Chapter 3 Clues
The case team entered a busy period.
Community police officers assist in organizing residents’ household registration data and verifying population information. Xia Mufan followed Yu Jing and Sun Xianbing and began to visit the community and investigate the residents.
Although the work was tedious, Xia Mufan found it very interesting.
During the visit, the birds in the trees and the pets of the residents were all whispering, and Xia Mufan heard a lot of gossip.
[The couple in the house with the red lanterns hanging on the balcony always quarrel. 】
[Do you know the funniest thing?] They are university teachers who studied abroad. Whenever they quarrel, they speak foreign languages. When neighbors ask them about it, they say they are practicing speaking. 】
[They bought a TV not for people to watch but for their cats, and it plays Animal World every day. 】
A lot of chatter came into his ears. Although there was a lot of information, Xia Mufan did not find any clues that were helpful to the case.
The serious crime squad successfully filed the case.
Xia Mufan originally thought that the body parts were chopped too small to be put into shape, let alone identify the characteristics of the deceased. Unexpectedly, forensic pathologist Gu Shaoqi worked for two consecutive days and issued a report.
——Based on the total weight of the body parts, the deceased weighed more than 45 kilograms;
——Judging from the skin condition and bone density, the deceased was between 40 and 50 years old.
——The deceased had relatively little body hair, and no testicles were found in the internal organs. However, there were fragments similar to uterus and ovaries. It was preliminarily determined that the deceased was a female.
Seeing this report, Sun Xianbing exclaimed, "Even though it was chopped into small pieces, there are still so many clues?"
Yu Jing exclaimed: "As expected of Medical Doctor Gu, he is professional, meticulous and rigorous."
Xia Mufan also nodded secretly, Gu's forensic expertise was really strong.
After identifying the deceased as a woman of medium weight between 40 and 50 years old, the serious crime team assigned the Anning Road Police Station a joint investigation task: to screen all eligible female residents in the jurisdiction. Anyone who had recently gone out, went to school, or visited relatives would be found out where they had been and confirmed whether they were alive.
This is a huge workload.
The Anning Road Police Station has a jurisdiction over more than 13,000 households and nearly 50,000 permanent residents, including a university, an oil research institute, a vocational and technical college, a large machinery factory, two middle schools, three primary schools, three kindergartens, 36 old residential areas, and 39 households of elderly people living alone.
Community police are very busy.
Contact the security departments of each unit and the community neighborhood committee, submit the preliminary list, and then verify it one by one.
For those old residential communities that are not affiliated with any unit, we have to check them one by one with the neighborhood committee staff. Sometimes we encounter uncooperative residents who refuse to open the door or explain their whereabouts, which is a headache.
Tenants, small vendors, idle people in society who have no fixed unit or job... the existence of these people increases the difficulty of the investigation.
By going to the community again and again, Xia Mufan gained a direct understanding of the hardships of grassroots work.
The police station deployed all its police force and worked with community management personnel and auxiliary police to carry out a dragnet investigation, but after a week, there was still no progress.
Xia Mufan was a little anxious.
Early in the morning at work, when Yu Jing was about to take her and Sun Xianbing to the grassroots again, Xia Mufan hung a small blackboard on the wall: "Dayu, Senior Brother, let's sort out our thoughts first."
The small blackboard created a classroom atmosphere, which made Sun Xianbing, who had graduated from the Police College two years ago, feel at home. He was the first to respond, "Okay, we should analyze the case. I have been running around like a headless fly all week and have no clue at all."
This type of vicious case had not occurred in the police station for a long time. Yu Jing was a little anxious. He put down the notebook in his hand and dragged his chair to the small blackboard: "Okay, you two are college students majoring in criminal investigation, so why not analyze it from a professional perspective?"
Xia Mushige recalled what the "Detective Science" teacher said in class.
"After the case is filed, we need to analyze the case and formulate an investigation plan. Although we are a police station and our mission is to assist the serious crime team in finding the source of the corpse, I don't think we can spread a large net like this. It's too slow!"
Sun Xianbing immediately raised his hand to show his agreement: "Yes! We must have our own reconnaissance plan."
Xia Mushi picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the characters "PHD" on the blackboard.
Yu Jing didn't understand, but Sun Xianbing was familiar with it. He shouted excitedly: "Oh my, the PHD cycle principle!"
Yu Jing joined the army right after graduating from high school, and he really didn’t know what a PHD was: “What’s the circulation principle?”
Sun Xianbing was also a good student who loved to study in college. However, because he was thin and had poor practical skills, he was not noticed by the Municipal Bureau when he was assigned a job, so he was assigned to a grassroots police station.
He happily explained to Yu Jing: "P stands for question, H stands for hypothesis, and D stands for inference. When we investigate a case, we must constantly ask questions, make hypotheses, and then test the hypotheses and form inferences."
Xia Mufan studied criminal investigation theory for four years in college and had only been at the police station for over a month, but he still remembered the textbook knowledge clearly. She circled the "P" on the blackboard and wrote the first question: Why kill?
Sun Xianbing said: "The reasons for murder are nothing more than love killing, revenge killing, money killing, accidental killing and passion killing. In this case, the murderer cut the body into pieces, which is too brutal and more like revenge killing."
Yu Jing nodded: "Indeed. In general murder cases, there are cases where the body is hidden or dumped, but few cases where the body is dismembered, and even fewer where it is dismembered like this."
Xia Mufan wrote two words next to the first question: vendetta.
When a person is torn into pieces, it is usually an acquaintance who committed the crime and the hatred is deep-rooted.
Sun Xianbing liked this kind of discussion atmosphere very much. He walked to the blackboard and wrote down the second question: What grudge?
He turned his head and looked at Xia Mufan and Yu Jing: "What kind of hatred or grudge is worth killing and dismembering?"
This time, Xia Mufan and Yu Jing shook their heads at the same time: "I don't know."
Yes, what kind of hatred made the murderer not only kill the other person, but also chop him into pieces, put them into a black garbage bag, and throw them into the trash can?
A light bulb suddenly lit up in his mind, and Xia Mufan wrote three words on the blackboard: garbage bag.
"Did you notice? The garbage bag that contained the body parts was different from the ones you would normally use at home. It was thicker, stronger, and bigger."
Sun Xianbing scratched his head, a little embarrassed: "I didn't dare to do it at that time, it seems to be quite big."
Yu Jing recalled the feeling when he took the bag from Xia Mufan's hand and nodded: "That's true. I'm considered quite strong, but it took a lot of effort to tear the bag open."
Xia Mufan already had the answer in his heart, and said with certainty: "There were so many pieces of meat and bones in that bag, but it was not damaged. If it weren't for the sharp claws of the wild dog, which tore a few holes in it, the blood would not have seeped out. Ordinary household garbage bags are not that strong."
Sun Xianbing's brain was quick, and he immediately answered: "Special garbage bags for outdoor sanitation!"
Yu Jing was also enlightened and added: "Hotels, factories, and sanitation departments all use these thickened and larger garbage bags."
Xia Mufan took a piece of chalk and added the word "special use" next to the word "garbage bag".
"Da, da, da."
There were footsteps at the door.
The three of them turned around at the same time and saw Chief Wei Yong standing at the door. Beside him were the head of the serious crime squad, Yue Yuan, and a criminal policeman, Gong Weiguo, whom they had met in Huajiao Lane.
Wei Yong smiled and said, "Have you started the discussion? Are we welcome to join us?"
"Chief Wei, Team Leader Yue, Officer Gong, why are you here?" Yu Jing hurriedly stood up and welcomed Wei Yong and others into the house.
Wei Yong looked at the words on the blackboard and raised his eyebrows in surprise: "PHD? You are indeed a college student with a professional background. What do you think of the case? Tell us about it."
Xia Mufan's attitude was very generous: "Our first inference is that the motive for the murder should be revenge, but we have no idea what the specific revenge was. In addition, we found that the garbage bags were not the kind used by ordinary households. The murderer is most likely someone who works in a hotel, factory, or sanitation department."
Wei Yong motioned Yue Yuan and Gong Weiguo to sit down. He did not think Xia Mufan's reasoning was simple, and encouraged him, "Very good. Then let me ask another question. What are the characteristics of the place where the murderer dumped the body?"
Xia Mufan understood immediately and immediately drew two straight lines on the blackboard to represent Anning Road. He then described the five locations of Huajiao Lane, Guihua Lane, Hongjia Lane, Changfeng Lane, and Shuangtong Lane. He said, "Anning Road runs from south to north. These five lanes are all perpendicular to Anning Road. The trash cans are distributed along the street, all on the west side, at the entrance of the lanes."
Wei Yong nodded and continued to ask questions: "It is impossible to carry 15 bags of body parts and throw them into the trash can in one go. How many times did he throw them? Did he use any tools to transport them? Why did he dump the bodies along Anning Road? Didn't the murderer know that our police station was just across the alley? Why wasn't he afraid of being discovered?"
A series of questions stimulated Xia Mufan's potential. Combining the information she had recently collected, she blurted out: "Sanitation workers, riding tricycles, throw away garbage, no one will find it! The reason why they throw it in the trash can at the entrance of the alley is because it is too heavy to carry and can't be walked too far."
As soon as he said this, Xia Mufan became a little excited, his eyes sparkling. If the suspect can be identified as a sanitation worker, the investigation workload can be reduced by half.
Sun Xianbing rubbed his hands. "It's very likely! In order to avoid traffic and crowds, sanitation workers start work very early. I have seen sanitation workers wearing yellow vests sweeping the streets around four in the morning when I was on night shift. Moreover, sanitation workers can get those special black garbage bags and have tricycles to transport them. All of these meet the requirements that Wei just raised."
Yu Jing immediately stood up and searched through a pile of household registration documents.
Half a minute later, Yu Jing pulled out a copy and handed it to Xia Mufan: "Xiao Xia, look, this is the information of all the sanitation workers in our area. Each person is responsible for a different block."
Holding the photocopy and looking at the names of the ten sanitation workers on it, Xia Mufan smiled and said, "Then the scope of our investigation will be much smaller, only ten."
Xia Mufan has sparkling eyes, long eyebrows like ink, snow-white teeth, and a very contagious smile. He shines as brightly as the sun, making the entire office bright and cheerful.
"Not them."
Hearing this, Yue Yuan finally spoke. Unlike Wei Yong's amiable personality, he is rather serious.
Xia Mufan stopped smiling and looked at Yue Yuan: "Have you checked it?"
Yue Yuan nodded: "Yes."
Yue Yuan turned his head and motioned for Gong Weiguo to speak.
Gong Weiguo has thick eyebrows, big eyes and a righteous and sunny face. He straightened his chest, glanced at the simple small blackboard, and smiled brightly, as if he found the scene of these police officers in the police station having a serious discussion very interesting.
"What you discussed today was what we discussed on the first day after we returned. This week, we not only questioned the ten sanitation workers in detail, but also carefully checked all the sanitation tricycles. However, no blood was found on any of the vehicles or tools, and the testimonies of these sanitation workers were all correct. Suspicion has been ruled out."
The serious crime squad has checked and it’s not these ten sanitation workers.
Xia Mufan frowned. Who could that be?
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