Chapter 25 I Want Your Tongue (I) A Female Corpse is Found
At 9 o'clock in the morning on June 25, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Although the weather was hot and humid, the tranquility and beauty of the countryside were still refreshing.
On this day, Ye Bai and his team came to the countryside with the mission of promoting anti-fraud knowledge.
Although most of the elderly use simple-function mobile phones, face-to-face communication is still crucial for delivering anti-fraud information.
During the promotional event, a kind lady took Ye Bai's arm and asked half-jokingly: "Young man, since you are here to promote, don't you want to give us some eggs or something?"
Ye Bai was speechless for a moment, because they really didn't prepare such a small gift.
Despite this, Ye Bai and his team quickly integrated into the local atmosphere. The villagers were enthusiastic and some aunties even enthusiastically wanted to make connections for them.
Liao Wei was sweating profusely in the heat and hurried back to the car to enjoy the coolness of the air conditioner. He picked up a bottle of mineral water, drank it in big gulps, and sighed: "It's really unbearable to be hot."
Ye Bai felt that this anti-fraud publicity campaign was relatively easy. He had also heard that other colleagues had helped to crack peanuts for an entire afternoon when they were promoting in the countryside, only to find out that the other party was using an old-fashioned phone, which made them laugh and cry, and they regretted not asking earlier.
When they left the village and prepared to go to their next destination, they noticed a police car parked next to an unfinished building on the path ahead. The scene had been cordoned off and there were several onlookers standing outside.
Realizing that something serious might have happened, they immediately got out of the car to check the situation.
A police officer at the scene recognized Liao Wei, nodded to him, and revealed the news of the murder: "A murder has occurred. The deceased is a woman. The scene is full of blood. The death is extremely cruel. The jaw was chopped off and the tongue was cruelly pulled out..."
Liao Weize frowned when he heard this, "What kind of hatred or grudge is it that makes you act so cruelly?"
Ye Bai also asked and found out that the person who called the police was an old man selling sugarcane.
According to him, he was a villager from a nearby village and he grew his own sugarcane which he wanted to take to the city to sell. Halfway through riding his bicycle he felt too hot and wanted to take a rest in the unfinished building. As a result, he discovered the deceased and called the police.
The police station quickly transferred the criminal case to the local criminal police team.
When Mai Shaozhen and her forensic team received the notification and quickly arrived at the scene, the scene they faced made everyone frown and exchange complicated looks with each other.
The deceased was lying face up, with his lower jaw severely torn, his lips and teeth covered in blood, several of his teeth cut off, his face a bloody mess, the ground covered with splattered and solidified blood, and flies buzzing around the corpse.
Han Jianye noticed that Mai Shaozhen was abnormal, so he asked with concern: "Did you find anything abnormal?"
Mai Shaozhen's face was solemn. She nodded, revealing a hint of uneasiness in her tone: "As a forensic doctor, I have been working for many years, but I have never seen such a unique method of committing a crime."
Her eyes were fixed on the victim's brutally severed jaw and forcibly pulled-out tongue. "I don't know if it's my illusion, but the murderer's method seems to be quite similar to a certain technique in our forensic autopsy."
The forensic doctors around also noticed this while taking photos and collecting evidence, and they all expressed their agreement.
Han Jianye further asked: "Which technology are you referring to?"
Mai Shaozhen explained: "When the forensic doctor performs an autopsy and needs to remove all the internal organs of the deceased for pathological examination, we will first dissect the chest and abdomen, then cut the muscles along the lower edge of the deceased's jaw, take out the tongue from the mouth under the jaw, and then separate the entire set of internal organs from the body. This process is extremely complicated and requires extremely high skills. We forensic doctors call it 'picking out the tongue'."
"So you think the cause of death of the deceased is similar to your autopsy technique?" Han Jianye continued to ask.
Mai Shaozhen nodded, but then added: "This is just my initial guess. The deceased's condition is not exactly the same as the autopsy process I just described.
You see, the victim's body was not damaged, and the murderer apparently concentrated his attack on the victim's lip and chin areas. There was a distinct purple streak on her throat, her pupils were dilated with extreme pain, and her tongue was purple-black.
This shows that the deceased was strangled to death first, and then the murderer started to target his chin and tongue. Looking at these knife marks, the murder weapon must have been a very sharp bone-cutting knife that could cut bones. I don't know if the murderer gave up halfway or for some other reason. I feel like he only did half of it and left. ”
Han Jianye's eyes were fixed on the deceased, and he asked urgently: "So, can we determine the time when the deceased was killed?"
This question is crucial to his subsequent investigation.
Mai Shaozhen carefully observed the facial wounds of the deceased and noticed that there were fly eggs distributed on them. Due to the hot weather, some of the eggs were close to the stage of hatching into larvae.
The cornea of the deceased appeared slightly cloudy, and rigor mortis had set in his body. The livor mortis spots were not easy to fade under finger pressure.
Combining these signs, Mai Shaozhen gave her professional inference: "Based on the development of fly eggs and the physiological changes of the corpse, I speculate that the deceased was killed about 8 to 12 hours ago, that is, the time of death may be between 10 o'clock last night and 2 o'clock this morning."
…
Elsewhere, Ye Bai was carefully observing the unfinished building, which was a two-story small house with an area of about 140 square meters.
There are only two ways to enter this unfinished building: one is the entrance facing the path, and the other is the back door facing the lawn.
Judging from the design, the owner may have intended to renovate it into a shop, but the first floor is not enclosed with iron sheets, allowing anyone to enter and exit freely. It can be sheltered from the wind and rain on rainy days and can also be used to escape the heat in summer.
He carefully examined the numerous chaotic shoe prints at the scene and divided them into two categories: one was the size 39 shoe prints worn by the deceased.
Another type of shoe prints seemed particularly suspicious. He squatted down and observed carefully and found that these shoe prints belonged to size 41 shoes, and some of them were stained with blood.
The shoe prints appeared disorganized and unevenly spaced, showing the murderer's haste and panic when fleeing the scene. Ye Bai firmly believed that these shoe prints undoubtedly belonged to the murderer.
He noticed that the direction in which the shoe prints disappeared pointed to a patch of grass, so he quietly placed a number plate next to the shoe prints as a mark.
Then he walked out of the abandoned unfinished building and followed the direction of the shoe prints, looking for possible clues deep into the grass.
At the same time, when Han Jianye checked the deceased's belongings, he found that the deceased's cash, keys and mobile phone were all intact in his pocket, which temporarily ruled out the possibility that the murderer killed for money.
What made them feel strange was that the deceased was not sleeping at night and why did he appear alone in the unfinished building?
Su Wan hurried over and said to Han Jianye, "Captain Han, a witness has recognized the deceased. She seems to be a widow from Wuliu Village. Her name is Guo Yingping and she is 45 years old. She lives alone in her hometown. Her son has started a family and lives in the city."
Han Jianye frowned and repeated, "Widow?"
Su Wan nodded and confirmed: "Yes, and this road is the path leading to Wuliu Village. I plan to take people to the village to learn more about the situation." As soon as he finished speaking, Su Wan turned around and left quickly.
At the same time, the forensic team led by Mai Shaozhen has carefully placed the body of the deceased in a body bag, preparing to transport it back to the laboratory for more in-depth anatomical analysis.