Serious Crime Unit 1

Chapter 394 Bone Cave (2)
"Forensic doctors who often look at skulls can tell from the color of the skull. Of course, to get a more precise time, you need to go through a computer scan to know... Hey, there is an irregular fracture in the skull of the deceased. This person may have been murdered. .”

"This is not necessarily true. If he fell from the entrance of the cave and his head happened to hit the rocks at the bottom of the cave, it would also cause this kind of fracture." Che Xiaolin said.

"If a living person falls from the entrance of a hole, the person's instinctive reaction is usually to stretch out his hands or feet to prevent head injuries. It is impossible to hit the ground head first. Of course, if you fall from a very high place, your body will be affected by the wind speed. Impact, he may have hit the ground head first, but if he fell from a hole only 7 meters deep, his hands and feet should have hit the ground first. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Xie Shiqing, did he hit the ground first, his hands and feet or his head?”

"However, there is another possibility that the deceased was dumped in this hole after death."

"Yes, this is also possible. Let's go back to the criminal police team and analyze it. First, let's take a look at the other bones of his body."

Che Xiaolin took out a folding shovel and drew a line from the middle so that the bottom of the hole was divided into two half-moons. This was their usual practice. They first piled the soil dug in one half-moon shape onto the other half-moon shape. Once done, dig another half-moon shape.

Che Xiaolin only dug about 30 centimeters deep and dug out two hand bones and 12 pairs of ribs. Zheng Zuhua put the bones one by one into a large evidence bag.

Che Xiaolin then dug another half-moon shape. He shoveled the original floating soil aside, and when the black ground was exposed, he began to dig carefully. He was afraid that too much force would damage the physical evidence. When he dug to about 30 centimeters, the feet of the deceased were discovered. All the bones were found.

So far, all 206 bones of the human body have been found, and a complete person died here.Because all the clothes of the deceased had rotted into mud, nothing could be found to prove the identity of the deceased.Che Xiaolin was a little discouraged and continued to dig deeper, only to find a hatchet. The wooden handle on the hatchet was half rotten. Zheng Zuhua put the handle into the evidence bag.

Zheng Zuhua wanted to find some insects, but there were no creatures except small ants, not even earthworms, which was a bit strange.Because the life of an ant is about a few months to a year, of course, unless the queen ant has a lifespan of more than ten years, but no queen was found in the hole.

There are 33 stones at the bottom of the cave. The heaviest one is about ten kilograms and the smallest one is about one kilogram. Some of these stones are pebbles and some are mountain rocks. The rocks are angular. Che Xiaolin felt a little strange: How could these stones stay there? What about the cave?Did it roll down the mountain?
Under normal circumstances, there would not be so many stones falling into the hole, because this was a tomb hole dug by tomb robbers at the end of the last century. It only lasted 30 to [-] years, so there should not have been so many stones.

The two of them worked for three hours before it was over. They pulled them up, packed up their tools, and were about to leave. Zhu Gang asked Zheng Zuhua: "When do you think the deceased died?"

"In about 10 years, the body and clothes have all rotted into mud. Except for a hatchet, there are no valuable clues."

"No, there are still stones at the bottom of the cave." Che Xiaolin continued.

"Cremation was implemented in Beiwang Village 15 years ago. How could anyone bury the body here? Could it be homicide?"

"It's very possible, but it doesn't rule out that the deceased fell from a high place. For example, if he fell from a cliff like Xie Shiqing, he might have fractured his parietal bone. However, I think there is a high probability that the deceased just fell into a hole, so I prefer to kill him. .”

"Can you tell how old the deceased was?" Zhu Gang was impatient. He was always eager to break the casserole and ask the question.

"Judging from the teeth of the deceased and the shape of the pubic symphysis, the error for a man aged about 40 to 42 years old will not exceed two years." The pubic symphysis is closely related to the physiological age of the human body. Forensic doctors who often see the pubic symphysis, With a simple glance, you can tell your approximate age.But to be precise, calculations must be made.

"Can you tell by your height?"

"About 1.65 to 1.67 meters." Height can also be calculated to within an error of two centimeters based on the multiple regression equation of multiple long bones.

"It would be great if the deceased could be accurately painted."

"Don't worry, we are Lu Jinghua, masters of skull restoration." Zheng Zuhua said with a smile.

After Zhu Gang heard this, he called Lu Yingying, who was at the end, to come up: "Yingying, I heard that you are a master of skull reconstruction. Can you realistically restore the appearance of the deceased?"

"No problem, but skull restoration technology can only achieve more than 85% similarity. Restore using software technology, scan the skull, use software to identify the structural characteristics of the skull, and then present the three-dimensional image to restore the original appearance of the deceased. But I am not an expert , don’t listen to Medical Examiner Zheng’s exaggerated praise, I can’t bear it.” “Okay, I’m relieved with your words.” Zhu Gang patted her shoulder happily.

The sun in the mountains sets very quickly, and the afterglow of the setting sun shines down from the top of the mountain, passing through the woods, dyeing the green trees light yellow, the mountain mist floats up, and the cool evening wind blows through, making people's skin crawl.The layers of distant mountains are shrouded in light mist, as ethereal as a dream. How beautiful the world would be if there were no murders in the world!

2
Three days later, all the data from the serious crime team came out, so a case analysis meeting was held.

Every time there was a meeting, Zhu Gang would ask Zheng Zuhua to speak first. Zheng Zuhua opened the slide, pointed at the photo of the deceased’s skull on the screen with a laser pointer and said: “The left skull in a three-dimensional state clearly shows that it is composed of three straight fracture lines. It is formed by converging to a point, which means that something with a sharp angle hit this place, such as the corner of a brick or a sharp stone."

Zheng Zuhua changed a picture of the stone. Because there were too many stones and too heavy, he did not carry them back. Therefore, Che Xiaolin took hundreds of pictures of the stones at that time: "After careful comparison, I found that this stone was probably the one that hit the target." The reason why I say it was a hit is because the possibility of a fracture caused by the deceased's parietal bone hitting this stone is very small, so I think the possibility of homicide is very high, and we must pay attention to it."

"Can you know what occupation the deceased was engaged in?" Zhu Gang asked.

"I used Alpha 02 detection equipment to detect slight fractures in the elbow joint of the deceased, distortion in the right elbow joint, and slight deformity in the right scapula. It can be judged that the deceased was engaged in heavy physical labor, especially farmers who often waved with their right hands and carried heavy objects with their right shoulders. .”

"Is there any error between the age of the deceased and your previous judgment?" Zhu Gang asked.

"There is no error. In order to determine the age of the deceased more accurately, I extracted the enamel of the deceased's teeth and conducted carbon isotope identification, which confirmed that the deceased was between 40 and 42 years old."

"Why are you so sure that the death was a homicide?"

"We assume that the deceased fell from a height and then fell into the tomb hole, and the hole was only 1.5 meters wide. No matter whether the deceased was head down or feet down, he would subconsciously use his hands to protect his head. This is human It was an instinctive reaction and, therefore, it was impossible for the deceased’s parietal bone to be fractured.”

"I agree with Dr. Zheng's view. Unless the deceased fell vertically from a very tall tree into a hole, the parietal bone could be fractured. We all know that the parietal bone is very hard. Many people use wine bottles to hit people's parietal bones during fights. , As a result, the wine bottle was broken, and the other party was fine. At most, he suffered a slight concussion. Also, there are no tall trees near the tomb hole, so the deceased could not have fallen into the hole from the tree." Wu Jiang looked at Zhu Gang and said.

"Is it possible that the deceased was beaten to death elsewhere and dumped in the cave, or that two tomb robbers beat each other to death for robbing treasures?" Chen Li asked.

"Probably not. Xie Qiangqiang said that tomb robbers would become extinct at the end of the last century." Che Xiaolin answered Chen Li.

"Yingying, has your skull been restored?"

"Come out." After saying this, Lu Yingying stood up, came to the projector, took out a USB flash drive from her pocket, inserted it into the projector's port, and pulled out three pictures from it. One picture was a frontal photo of the deceased, and the other two The picture shows the left and right side photos. The man in the photo is a thin man with small eyes, a slightly sunken nose, and high cheekbones. He can be described as a deer-headed rat.

"Okay, with this photo, we can find the source of the body. Yingying, you upload the photo of the deceased to our county bureau's WeChat and Weibo, and issue a reward notice. From today on, we will open a case for investigation. Angkor, you Any ideas?"

"I looked at the hatchet carefully. There was an iron seal one inch in front of the handle, which was the character Lin. There was also a line of words 'made in 1998' below the character Lin. This hatchet should be from a person named Lin. Yes, if this hatchet was not stolen or picked up, then the deceased must be named Lin. This is a good clue. I only need to look for the farmer named Lin, and the deceased should not be a villager far away from the scene. They are villagers from several villages at the foot of Wugong Mountain." Wu Jiang answered.

Zhu Gang took Xiaoke to visit Beiwang Village, and Lu Yingying issued a reward order in the team.They looked for Xie Zengqiang first, because they called Xie Zengqiang beforehand. He was already waiting for them in the village committee office and made three cups of fragrant tea.The wild tea on Wugong Mountain is the most expensive in the county. The best tea costs over [-] yuan per pound, so it is particularly fragrant.

After Zhu Gang took a sip of tea, he took out a hatchet from his backpack and handed it to Xie Zengqiang: "Director Xie, this is the hatchet of the deceased. If we find its owner, we can find the source of the body. Look, See if you recognize this knife?"

(End of this chapter)