National Forensic Doctor

Chapter 1303: Chapter 1229: Garbage Dump

"I’ll take a nap." Jiang Yuan fastened his seatbelt as soon as he got into the car, and after speaking, he closed his eyes to rest.

He didn’t get much sleep last night, and crime scene investigation is a very mentally exhausting task. What’s most important is that the sharpness of his mind directly determines the effectiveness of the investigation.

A journey of a few kilometers, Jiang Yuan forced himself to sleep for a few minutes, and when he opened his eyes, he was faced with a chaotic garbage site.

As he opened the door, a smell as rich as Japanese ramen and as foul as Swedish herring rushed into Jiang Yuan’s nostrils.

Jiang Yuan sighed lightly, got out of the car for a look, and immediately frowned deeply.

This was a garbage transfer station the size of three or four basketball courts. It was surrounded by blue iron sheet barriers, with a flat, hardened surface in the middle. A dirt road ran through the center, with piles of garbage on both sides stretching several meters, roughly six to seven meters wide and over one meter high.

It was obvious that the outer waste piles were looser, indicating they were newly dumped and cleaned often, primarily consisting of household waste like fruits and vegetables, urban green waste like branches and leaves. Moving inward, the piles became harder, containing plastic and various unidentified solid materials, as well as hollow bricks and cement blocks, which are construction waste... Green mesh cloth covered the latter half of the garbage, most likely for fly prevention or similar reasons, making it appear even filthier.

At this moment, across the uneven garbage over a meter high, an area near the green mesh cloth was cordoned off with yellow tape, evidently marking where the body was, although it couldn’t be seen from the road.

A bulldozer and two garbage trucks were parked by the garbage piles, all ceasing operation; several sanitation workers were sitting at the entrance, smoking and taking notes.

Shen Yaowei jogged over, wearing a mask and shoe covers, all dirty, and came up to Jiang Yuan, exuding a stench, and said, "Captain Jiang, the body is in here. It’s already unrecognizable, hard to tell if it’s male or female."

From the victim’s disappearance to now, it might have been eight or nine days, and in an environment like the garbage site, it’s normal for the features to be unrecognizable.

Jiang Yuan had anticipated this and sighed again, saying, "Were there any personal items? Have the clothes been checked?"

"The lower body had jeans, the brand is unidentifiable. The top clothing is rotted, there’s a bit of fiber visible from the back, but I didn’t dare move it. No shoes. The victim, Yan Meixuan, was supposedly wearing Crocs, jeans, and a T-shirt outerwear that day, which basically matches upon calculation." Shen Yaowei briefly described.

"Didn’t survive, huh." Liu Jinghui said from the back, then murmured, "Death brings peace."

Shen Yaowei didn’t seem to hear or pretended not to, continuing, "This garbage transfer station was built last year, originally said to be temporary, but it hasn’t been dismantled, with many surrounding residents complaining. Currently, during the day, a sanitation company leisurely hauls trash here, and at dawn, there are 11 garbage trucks from the district’s sanitation department coming to haul it away.

"Send someone to the sanitation company, make sure the personnel list is well-understood, every person verified and present, and no one is to leave." Jiang Yuan skillfully ordered.

Since it’s a temporary garbage transfer station, and with iron sheet barriers, it operates in a relatively independent state, which means the sanitation company hauling the garbage and the unit transferring it have significant suspicion.

He directed the order to Wang Chuanxing beside him, who answered immediately and started making phone calls.

"Let’s go in." Jiang Yuan called Liu Jinghui once more, and the two of them moved to the back of the car to change their gear.

Huang Qiangmin specifically purchased a complete set of personal protective equipment for forensic doctors, which Jiang Yuan now always carries a few sets of, with varying degrees of protection. For a simple household theft investigation, it can be the basic set of headcap, gloves, shoe covers, and a mask: three sets, one shield.

But for a mid-stage decomposed body in a garbage pile, where the contamination level is at its peak, Jiang Yuan also took out the top-level personal protective equipment.

The mask was replaced with a 3M6800 full-face respirator, black rubber sealing ring all around, with two round filter boxes attached below, and a transparent silicone face shield that covers the entire face, capable of filtering toxic gases, dust, and biological aerosols.

As soon as you put it on, it instantly conjures up words like biological warrior.

The gloves were Ansell’s cut-resistant, nitrile material, but a gray high-density polyethylene layer was added over the palms and fingertips, preventing sharp objects from cutting while maintaining tactile sensitivity, generally used during autopsy though Jiang Yuan wasn’t that meticulous with them.

Furthermore, DuPont’s protective suit and Honeywell’s shoe covers are disposable, but these two items are actually the most visually distinct.

The protective suit looks similar to a hazmat suit, something many are already very familiar with, while Honeywell’s shoe covers appear more luxurious. Regular shoe covers are usually just plastic bags, which many people are reluctant to discard after a single-use. Jiang Yuan used the liquid-resistant kind, to prevent seepage from the garbage from infiltrating the shoe, though many organizations might see this more suited for a pair of worn-out shoes and an extra frayed shoe cover.

Liu Jinghui was equipped fully, while others nearby weren’t as fortunate, most had only the basic three sets, one shield.

Jiang Yuan climbed over the meter-high garbage, walked a few meters in, and saw the corpse laid flat facing upward.

The body was directly exposed to air and sunlight, with the remaining skin having dried and hardened to a dark brown-black color, stretched tight, resembling a hide turned into leather—classic characteristics of mummification.

If the leather-like appearance evokes a sense of pity, the other parts of the corpse hardly resemble a human at all.

The ears were already missing, perhaps gnawed by rats or pecked by crows or similar birds.

The eye sockets, too, had been hollowed by other animals or maggots, resulting in the so-called tissue cavitation; the mouth and nose were not spared either.

The remaining skin on the face was preserved thanks to the leather-like appearance, though it was far from attractive. The skin was dehydrated, shrunken, with the bone structure clearly outlined, as if catering to some medical aesthetic demands. However, any cosmetic clinic daring enough to showcase such an image should expect to scare away ninety-eight percent of its clients.

Looking further down, the leather-like skin on the neck, pressed against the side of the garbage, revealed fine cracks, showing a dark green network of putrid veins underneath. Another layer had been gnawed by rats, exposing decomposed neck bones resembling half-eaten duck necks.

The clothing on the chest had rotted into tatters, making it impossible to determine its original appearance; the chest’s state was similar to the head, sunken in the middle. The remaining parts were either gnawed or dried and hardened to a deep brown color, with a single nipple shrunk into a black hard knot, resembling a blackcurrant raisin.

However, the leather-like appearance on the abdomen was less severe, presenting a localized state of decay. Beneath the remaining skin, there was dark green, with putrid blisters on the surface seeping yellow-brown liquid; the exposed jagged muscle on the side of the waist was due to gnawing.

In summary, the hideous appearance of mummification was almost unbearable, yet compared to the horror of giants, it felt somewhat less overwhelming.

Jiang Yuan quickly glanced from top to bottom, then looked at Liu Jinghui and said, "Female, age matches, death time matches... The exact time of death needs to be determined based on insects. Uh... Shen Yaowei, Miao Ruixiang, Wei Shikan, you three come over and help catch insects."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan activated the "Temporary +1" skill for "Crime Scene Investigation (Level 5)."

For a forensic doctor, the most crucial tasks now were twofold: crime scene investigation and determination of the time of death. In situations where one must choose between the two, Jiang Yuan decided to postpone the determination of death time.

A corpse over a week old poses a considerable difficulty for direct determination; using insects as an aid is most suitable. It’s best to first conduct a crime scene investigation, and once the skill’s cooldown is ready, it can be applied to determine the time of death.

Jiang Yuan had already made up his mind; after calling a few experienced hands to catch insects, he began a basic surface examination of the corpse himself, to avoid losing any potential evidence once it is moved.

Wei Shikan also arrived wearing a similar full-body protective suit as Jiang Yuan.

Miao Ruixiang and Shen Yaowei didn’t dare to use the "forensic doctor exclusive" gear prepared by Huang Qiangmin, only adding more layers of gloves and foot covers before coming.

Although Miao Ruixiang was a forensic doctor himself, he knew that Huang Qiangmin had simply forgotten about his presence when he mentioned "forensic doctor exclusive" that day. If he dared to use it, Huang might remember him until retirement.

Buzz...

As the three started their actions, various buzzing sounds began to hum around. They were the sounds made by necrophagous insects originally enjoying their peaceful life, now disturbed. noveldrama

Apart from the flies Jiang Yuan was extremely familiar with thanks to his Level 6 expertise in fly identification, there were burying beetles, which typically appear in the mid to late stages of decay, predatory beetles that feast on maggots, and carpet beetles often seen only in the dry stage of corpses. These are a common household pest, fond of burrowing into wardrobes and bookshelves, especially those with fur, leather, or hair.

Jiang Yuan glanced twice and, seeing Miao Ruixiang and others performing standard operations, turned back to begin instructing Mu Zhiyang to help gently flip the corpse for a thorough check.

Soon, Tao Lu also arrived at the scene in a police car.

"What’s the situation?" Tao Lu asked for a conclusion upon arriving.

Jiang Yuan replied, "Stabbed in the chest, cause of death not yet clear."

"Any major blood loss? Any sexual assault?" Tao Lu hit the key points with a single question.

The location was only a few kilometers from where the victim disappeared; if there was significant blood loss, searching for traces could become a breakthrough in solving the case.

On the other hand, whether sexual assault occurred could be used to deduce the killer’s motive and greatly influence the case’s direction.

Jiang Yuan was unable to provide a decisive answer, replying, "I just examined the surface; further checks can only be performed in the autopsy room later."