Free Web NovelChapter 306: Chapter 300 Headless Corpse_1
March 11, 2012, 9:30 AM
Inside the meeting room of Hai’an Municipal Criminal Police Brigade.
A large screen displayed several photos, and Zhang Chunbo pointed to the images as he introduced:
"Following Director Xu’s request, I’ll introduce another cold case from Hai’an, which is familiar throughout Qindao. This is a serial murder case spanning nineteen years. To date, there have been three victims, commonly referred to as the Hai’an Headless Serial Murders.
The first victim was named Zheng Chuguang, a 26-year-old male, 170 centimeters tall, weighing 120 jin, with a slim build. He was born on October 14, 1967. Zheng Chuguang was an engineer at the Hai’an Architectural Design Institute. On November 6, 1993, Zheng Chuguang’s wife reported him missing.
Her husband left for work on the morning of November 3 and never returned. Following a police investigation, a headless male body was discovered on the embankment edge under the Baisha River Central Bridge in the eastern part of Hai’an city. Family members identified the deceased as Zheng Chuguang.
Zheng Chuguang’s hands and feet were bound with a green nylon rope, and the body was found in a side-lying, fetal position, lying on top of a plastic sheet with puddles of water on it. His feet were shoeless. Please look at the first image; this was the state of the deceased upon discovery. His clothes were intact, with no signs of tears or cuts, and there were no defensive wounds on his body.
As for toxicological tests, due to limited technology at the time, nothing useful was discovered. However, the chopping wounds on the neck, as determined by the forensic doctor then, were postmortem injuries. Since the head was missing, it was impossible to determine the exact cause of death.
Investigations into social relationships revealed no enmity between the victim and others. The victim had a Shanghai-brand watch and over 570 yuan in cash on him, including a paycheck, ruling out robbery as a motive. However, subsequent investigations revealed that Zheng Chuguang had accepted bribes for fake designs totaling 270,000 yuan, all of which he had squandered.
The second victim was named Yu Guangyao, a 33-year-old male, 185 centimeters tall, weighing 178 jin, with a tall and robust physique. He was born on September 11, 1967. Yu Guangyao was the general manager of Xiping Construction Engineering Company.
On July 25, 2000, a report was received that Yu Guangyao’s car had been found parked in the lot behind the Cultural Palace; he had been missing for over twenty-four hours by then. When police arrived at the scene and opened the car door, they discovered a headless male body, kneeling on the backseat.
His hands and feet were tied with a green nylon rope, in a posture identical to that of Zheng Chuguang. No large splashes of blood were found in the car, and a large plastic sheet was placed under the seat. The deceased’s feet were also bare, without shoes.
An inspection of the car uncovered over 30,000 yuan in cash. A meticulous search for fingerprints inside the vehicle found none other than those of the deceased and his wife and children. In the trunk of the car, a notebook with some numbers was found.
Subsequent detailed investigations revealed that it was a bribery ledger. The victim Yu Guangyao had been cutting corners in municipal engineering construction, resulting in several contracted road sections deteriorating into sandy conditions within a year. Those involved in the incident were also dealt with, and the total bribery amount reached 3.57 million yuan.
The third victim was named Zhang Qiujiang, a 38-year-old male, 175 centimeters tall, weighing about 175 jin, of average height with a very large stomach. He was born on August 17, 1968. Zhang Qiujiang was the chairman of Hai’an Urban Construction Supervision Co., Ltd.
On March 15, 2006, a report was received that at 136 Renmin Road in Liuyuan Community, Building 7, blood and water had been dripping continuously. Police rushed to the scene to find the body of Zhang Qiujiang placed on the top floor, in an identical state to the previous two victims.
His limbs were bound, head severed, but whether it was due to the way the body was placed or because it was slippery from the rain on the rooftop that day, the corpse was leaning forward with shoulders on the ground. As a result, rainwater mixed with blood dripped down, alerting the residents.
Our then-head of the criminal police team was my master, Zhou Guochang, who after studying the previous two cases, processed Zhang Qiujiang’s murder as a connected case. After searching the vicinity, they found Zhang Qiujiang’s car, and inside, they discovered a storage card containing various transaction evidence.
From the Department of Construction to the construction company, as many as over a dozen people were arrested. Building 7 of Liuyuan Community was also deemed as structurally unsafe, as none of the materials—from the steel reinforcement to the concrete—met standards. It was demolished and re-tendered for construction.
Before my master retired, he made a point of telling me that if this case ever got solved, to definitely let him know. If he was no longer around by then, he wanted me to burn some paper money for him and recount the details in his memory.
Actually, many locals in Hai’an say that the killer was punishing evil and promoting good and there’s no need to catch them, so any attempt for a thorough investigation met with considerable resistance."
Xu Dayuan nodded after hearing this but ignored the last remark outright. He was here to deal with backlog cases, and it was pointless for them to mention such a sentiment if they had reported the case. Xu Dayuan couldn’t be bothered to say much else to Zhang Chunbo.
"I have a few questions. Have the relationships between the three victims been thoroughly examined? Do they have any shared histories of living, socializing, or schooling together?"
Zhang Chunbo flipped through his notebook, found a section, and after glancing at it, said:
"Since 2006, we meticulously searched for connections between the three victims. However, according to the information we could find, although they were similar in age, there were no intersections in their middle school, high school, or university experiences.
The only intersection, per se, was that Yu Guangyao and Zhang Qiujiang lived very close to each other before they were twelve years old—the kind where they lived in different buildings of the same complex. Regarding their parents, siblings, and other relations, there were also no connections."
Zhou Ning glanced at the large screen, which displayed photos of the bodies as they were found at the crime scenes. Although the pixel quality varied, the headless appearance was truly gruesome.
Xu Dayuan’s recent question was exactly what Zhou Ning had been considering: the closest similarity between the three men was their age. After all, many serial killers do not let go of individuals they despised during their school days.
Especially those with experiences of being bullied, such hatred is often etched deeply into their bones.
This point, being directly ruled out, was somewhat unexpected for Zhou Ning.
Glancing at Bai Hua beside him, Zhou Ning lowered his voice and asked,
"Doctor Bai, were these three autopsies performed by you or by a previous forensic doctor? Are there relevant autopsy records?"
Bai Hua gathered her hair and handed a file folder to Zhou Ning, but her hand that was holding the folder didn’t let go.
"There are autopsy records. I conducted the autopsy for Zhang Qiujiang, but the previous two were done by someone sent from the municipal bureau. After all, the case was quite sensational at the time, and even after nineteen years, the skull of the deceased has not been found."
Mentioning the skull, Zhou Ning looked at Bai Hua.
"I want to ask, were the bodies of the three deceased cremated by their families, or were they buried in the earth?"
At such a question, Bai Hua was also taken aback.
"They should have been cremated. The bodies were claimed by family members, and the autopsy reports were comprehensive. There was no need to retain them, except for the deceased’s clothing and evidence, which were given to the families. After all, before 2006, there was no mandatory requirement to hand over cremated remains to the families, but now, isn’t it required by the villages to cremate before burial?"
Before Zhang Chunbo could speak, Liu Yongxin leaned forward and said,
"It’s generally not the choice to cremate when the remains of the deceased are incomplete. The case would have to be solved and the skull found before cremation would be likely, especially since the deaths of the first two victims were quite some time ago. The Qindao Area began advocating for cremation in 1997, but it was just an advocate.
"Anyone whose household registration is in a village or town can usually be buried back in the village. Moreover, Hai’an City converted from a county to a city in 1999, and this area is now a planting region for grains and vegetables, with a significant rural population."
Xu Dayuan turned to look at Liu Yongxin. No one knew more about these matters than Liu Yongxin because he had worked in Duping for half a year when he was younger, though that was back in the late eighties.
"Then let’s find the families of the three deceased and find out if they were cremated. If they were buried, whether we can examine the remains. Also, over the course of nineteen years, what investigations have you done? Bring out everything you have, Zhang Chunbo, and we’ll reevaluate all of it.
Considering the deceased’s state at the time of death, their method of binding, the cause of death, their missing heads, as well as the similar age bracket, I think we still need to start with the social relations around the deceased. Since they did not intersect in time and were not familiar with each other, let’s look into the people they knew to see if there are any overlaps.
Zhenshan, Mr. Zeng, Mr. Bai, Yufei, the four of you, each leading your people and working with the local force coordinated by Zhang Chunbo, split into four groups and start a detailed search into their elementary, middle, high schools, universities, neighbors, and colleagues. Any acquaintances found among these contacts should be filtered out."
Xu Dayuan paused and looked at Zhou Ning.
"Zhang Chunbo, have someone contact the families of the deceased. Bone identification is Director Zhou’s forte; I think if the remains of the deceased are preserved, they should be thoroughly examined. Since we are revisiting this case, I hope everyone involved gives it their full attention, so it won’t keep appearing in the unsolved case records year after year." frёewebηovel.cѳm
Zhou Ning was currently browsing the autopsy records; the first two books were hand-drawn, and such drawing skills amazed him. Even though there was no DNA testing, the measurements and records were quite detailed.
Especially for the first deceased, Zheng Chuguang, the front of his autopsy report contained various records and annotations, noting even that Zheng Chuguang’s thumb was shorter than average. As for the backside, it had the forensic doctor’s analysis.
There were only restraint injuries on the deceased’s hands and feet, slight strangulation marks under the armpits, and the estimated time of death was on the day of disappearance, with excretion from both bowels. Livor mortis was faint, the surface of the severed area was rather clean, not like those cut by a saw, but there were multiple chop injuries.
Inside the deceased’s trachea were pink frothy secretions, no garlic odor was detected in the digestive system, there was edema in the lungs, slight swelling of the liver, and organophosphate testing did not reveal any poisons.
Zhou Ning blinked. This series of features was indeed very similar to organophosphate poisoning, and he would have pursued that line of investigation as well. However, the fact that no toxic substances were found was puzzling.
He turned to the autopsy report of the second deceased. This one was not a hand-drawn human figure but a printed one, slightly crude but with a very clear process of autopsy and meticulous labeling. At the end, he found that the body had been autopsied twice.
Of course, both autopsies were conducted by the Bureau’s technical department’s forensic room, probably because they found similarities between the two cases, so they conducted a second autopsy, reexamining the body more carefully, and this time used DNA testing to identify the deceased.
The bronchi and trachea of this deceased also contained a large amount of pale pink and white frothy secretions, severe pulmonary edema, expansion and rupture of the alveolar wall accompanied by hemorrhage, and the lung lobes had blunt edges. Like the first deceased, livor mortis was faint, and there were multiple chop injuries on the neck.
Reading this description and looking at the two different autopsy results, Zhou Ning pushed his glasses up and Liu Yongxin, who had been stretching his neck to look over, saw the autopsy findings and furrowed his brows at Zhou Ning.
"After reexamination, does he believe that the second deceased, Yu Guangyao, died in the same manner as the first, by drowning?"
