem a little suspicious. Is there anyone who knows whether anyone has had a conflict with the Taoist priests in the temple?
"Also, the identity of the woman who died in the Taoist temple, and the identity of the other man who was not wearing a Taoist robe and did not have a long bun. After finding out, we can also dig deeper into their social relationships to see if there is anyone around them who has a motive for setting fire and killing people. "
Without waiting for Yi Jiayi and Wang Jiewang to speak, Tan Sanfu stood up and said actively:
"Inspector Wang, Inspector Yi, I will take Jiaming and George to the hospital to meet with the forensic officer and be responsible for finding out the identities of the man and woman who died in the gym. "
Yi Jiayi glanced at Wang Jiewang and nodded in agreement after gaining his absolute support. She then asked Wang Jiewang to send an agent from the North New Territories who was a local who was more familiar with the area to take Brother Sanfu and the others to carry out the mission.
Hugo originally wanted to grab the job, but when Sanfu stood up, he realized that he was moving too slowly and felt very sorry.
George put on his raincoat and was about to go out, but he suddenly remembered something, turned back and whispered to Liang Shule, "You should take note of what Sister Eleven said. I'll ask you to take notes later."
"Don't worry. "Liang Shule patted his chest with his hands, indicating that he would make sure to write the notes neatly without missing a word.
George then rushed into the heavy rain without looking back and caught up with Brother Sanfu and others.
...
The door of the shed was closed, and the wind and rain were once again blocked out.
Jiayi held the marker, turned her head to look at the whiteboard, and continued to focus on the last item:
"If the murderer wanted to challenge authority, vent his world-weary emotions, and deliberately destroy and disrupt... I remember that in this profile, 90% of arsonists are teenagers, right?"
"Yes. "Tannen immediately raised his head from his notes and answered yes.
"Although this group of teenagers have indeed caused major arson cases before, most of the time, they would not block the front and back doors and burn everyone in the Taoist temple, such excessive and cruel arson, right?" Jiayi asked again. "
Yes, many times they are just minor incidents, and some of them are caused by the overlap of accidents and coincidences, causing the situation to develop out of control and lead to terrible fires. There are usually no such acts of killing with such a strong murderous purpose and such a huge number of people being killed as burning everyone in the Taoist temple. "Tannen recalled the detailed description of this type of arson case and immediately gave a positive answer.
Jiayi nodded, and then wrote a small question mark and a big cross after this item.
So, after Yi Jiayi and Tannen's expert logical analysis, among the numerous and complex clues of the super fire case, two clear and high-priority [criminal motives] were listed and clearly displayed on the whiteboard.
...
Teresa, who came from the Forensic Department of the Central Police Station, sat in the back row and looked at the words on the whiteboard. Most scientists and experts have an ambiguous attitude towards psychologists, and she is no exception.
Fire scene investigation, forensic scene inspection, evidence testing, etc. are all absolutely practical sciences. She admired Yi Jiayi's calm and humble look when she gave instructions, and she also recognized Yi Jiayi's strong logical analysis ability. However, Teresa did not agree that the so-called criminal psychology profiling could really draw a portrait of the murderer. Everything
still depends on real evidence...
She was wondering whether she should leave quietly and take the evidence back for testing, and Yi Jiayi, who was standing in front of the whiteboard, suddenly cast her eyes over.
Teresa's eyes met with Yi Jiayi's, and she felt a little nervous.
"Sister Teresa, Da Guangming said that there is no one in Hong Kong who is more professional than you in fire scene investigation. I want to hear your on-site investigation analysis." Jiayi said, then took a step back and asked Teresa to give her ideas.
Teresa glanced at the eyes that were cast towards her. Seeing that Yi Jiayi attached so much importance to the forensic investigation of the fire scene, she accepted it calmly, took out her own investigation log, and said:
"Based on the footprints found by Madam Yi in the area that may be the murderer's base, the height and other information inferred by Sir Chen, Director Diane and I are consistent."
"170cm tall, 132 pounds." Jiayi looked at the contents of her notebook and raised her head to inquire.
"Yes. "Teresa nodded.
Jiayi immediately marked the two items on the whiteboard and added: "Of course, this is based on my speculation about the base, and there is no problem with the premise."
"Yes." After Teresa responded, she continued: "Outside the front door and the back door of the Taoist temple, we found trace amounts of gasoline residues that had seeped into the soil. From the combustion reaction at the scene, it can be determined that the initial ignition fuel used by the murderer was gasoline. Later, the gasoline ignited the wooden courtyard wall, dry firewood and other items in the courtyard, intensifying the fire. The gate, walls, etc. collapsed and blocked the road. The fire was so big that it blocked the escape route of the Taoists in the Taoist temple. "
Jia Yi wrote the word [gasoline] on the whiteboard.
Teresa continued: "From the base that Madam Yi found, we found cigarettes, but no matches or other items. So the initial judgment is that the murderer's ignition tool is likely to be a lighter, and he lit cigarettes or other flammable materials and then threw them on the gasoline...
"The results of the on-site investigation infer that the fire started at the front door."
Jia Yi wrote down [front door: fire starting point] and continued: "This is consistent with our profile of the murderer's behavior. If a person wants to hide at the back door to watch the fire, he will not choose the back door as the fire starting point. After lighting the fire at the front door, it is reasonable to go to the back door to watch. Humans have the instinct to avoid the place where the accident happened."
Teresa thought about it and felt that this made sense, so she nodded and continued:
"We have reconstructed the postures of most of the victims, and simulated the scene based on the body numbers. At that time, the forensic officer preliminarily determined the cause of death of each body, some died of carbon monoxide poisoning, some died of burns... After comparing the wind direction last night, it can be basically determined that there are no other objections at the fire scene -
"The murderer poured gasoline around the Taoist temple and set it on fire at the main gate. The liquid fuel ignited the solid fuel, and the climate and other conditions caused the fire to spread too quickly. There was no survivor in the Taoist temple. All the victims basically died in this fire..."
Yi Jiayi listened very seriously, and added some information on the whiteboard from time to time. After Teresa's preliminary investigation conclusion, Jiayi asked again:
"Is there anything different or worth noting about the fire scene this time and the fire scene that Sister Teresa has investigated before?"
Teresa had never had such in-depth contact with Yi Jiayi before. Although she had a brief encounter with Yi Jiayi in a case, and often saw reports about Yi Jiayi afterwards, and saw Yi Jiayi on stage at the year-end conference, Teresa always felt that a young person who became famous at a young age and was so popular should be quite arrogant in his bones, and might even be overconfident and strong, or even stubborn and self-righteous.
When Teresa was transferred here to investigate the fire scene, she was a little worried that she was not familiar with Yi Jiayi and didn't know whether her judgment would be recognized and trusted by the other party.
But now, after several rounds of exchanges between the two rooms, Teresa's worries became less and less. Yi Jiayi's humble, polite, and careful attitude almost completely dispelled her worries.
"Yes, there are some." Teresa thought for a while, and then said seriously: "In the scene surveyed in the past few years, even if it is a serious fire, gasoline is often only poured on the door of the residents' residence. Even on the first floor, the murderer will not pour gasoline on all the windows and set them on fire. If it is a factory, gasoline will be poured on the main door, leaving the side door and the back door. Or pour gasoline on all the doors, but the walls and other places can still be used for people to jump over the wall to escape... Most of these arsonists do not really kill everyone.
"Besides, pouring gasoline around such a large Taoist temple is very hard, and carrying two barrels of gasoline up the hill is not easy either. If the person is not particularly determined, the countless tired moments on the way up the hill and in the process of pouring gasoline are enough to give up his idea."
In fact, since the city began to eliminate gangs and eliminate evil, Teresa has not seen such a vicious arson incident for a long time, such as pouring gasoline around the entire Taoist temple without leaving any escape hatches for the people inside.
"The possibility of 'accidentally' pouring gasoline around the entire Taoist temple has basically been ruled out... The murderer is likely to have great malicious intentions and is rushing to kill people. "Yi Jiayi wrote the word [kill] after the motive for committing the crime.
In this way, revengeful motives with hatred are likely to be the main motive.
Pyromania for seeking excitement may only be a secondary motive.
Jiayi frowned and looked at the whiteboard, and drew two lines under [revenge, resentment and jealousy]. After her thoughts became clearer than before, she began to think about taking these new cognitions and the unknown parts after the profiling to find the forensic officers and look at the psychological resonance of the 17 corpses again. Look for any suspicious people who match the current profiling information and have appeared before the 17 victims.
Just like after reading a book, you gain some knowledge, but there are also some doubts. Then read the book again with these doubts to find the answers to all the questions.
"From the comparison of the details of various arson cases, this murderer is indeed extremely vicious." Teresa nodded, and was quite impressed by Yi Jiayi's ability to deduce the details and implement them in the profile based on the on-site investigation.
No wonder she can become an inspector at such a young age.
"Thanks to Sister Teresa and all my colleagues in the Forensic Department, we have a clearer overall understanding of this case." Jiayi nodded seriously while thinking about Teresa's words.
"OK, then we will go back to the police station to do the follow-up tests." Teresa turned her head to look at Chen Guangyao, stood up and applied.
"No problem, thank you for your understanding. " Jiayi hurriedly gathered her thoughts.
When Teresa walked out, she took a step towards the whiteboard, shook hands solemnly with Yi Jiayi, and then followed Chen Guangyao.
...
Walking out of the shed and into the rain, Teresa recalled the stereotype of the 'young genius' that existed in her mind before she walked in; and because she was worried that Yi Jiayi would establish her authority in front of strangers like them in order to maintain her authority, she had kept a stern face after entering the door, afraid of being manipulated and bullied...
Shaking her head and sneering, she walked through the rain and got into Chen Guangyao's car. Looking at the wind and rain outside the window, Teresa said:
"Yi Jiayi is the most lovely celebrity I have ever met. "
It turns out that not all 'self-improvement' requires stepping on others.
Sometimes, only by identifying with and respecting others can one appear truly powerful, and even be looked up to by others.
Chen Guangyao stepped on the accelerator and drove a distance in the wind and rain. After listening to Teresa's sharing, he couldn't help but chuckle:
"Eleven may not have any respect or arrogance in her mind."
"?" Teresa raised her eyebrows.
"She may just be thinking about how to deal with this case? I have to discuss it with everyone. Does anyone have any particularly useful angles and clues? Otherwise, what if everyone has ideas but doesn't tell me?"
"..." Hearing this, Teresa's mind outlined a pure workaholic beauty who only has cases in her mind.
After thinking about it carefully, she couldn't help but smile.