National Forensic Doctor

Chapter 1301: Chapter 1227: Stay

The night at Jin Mountain was like a steamed bun clawed by a black hand, with flashes of light like the bruises on the bun, somewhat bright but not enough, resembling a matte finish.

The road at the foot of Jin Mountain had been renovated several times. Upon close inspection, remnants of the old road could still be seen, especially at a few spots where the road was straightened, looking like ideal places for an ambush.

Jiang Yuan had someone bring an electric bike over. He would ride for a while and then get off to take a look, occasionally instructing Wang Chuanxing to take notes.

Liu Jinghui rode another electric bike behind, yawning incessantly, forcing Cui Qishan beside him to keep glancing at him to prevent him from falling asleep.

At another major bend, Jiang Yuan parked and dismounted, shining a flashlight to see something resembling garments stuffed in the drainage ditch beside the road. noveldrama

A Criminal Science technician hurriedly stepped forward, using a hook to pull the trash out, only to find several dirty plastic bags.

"Probably not it," Jiang Yuan waved his hand dismissing the find.

It’s a situation detectives often encounter at the crime scene. In ordinary people’s imagination, a crime scene is a place where every detail of evidence is collected. However, in reality, only the most probable evidence is gathered.

Therefore, a suspect who hasn’t been caught in ordinary cases has not necessarily avoided mistakes a hundred times; he might have made thirty or forty mistakes, but the detective’s "comb" just missed them for various reasons.

Some suspects get arrogant, thinking they’ve mastered some extraordinary criminal skills, leading them to repeat their crimes, escalate their offense, and challenge the police. At this stage, the police’s "comb" becomes more meticulous, and unless extremely lucky, the suspect usually gets caught.

Hence, when some cold cases revisit the original crime scene and evidence is found, it’s not solely the initial detective’s fault; the stakes increased, the task force’s level was raised, and thus the comb became finer.

However, even Jiang Yuan’s current task force can’t just throw every piece of garbage into the lab. Evidence refinement is boundless. Trash bags can be dissolved for liquid chromatography, shredded for 100 sets of liquid chromatography tests, or swabbed for trace analysis. Still, useless items remain useless.

Jiang Yuan crossed the drainage ditch, walking into the bend. A larger buffer zone had been set up here, meaning whether one was driving or cycling, only the turn was visible, while the depth of the buffer zone was not. If one were to hide someone, this would be a decent waiting spot.

Two Criminal Science technicians lifted a large lamp at the scene, illuminating the buffer zone brightly.

Jiang Yuan carefully examined the ground.

The ground was leveled, but soft and dusty. Without intentional sweeping, footprints would be discernible.

Even if intentionally cleaned a week ago, Jiang Yuan’s keen senses could still detect footprints.

"Is there anything?" Liu Jinghui got off and walked a few steps, feeling more awake now, speaking only half sentences, knowing Jiang Yuan would understand him.

Jiang Yuan straightened up and said, "There are footprints, but they don’t match the timeline; they’re old tracks. Collect them anyway."

Jiang Yuan signaled, calling others over to collect several footprints almost buried by dust.

"Not here?" Liu Jinghui asked.

"Probably not," Jiang Yuan shook his head.

Liu Jinghui pondered for a few seconds, "You’re inspecting the scene based on a theory: the victim came from the subway station, rode a shared bike here, encountered something or someone, and then vanished. If the case didn’t follow your theory, you wouldn’t find traces here. Actually, even if it did, you might still not locate the scene, right?"

"Yeah," Jiang Yuan agreed. Assuming only a minor collision, or even no collision, if someone parked roadside, stopped the victim, then tricked or abducted them into the car, a week later, it would be hard to find clues this way.

Seeing Jiang Yuan’s acknowledgment, Liu Jinghui got even more enthusiastic and continued analyzing, "Maybe searching for the means of transport is more effective than investigating this uncertain scene. If the victim disappeared, unless she ran away herself, the suspect had to have a vehicle to take her away, right?"

Xiao Si, listening at the back, suddenly had an idea, "Disguise?"

"Possibly," Liu Jinghui sighed, "but that’s too far-fetched."

"As for vehicles, there are too many," Jiang Yuan had, of course, thought of this approach too. In fact, in previous cases, they occasionally solved them by tracing vehicles.

However, tracing vehicles often requires a vehicle checkpoint to cooperate, meaning a car passes, and the surveillance snaps a photo. Specifically designed roads for surveillance maintain adequate lighting to capture the whole car, especially a clear shot of the license plate and the driver and passenger’s faces.

Without vehicle checkpoints, the workload of tracing vehicles multiplies significantly, and it’s easier to miss details or get unclear shots. Capturing clear images of the driver and passenger’s face is even harder; surveillance clarity can’t surpass that of checkpoint photos due to storage limitations.

Being located in Beijing, finding vehicle checkpoints should be doable for Jin Mountain. But the further away, the more incoming traffic, most of which might not have passed the scene, thus resulting in a lot of wasted effort. Yet, even so, using distant vehicle checkpoints to trace is still less work than using several high-resolution cameras to do the same.

In the end, regardless of the method, the workload is overwhelming. Vehicle checkpoints are on main roads, and Beijing’s traffic is enormous. If you’re just checking a single license plate, that’s quick. But aimless searching? That’s an endless task.

Liu Jinghui, however, wasn’t speaking carelessly; he pondered, "Here’s what I think, regardless of the suspect’s plan or motive, the time he lingered in this area might be unusually long."

When Liu Jinghui starts using his brain, there’s a light in his eyes—the light from the exploration lamps nearby. He counted on his fingers, "The victim rode from the subway to here, passing nearby streets, that business district, entering the mountain, and finally reaching Jin Mountain’s gate, totaling about four kilometers. Normally, we could bike it in twenty to thirty minutes. How long for a vehicle?"

Giving his judgment, Liu Jinghui said, "Normally, I would think a car would cover this segment in about 5 minutes. Of course, to pinpoint vehicle checkpoints, we’re unsure of their stops; however, if we time the passing duration, can’t the background software calculate? List the overtime vehicles as suspects, how about it?"

"There’s no checkpoint at the subway station or Jin Mountain; we can only check before and after. Cars just passing through can be filtered out fastest. However, some cars visit Jin Mountain for leisure; others belong to employees between enterprises. There are many local residents, various communities, and self-built houses nearby, where cars might enter and park..."

"Filter through the parking lot data near Jin Mountain. For local residents, well, actually, these residents could be suspects..." Liu Jinghui paused as he spoke.

Theft cases are often conducted farther away, but not necessarily homicide cases. From the subway to Jin Mountain, several turn-off entrances lead into rows of buildings.

Though the residential rate here isn’t high, with many houses possibly vacant, plenty of dwellers remain. Given the subway’s availability and the suburb’s affordability, some residential buildings even have group leasing. Thus, many people reside within this few kilometers range.

If the suspect lives in this area, committed the crime here, and drove home from a side road, previous investigations could be entirely in vain.

"Wait for the dogs and see," Jiang Yuan shook his head, then said, "Continue inspecting the scene."

Predictions and probability mean nothing in real cases. Some searches may return fruitless, but these failed investigations help narrow the search scope step by step.