Chapter 58: The Corpse Dismemberment Case (Part 3) To Simulate the Portrait
Based on the shopping receipt in his hand, Han Jianye learned that this was a receipt from the clothing store on the third floor of Hongwang Shopping Mall, and the invoice time shown on it was 11:30 am on June 18, 2019.
The receipt indicated that the brand was selling a brown wool coat on clearance sale for 680 yuan, and the customer chose to pay in cash.
Han Jianye's eyebrows raised slightly. He noticed that the receipt did not show any membership information or detailed customer information, and this was a purchase record from 63 days ago.
Although the murderer was careful and meticulous, he never imagined that the victim would swallow a shopping receipt before his death.
Now that the DNA data of the deceased has not yet come out, he decided to put away the shopping receipt and go to Hongwang Shopping Mall in person to conduct further investigation.
Whether this shopping receipt can become a breakthrough in the case depends on how much information can be obtained during this trip.
Ye Bai drove the car skillfully. He analyzed: "Hongwang Shopping Mall is located in Huanzhu District. It can be inferred that the deceased is likely a local resident, and the murderer may be someone who is closely related to her."
Han Jianye quickly calculated the time in his mind. "It takes at least 48 minutes to drive from Huanzhu District to the hydropower station at Wangnan Bridge. The murderer dumped the body downstream from the upstream of Wangnan Bridge, so he probably chose the path upstream as his route."
He immediately sent a message to Su Wan, instructing them to go to the road upstream of Wangnan Bridge and retrieve all the surveillance videos along the way so that they could go back and review them carefully.
"Yuanbao misses you very much." Han Jianye suddenly spoke.
Ye Bai was slightly surprised. Ever since the embarrassing incident when he accidentally drank the cocktail last time, he indeed hadn't been to Han Jianye's house again.
"Dogs can't talk, how do you know he misses me?"
Han Jianye glanced at Ye Bai and said, "Border Collie is a dog that is smarter than humans. If he can't speak, can't he express himself?"
Ye Bai was also puzzled, "Then tell me, how does it express it?"
"It kept sleeping with your clothes in its mouth, and it got angry when I took them away. What do you think?"
Ye Bai: “…………(＃－.－)”
Han Jianye crossed his arms and complained, "After all, I am its owner, but it has become lovesick. I don't know what kind of magic potion you gave it. You have seduced its soul away. How can I raise this dog? I might as well give it to you."
"I..." Ye Bai was completely speechless. Finally, he calmed down and softened his tone, "Then when you go back, tell Yuanbao that I will visit it when I am free, and bring it delicious food so that it will listen to you obediently."
After hearing this, Han Jianye's mouth curved deeper, but he still raised his chin slightly with a proud expression, "That's better, this dog's heart is not on me, anyway, I can't keep him."
Ye Bai sighed lightly, feeling that Han Jianye's sudden move was really unexpected to him.
The two arrived at Hongwang Shopping Mall and went straight to the third floor. They walked through the dazzling array of shops and finally found the brand clothing store listed on the receipt.
Inside the store, three salespeople were busy.
Han Jianye went forward to communicate with them regarding the matters on the receipt.
Unfortunately, the store’s surveillance video can only be saved for seven days. Fortunately, there was still one brown wool coat purchased by the deceased in stock in the warehouse.
The store manager recalled: "We bought five of this woolen coat at the time, selling it for 1,228 yuan. We only sold three throughout the winter. In June this year, we did have an off-season clearance sale, and one of the brown woolen coats was sold for 680 yuan. However, my impression of that customer is a little vague."
"Have you forgotten? It was a short-haired lady who bought it." A salesperson interrupted, "She came to the store several times, always hesitant. In the end, you persuaded her that women should be better to themselves. She looked like the kind of person who works hard for the family and deserves a good coat to reward herself. You also told her that it was cheaper to buy now, and if she missed it, she would miss it. The original price would be restored next time she came. So she finally decided to buy it."
"Oh, now that you mention it, I seem to have some impression of it." The store manager seemed to be reminded.
Ye Bai quickly wrote down the information provided by the salesperson, and then asked, "Do you remember what the customer looked like?"
The salesperson pondered for a moment and recalled: "She had short hair, double eyes, a round face, no makeup, and looked about 35 years old..."
Ye Bai continued to ask: "Anything else? Is there any special feature in her body shape, height, or face, such as a birthmark?"
"As for her body type, she's neither fat nor thin. She's a bit shorter than me, about 160cm tall. I guess she weighs around 120kg."
The salesperson finished speaking, then added, “By the way, she has melasma on the sides of her cheeks.”
Ye Bai wrote down these details and then asked again: "Can you come with us to the police station? We hope that you can describe the customer's facial features again to our portrait artist so that we can confirm whether the portrait matches the customer who bought the coat that day."
The salesperson hesitated and turned to look at the store manager.
The store manager nodded in agreement.
So the salesman replied, "Okay, I'd like to go with you."
Han Jianye's mood at this moment was as clear as the sky. He had originally expected that this case would be a difficult challenge, but things developed unexpectedly smoothly and clues surfaced so quickly.
He secretly rejoiced in his heart that as long as the salesperson could accurately describe the facial features of the deceased to the portrait artist, with the help of the portrait artist's skillful brush, he would be able to draw a simulated portrait that was 80 to 90 percent similar to the real person.
Han Jianye was full of confidence in the portrait artist's skills, and he had no doubt about Dong Yu's ability because it was by no means an exaggeration.
On the way back to the police station, Han Jianye and Ye Bai quickly led salesperson Shi Hua to the studio of portrait artist Dong Yu.
Dong Yu, a 45-year-old senior portrait artist, has assisted the criminal police team in solving many major homicide cases with his superb skills and enjoys a high reputation.
Han Jianye said with respect and a smile: "Teacher Dong, I'm sorry to trouble you to help me again this time."
Dong Yu gently adjusted his glasses, his tone calm and confident: "No trouble, as long as you can provide detailed information on the facial features of the deceased, it will not be a difficult task for me."
Han Jianye told Shi Hua not to be nervous and just tell the portrait artist her impression of the female customer's face.
Ye Bai stood aside. In fact, he was also in a much more relaxed mood. As long as they had a portrait of the deceased, they would be one step closer to solving the case.
No matter how hard the murderer tried to conceal the identity of the deceased, he could never have imagined that we would find something in the deceased's stomach.