National Forensic Doctor

Chapter 1293: Chapter 1219: Secret Chamber Reasoning

The autopsy was completed, Jiang Yuan cleaned himself up, and after being stuck in traffic the whole way, he returned to the office building of the Zhengguang Bureau’s Criminal Police Squad three hours later.

The criminal police of the Zhengguang Bureau and all members of Jiang Yuan’s Cold Case Squad were sitting in the conference room, having already pondered over the case once.

Hearing that Jiang Yuan had arrived, Tao Lu, having calculated the time, also came to the conference room to sit and listen to the case.

Tao Lu asked first, "What’s Avi Airlines’ attitude like? Have the victim’s family contacted you?"

Regardless of the era, cases with or without the victim’s family’s involvement are different.

Not to mention the cases that have been smoothly completed, take a look at those wrong cases that can be overturned; behind them are either the victim’s family members who wouldn’t give up or police officers or others involved in the case who wouldn’t budge, only then could the case be reversed.

The pressure in handling cases involving foreigners, such as Myanmar nationals or Yibenli nationals, is obviously different.

The case was handled by the Fourth Team. Xiao Si immediately stood up, saluted, and said, "Avi Airlines’ lawyer contacted us to inquire about the situation. We replied, but then we heard nothing more. The victim’s family has not contacted us either."

"I see..." Tao Lu was a bit surprised.

Cui Qishan knew what Tao Lu wanted to ask, coughed twice, and said, "Avi Airlines is probably a bit worried too."

Tao Lu looked over.

Cui Qishan quickly continued, "The crime scene, which is the victim’s apartment, is provided by Avi Airlines for its employees. From the surveillance video, the victim returned to the apartment around 9 PM that night and didn’t leave afterward. There is no surveillance inside the apartment, but there are cameras at the apartment’s entrance and outer walls, so the perpetrator is likely living inside the apartment."

Tao Lu couldn’t help but lift his head, "How many people live in the apartment?"

"28 households, 46 people," Cui Qishan answered in detail, "All are current employees of Avi Airlines and their families, mostly foreigners. 38 are foreign nationals. There are also a few children."

Tao Lu immediately understood, "The perpetrator is one of their own, no wonder..."

"That’s more or less what it means." Cui Qishan said with a chuckle, glancing at Jiang Yuan, "I collected footprints at the scene, Captain Jiang, take a look."

"Alright." Jiang Yuan wasn’t overly modest, as the cooperation with Zhengguang Bureau was supposed to be long-term, plus he was already there...

Cui Qishan was familiar with Jiang Yuan’s habits and had already prepared. With a wave of his hand, his subordinates promptly displayed the footprint photos from the scene. noveldrama

In indoor environments with tiled floors, identifying footprints is relatively difficult without dust or dirty shoe soles. Many traditional footprint extraction methods aren’t very useful in such cases.

Footprint extraction is fundamentally similar to fingerprint extraction. The simplest approach is to sprinkle powder and use tape to extract it, but since most people wear shoes while walking, footprints rarely have the aid of sweat or liquid elements, making it harder to leave a trace.

Fortunately, the Zhengguang Bureau could afford a "laser footprint detector," so although extraction was difficult, they still managed to extract many footprints, most of which were barefoot.

"Roughly speaking, more than five people were present in this room." Jiang Yuan looked through over a hundred footprint photos and said, "One person was wearing shoes, Matina herself, and at least three other males."

"Good thing there wasn’t any party," Cui Qishan wasn’t surprised and continued, "Matina flew in from Yibenli. I’ve already collected the footprints of people present in the room that day. Shall I show you the male footprints first? We haven’t yet collected all the footprints of people who entered and exited the apartment in the past two days, as several are foreigners, and we have no related data."

There was no need for Jiang Yuan to instruct further; Cui Qishan moved on his own.

Jiang Yuan didn’t budge, just nodded, and the photos in front of him changed.

As Jiang Yuan stretched out his hand, Wei Shikan handed him a cup of tea.

Mu Zhiyang and others watched with twitching eyelids. Some second-generation individuals seem harmless, yet you don’t know what schemes they are pushing behind the scenes.

Comparing footprints is equally challenging, especially when the shoes differ; often, one can only first broadly compare and then refine the details.

Jiang Yuan let everyone continue the discussion while he examined the footprints for a long time and finally wrote two names on a paper.

"The person wearing shoes was also male, but not a resident of the apartment. Another barefoot male’s identity is also uncertain," Jiang Yuan said as he handed the paper with simple parameters like height, weight, and age to Cui Qishan.

Cui Qishan quickly put it away, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "In this case, the suspect should be among these two identified individuals. A one-out-of-two choice isn’t that hard."

Judging by the time of death, Matina died when only residents were in the apartment, and since all the residents’ footprints were collected, the suspect should be among those two residents...

As for the two non-resident individuals’ footprints, they are likely from those who previously entered Matina’s apartment. If the suspect can be identified directly, there might not be a need to delve deeply into their identities.

Xiao Si coldly added at this point, "If luck is bad enough, it’s also possible that the suspect didn’t leave any footprints."

Xiao Si, abandoned by the Seventh Team and finally taken in by the Fourth Team, is one of those cold-faced, rude, and bratty criminal police officers. Cui Qishan, late in ascending to the position of team leader with a rare spot in the capital, still had to keep him on the team due to Xiao Si’s undeniable capability.

After a long time, having been criticized numerous times, Cui Qishan didn’t mind and just said, "It’s not easy to kill a person, especially by strangling, leaving no trace is difficult... Do the footprints around the body indicate who the perpetrator is?"

Cui Qishan still asked, as the situation Xiao Si mentioned was indeed possible.

Jiang Yuan shook his head, "The deceased died on the bed, and the bedsheet was pulled under the bed; the footprints can’t be seen anymore... We can try using trace evidence to find clues or check for skin flakes or similar residues."

Cui Qishan responded, then looked at Tao Lu and asked, "Should we bring the two people whose footprints match over for questioning?"

These analyses are commonplace in investigations, nothing special. If anything stands out, it’s that the victim and suspects are foreigners.

Yet, for today’s police officers, this isn’t too unusual; one just has to follow the rules.

With evidence showing the two had access to the victim’s apartment, bringing them in for questioning is naturally justified.

Tao Lu thought for a moment and agreed, only reminding, "Collect more related information and witness testimonies. Are they both living alone or with others?"

This already touches on potential alibis. Before Cui Qishan could delve into it, Xiao Si, on the side, said first, "Both are married men, one lives with his wife, the other with a wife and two children."

"Two married men sneaking into a single woman’s apartment..." Tao Lu shook his head, "I’m getting old, can’t keep up with the times. Interview their wives separately, make sure their statements are detailed to avoid perjury."

"Yes." Cui Qishan stood up.

"Involved personnel are not to leave the country. Make it clear during the interrogation, don’t let them think they can just leave after making false testimonies and be free by not coming back," Tao Lu clearly reminded.

At this time, Liu Jinghui, having finished reviewing the relevant materials, raised his head and said, "We still need to focus on the motive. These two individuals, the two men who left footprints in the victim’s room, are both in their 30s, and their work doesn’t overlap much with Matina. One is an engineer, and the other deals with logistics-related tasks, both have families; what could be their murder motive?"

"Infidelity resulting in threats, or fear of being caught, fear of losing their assets and a lifetime of alimony?" Cui Qishan casually suggested.

"Strangling someone to death isn’t easy," Liu Jinghui borrowed Cui Qishan’s earlier words and turned them around, "Such a decisive act, most people find hard to achieve."

Cui Qishan didn’t object, just smiled, "What you say makes sense, but if neither of these two did it, then pinpointing the suspect in the apartment complex will be difficult, like the Eastern Train murder case."

Liu Jinghui chuckled lightly.