Novice Forensic Doctor

Chapter 383: Chapter 366 Wow, I got them all!_1

Zhu Zuozhang slapped his forehead and quickly pointed at several bags inside the blue box on the ground:

"Before you guys came down, the people from Tongshan Sub-bureau brought over these things, saying they found signs of burial in a storage cave nearby. The soil layer looked very fresh, so they sent it over for us to take a look. But I forgot about it just now because we were busy with the autopsy."

Zhou Ning didn’t say anything and walked over to the box.

Inside were several red plastic bags, bulging as if filled with many things. The bags were covered in soil, two of which were damp. This condition didn’t seem like they were just buried in soil; why did it feel like they had been thrown in water before being buried?

"Who brought them over, did they not mention how they were discovered?"

Zhu Zuozhang hurried to call someone, and a detective came in and introduced to Zhou Ning:

"After we found the body, Ma Da asked us to search the surrounding caves, since the body was exposed and there were no clothes in the victim’s home. It felt like something was missing, such as a blood-stained mattress cover. Ma Da believed the murderer wrapped the victim in it for transportation.

Then we started the search, and in a cave nearby, we found traces of digging, marks from a shovel. The soil on top was damp. We dug and found these bags. As for other discoveries around, there were none, but from the roadside to the pile of earth, there was a trail of diluted blood droplets."

As he spoke, he took out his phone, found a video, and played it. The video’s clarity wasn’t high, but one could clearly see a trail of blood droplets, varied in depth.

After watching, Zhou Ning looked puzzled. Observing Zhou Ning’s expression, Zhu Zuozhang quickly asked:

"What’s the matter, Director?"

"These two bags were soaked in water. Could there be a pond or a reservoir around Xi Anzi, and their initial plan was to throw these into the water, but when they found out they wouldn’t sink, they simply fished them out and buried them instead?"

Just as the detective was about to speak, Mr. Zhao had already opened a map on his notebook, enlarging Xi Anzi Village to its maximum extent. The village was tiny, with just a few dozen households, not even close to each other, and nestled against a mountain.

Perhaps, this was why the murderer chose to act. After all, the place was secluded. If you saw a new house or one with a car parked in front, you’d naturally pay more attention.

Mr. Zhao pointed to a bay to the north of the village and measured with a ruler. Unable to zoom in further, he then said:

"There’s a small bay to the north of the village, not large, less than a hundred meters long. It looks like a reservoir for irrigation since this is all hilly terrain, and irrigation is an issue. If they were to throw something into the water, it would likely be here. Hey!"

At his exclamation, Zhu Zuozhang leaned in too, curious what Mr. Zhao had seen.

"What is it?"

With an excited look on his face, Mr. Zhao didn’t keep them in suspense and hurriedly said:

"See that? You can’t get past the south side; it’s all blocked off with stones, probably to prevent theft. So the lowest point near this bay is by the roadside, heading north to a three-way intersection, right where there’s a camera. We should check that out; there might be something to find."

Hearing this, Zhu Zuozhang’s spirits lifted, and he promptly made a phone call.

"Hello, Ma Da, this is Zhu Zuozhang. We’ve made a discovery in the autopsy..."

As he finished, Zhou Ning had already put on gloves and asked people to move the bags to the autopsy table. The bags were cut open from below the tied area, placed one by one on a tray, and then unpacked, revealing bloodstained trousers, clothes, and mattress covers.

Indeed, the items in those wet bags had also been in water, which matched their conjecture.

As they spread out all the clothes, everyone began sorting through them individually. Mr. Zhao picked up a pair of men’s trousers, held them up to compare with his size, and let out a soft sigh.

"Look at this tiny waist; at most two chi four. I used to be slim back in middle school, too."

Sun Gaotie nudged Mr. Zhao and tilted his chin toward Zhou Ning. Neither said more, but Zhou Ning glanced at them.

Mr. Zhao quickly bowed his head and examined the trousers carefully. As his hand reached into the pocket, his eyes widened.

"Hey, there’s something here!"

Everyone stopped their actions. Mr. Zhao pulled his hand out, holding something in his palm that appeared to be a blood-stained tissue with something hard in the middle. Dropping the trousers, he unfolded the tissue to reveal a yellow Yunan Province Rural Credit Union (Rural Commercial Bank) Golden Swallow card.

On the back was a piece of tape with a string of numbers and the word "low" written on it.

Mr. Zhao blinked in disbelief.

"Hurry and have them check this out. Could the murderer be a fool? If I’m not mistaken, this is a low-income assistance card. Judging by the wear, it seems to have been used for quite some time.

This pair of trousers has signs of being kicked and scuffed, as well as rust from chains and bloodstains. It must belong to the male victim. Could it be that he thought of switching into the victim’s trousers, but, finding them dirty, discarded them, simply forgetting to take out his own card? Is he that foolish?"

Zhou Ning glanced at the card and then at the evidence items.

"Send samples for testing, photograph the card and send it to the Tongshan Sub-bureau for them to investigate. I think we’ll have a lead soon. Of course, focus on the surveillance footage from July 5th to the morning of July 6th; I don’t think the body would have been dumped during broad daylight. It feels like it was done either in the early hours of the morning or just before dawn."

Zhu Zuozhang breathed a sigh of relief, apparently working with Zhou Ning gave one a sense of confidence. With such analysis, it would be odd if the murderer wasn’t found.

"Alright, I’ll contact Ma Da right away. I’ll let you know as soon as there’s news. Thank you, Director Zhou."

Zhou Ning waved his hand.

"No need to be so polite among family. If you have any problems in the future, just speak up. We’ll help whenever we have the time." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Zhu Zuozhang didn’t waste words, uttered ’I’ll find you later,’ and then quickly left with his team. Zhou Ning glanced at Zhu Xingxing and noticed she seemed downcast, staring blankly at the autopsy table.

"What’s wrong with you, Zhu Xingxing?"

It was only then that Zhu Xingxing snapped back to reality and quickly shook her head.

"It’s nothing."

Mr. Zhao came closer.

"What does that mean? It’s not your first autopsy. Are you scared? Come on, stop overthinking; didn’t we just do the autopsy last night?"

Zhu Xingxing gave him a look and widened her eyes.

"Who said I was scared? I just feel depressed. Even in today’s society, governed by law, there are people who have been abused for so long, and in the end, the couple was brutally murdered. They looked younger than me. The torture, as the boss said, must have lasted at least a few hours. I just can’t stand it."

Zhou Ning walked over and looked at Zhu Xingxing.

"Our job might seem cruel and somewhat detached, but through our autopsies and analysis of the details, we have reconstructed the events of the case and the suffering of the victims, providing the most favorable conditions to catch the murderer. This is how we give the deceased their final testimony.

So don’t get too upset and let these emotions affect you. We have to deal with these things every day. If you can’t adjust your mentality, it can easily impact your mood and life. Once we’re over this busy period, I’ll take you to Doctor Shi for some counseling."

Zhu Xingxing nodded and exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Alright, I’ll try to adjust my emotions, but is this case easy to crack?"

Zhou Ning nodded.

"There’re plenty of clues. Once the lab results are out, it will be conclusive evidence. And I feel that the murderer is not acting alone; there must be at least two people involved, and they’re not some transient habitual offenders. As for the vehicle, if they dared to use it for the crime, it might be stolen. But let’s not think about it now; the test report should be out before we off work, and everything else depends on Ma Da’s speed." ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

The group didn’t say much more and went upstairs, with Zhu Xingxing occasionally glancing at the clock in the room. But no one came over.

Just before it was time to leave, the office door was pushed open violently, and Zhu Zuozhang burst in with excitement.

"Caught them! We caught them!"

Mr. Zhao chuckled. Everyone understood; the suspects in the 7.6 mass murder case had been caught. But that didn’t stop Mr. Zhao from teasing Zhu Zuozhang by going up to him and throwing an arm around his shoulder.

"Calm down, Doctor Zhu, what did you catch? You started in the middle of the story, leaving us confused!"

"Sorry, I’m a bit too excited. Ma Da just called me. Based on the two clues we provided, they found the owner of that social security card, but it turned out to be a fifty-two-year-old disabled old man from Yunan Province, who couldn’t match the timing of the crime.

However, he has a son named Zhang Xiaochui, 22 years old, unemployed with a record of brawling. Ma Da checked the public security cases they were involved in back then. There were four of them who broke someone’s leg in a fight and paid a compensation of thirty thousand yuan. The other three are Ho Changdong, Chen Jianding, and Qiu Xiangyong.

As for the surveillance footage, after combing through four cameras around that road, they spotted a suspicious vehicle, a black Jetta. On July 5th, it passed three times back and forth on this road—apparently scoping out the area.

The last time, at 18:21, it entered Xi Anzi Village and never came back out. Then, on the morning of July 6th at 5:33 am, the car came down from the village and stopped by that pond you mentioned, where two bags were thrown in. They didn’t sink, so the person quickly jumped in to retrieve them.

After that, the car turned around and headed towards Xihe Cliff on the west side. Surveillance from a fruit company located below the cliff also captured traces of this car."

At this point, Zhu Zuozhang paused, seemingly out of breath, and quickly grabbed a bottle of mineral water to drink. Mr. Zhao got impatient.

"Doctor Zhu, you stop your story halfway to drink water—are you doing this on purpose? A lot of novelists get scolded every day for that, leaving us hanging at the most agonizing part of the plot, forcing us to wait until tomorrow, making us anxious and frustrated. For such behavior, even scolding is putting it lightly."

Zhu Zuozhang smiled mischievously.

"In a hurry, aren’t you? I was genuinely thirsty, not stalling. I rushed here to give you the update, especially because Director Zhou’s analysis was astonishing."

"Talk about the important stuff!"

Zhu Zuozhang grinned, then continued more seriously:

"No more jokes. They found information on the car. Surprisingly, it wasn’t stolen; it was rented from a car rental company. A group of people found the car in surveillance, and within half an hour, they caught it at the tunnel entrance road leading to Yangkou. Four people were inside the car, matching the individuals seen in the surveillance footage, down to the last one."

Zhu Zuozhang paused here, leaving Mr. Zhao grinding his teeth in anticipation, while Zhou Ning patted Mr. Zhao’s shoulder, signaling him to be patient.

"It seems that these four people are Zhang Xiaochui, Ho Changdong, Chen Jianding, and Qiu Xiangyong...wait, do you mean to say these people not only stole from this couple but also took their card and withdrew the money from it?"

Now, it was Doctor Zhu’s turn to be stunned.

"Damn, spot on!"