corpse investigation department

Chapter 4 Introduction to Surabaya Floating Corpse
一
Our story begins with the well-known floating corpse case in Yunxi City in 1996.

I remember that it was an early morning in November, the cold autumn wind blew through the shivering young trees, and the withered and yellow leaves followed the tail of the autumn wind, sometimes hovering and sometimes dissipating.At the back door of the Yunxi City Public Security Bureau building, there is a winding concrete path lying quietly.At the end of the road is a blue and white two-story building, the wrinkled walls record the traces of the years.Under the first ray of sunlight in the morning, the gold-plated characters of "Criminal Technology Division of Yunxi City Public Security Bureau" are particularly dazzling.

Different from the cold and desolate scenery outside, the enthusiastic atmosphere inside the building could not dissipate for a long time.At this time, Hongzhang, the No. 1 criminal investigation technology department in Wannan Province, is leading the first batch of three college students who came to practice, and is studying a series of seemingly irregular blood footprints in the laboratory.

Suddenly, a public security policeman with a bar and two stars on his shoulders hurriedly pushed open the wooden door of the laboratory.

With a bang, the wooden door slammed into the wall, and a small piece of plaster wall fell off.

Si Hongzhang hurriedly stood up and asked, "Xiao Huang, what happened?"

"Chief Secretary, it's not good. Two floating corpses were found in the Sishui River. Go and have a look."

It was a time of crackdown. It can be said that ordinary theft cases can be investigated and handled as major cases, let alone involving human life, and there are still two. No wonder the police officer Huang who came to pass the message was so nervous.

Si Hongzhang frowned when he heard this, and said, "Don't be nervous, maybe it's drowning, I'll go and have a look."

The scene of the crime was located at an abandoned civilian wharf by the Sishui River. The whole scene had been sealed off by the police from the local police station. In order to prevent the corpse from drifting downstream again, nets were temporarily blocked around the corpse.

As soon as Si Hongzhang got out of the car, an old policeman in his 50s ran over holding his hat.

"Director, you are finally here."

"Director Zhao, what's the situation?"

"We received a report at seven o'clock in the morning. The report was from a nearby villager. He picked up mussels along the river in the morning and found two dead bodies floating in the river. The villager was frightened and ran to our police station on a bicycle. We called the police, and we followed him for a long time before we found these two corpses." Director Zhao said while gesturing.

"Has our city received any reports of missing persons recently?" Si Hongzhang asked with a frown.

"I asked the comrades in the 110 command center to check this, and there was no similar report."

"It is very likely that it floated down from the upper reaches. There are only three cities in the upper reaches of the Sishui River here. You can go back and contact the public security bureaus in these three places to see if they have received any reports of missing people." Hong Zhang pinched his chin and said.

"Okay, Chief of the Department, I will contact you right away." Director Zhao nodded while recording.

"You ask your subordinates to evacuate the surrounding crowd. Let's go and see the corpse." After finishing speaking, Si Hongzhang picked up the toolbox beside him, and led his students towards the pier.

The pier where the floating corpse was found was used for crossing rivers and boarding boats in the early years. It is said to be a pier, but it is actually four logs placed under one board.At this time, one of the two corpses was facing upwards, and the other was facing downwards, floating quietly in the water. The corpses had already appeared as giants, and the facial features could not be seen clearly. There were a lot of dark green algae attached to the clothes of the deceased. Even the clothes can't be distinguished.

"The deceased were a man and a woman, who had been dead for a long time."

It was not Si Hongzhang who spoke, but his student Leng Qiming.Leng Qiming, 26 years old, majored in forensic medicine at the university. He is 1.7 meters [-] in height.

After hearing what Leng Qiming said, Si Hongzhang turned around and asked in surprise: "How did you know? The face of the corpse is swollen, and one corpse's head is still buried in the water. You can tell the difference just by looking at it." come out?"

"Teacher, can't you see it?" Leng Qiming raised his eyebrows and asked back.

"You have a lot of thoughts, kid. Well, I admit, I know the reason, but I hope to say it from your mouth." Si Hongzhang has worked in criminal technology for 15 years, and this is not difficult for him, but A fledgling college student could see the reason at a glance, which surprised him.

Leng Qiming cleared his throat, turned his head to glance at the two corpses in the water and said:

"When a person enters the water after death, because the density of the human body is almost equal to that of water, the corpse sinks to the bottom first when it enters the water. As the decay of the corpse gradually intensifies, more and more gas will accumulate in the body. When the body is full of When the gas produced by the corruption, the corpse will gradually rise to the surface. Due to the extrusion of the corruption gas, the corpse will expand. Fat man, usually at this time, the corpse will have protruding eyeballs and everted lips, this kind of corpse view is called giant view."

"Because the highly rotten gas is first produced in the abdominal cavity, and then develops to the lower limbs, the order in which the body floats in the water is first the upper body, then the lower body. Only when the rotten gas completely enters the lower body until it fills the entire body , the whole body will surface. Therefore, when you can see the floating body on the water surface, it means that the body is completely decomposed. From this I can judge that they have been dead for a long time."

"The pelvis of men is smaller than that of women, and the muscles of the hips are not very developed, but the chest of men is much wider than that of women. In water, if a high degree of corruption occurs, this will make the center of gravity of the male corpse closer to the front of the body. And Due to the larger pelvis of women, the muscles of the buttocks are relatively developed. In the water, the center of gravity of female corpses is just opposite to that of men. After high-level corruption occurs, the heavy places tend to sink, while the light places will float, so the male corpses are in the water. The prone position is often in the water, and the female corpse is in the supine position."

"Well, it's very detailed." Si Hongzhang nodded approvingly after hearing this.

Leng Qiming smiled slightly as an answer.

"Xiao Lei, take your camera and hurry up to fix the scene. I'll have the salvage team pull up the body later." Si Hongzhang turned his head and shouted to the guy with his mouth open.

Jiao Lei, 20 years old, majored in criminal photography at university.At that time, this major was definitely a partial one, and only public security colleges would offer this course.His pair of small mung bean-like eyes have reached the extreme in handling the light.

Jiao Lei took the order, hurriedly picked up the film camera, changed direction and quickly pressed the shutter on the two corpses, and there were clicking sounds around the scene.

Not long after, the body was salvaged from the water, waiting for the next step of examination.Because the floating corpse case is not like other cases, the first scene where the deceased fell into the water cannot be determined, so it is impossible to extract traces of physical evidence. Everything can only be dealt with from the corpse. The most direct way is to dissect.

An hour later, the two dead bodies lay quietly on the dissection table, and the four men were nervously preparing.After everyone was fully dressed, Si Hongzhang said to a young man beside him: "Guoxian, Qiming and I are in charge of dissection, Xiaolei is in charge of taking pictures and recording, and I will entrust you with the task of extracting human tissue samples."

Chen Guoxian, 23 years old, majored in physical evidence examination at the university. His enthusiasm for material examination is like a lover who is in love with each other, and has reached the level of obsession.

Hearing this, Chen Guoxian used his right hand to support the glasses on the bridge of his nose that were thicker than the bottom of a wine bottle, raised the corners of his mouth, and replied with some excitement: "Don't worry, teacher."

After the division of labor was over, Si Hongzhang and Leng Qiming picked up the scalpel.

For the floating corpse on the water, the easiest way to initially prove homicide and suicide is to dissect the lungs. If there is no sediment in the lungs of the corpse, it means that the deceased has stopped breathing before falling into the water, and there is a possibility of homicide. sex.

According to Si Hongzhang's experience, the lungs of the corpse can be cut first to make a judgment. If it is a homicide, then the whole corpse needs to be carefully observed.

Si Hongzhang tilted his head and watched Leng Qiming skillfully cut the wound on the corpse, and narrowed his eyes admiringly.

Papa, as the organs were taken out, streams of blood left in the viscera quickly dripped down the two dissecting tables, and the blood beat hard on the rough concrete floor, splashing a large amount of blood.

Jiao Lei was carrying a bulky camera to the side, changing its position back and forth and carefully recording.Chen Guoxian held the plastic bottle containing the inspection materials in both hands, and waited to "receive" the human tissue cut by the two.

Dang bang, dang bang, Leng Qiming's scalpel fell first, followed by Si Hongzhang.

The two suddenly turned around at the same time and said two words:
"He killed!"

"What? A murder case?" Jiao Lei put down the camera in his hand, stared at his small eyes and waited for the confirmation of the result.

"The lungs of the two corpses are very clean without any sand, which means that they died before they fell into the water." Leng Qiming said as he pulled off his mask and opened the bloody internal organs.

"Come on, boys, cheer up, this case is difficult, and it's time to test you." Si Hongzhang clapped his hands and cheered.

Except for Si Hongzhang, everyone present took a deep breath and stared blankly at the two deformed corpses on the dissecting table.Because everyone knows that all clues to solve the case must be found on these two highly corrupt corpses.

After it was confirmed that it was a homicide, this case caused a sensation in the entire Yunxi City. In the era when most people did not know what a computer was, this case was definitely regarded as relatively hot news. For a while, various rumors spread everywhere, causing panic.

Three days later, Si Hongzhang sat in the office with his three disciples.

"What do you think about this case?" Si Hongzhang asked, frowning.

The three were silent.

Si Hongzhang glanced at them a few times, seeing no response from them, and finally pinned his hope on Leng Qiming who was sitting on the outermost side.

"Qiming, do you have anything to say?"

"Teacher, I don't know too much. I only know that the age of the male corpse is between 55 and 60, while the age of the female is around 50." Leng Qiming replied calmly.

"You're such a boring kid. Every time I have to call your name, you're willing to say it." Si Hongzhang said angrily.

Facing the teacher's accusation, Leng Qiming remained silent.

Si Hongzhang crossed his legs with great interest: "Tell me about how you analyzed it?"

Leng Qiming nodded, opened the notebook he carried with him, and said according to the script:

"These two corpses are already highly swollen and decomposed, and the faces cannot be seen clearly. Therefore, I think that the only way to analyze the age of the corpses is to start with the bones. The characteristics of human bones will show regular changes with age. For example, 30 to 40 At the age of 40, the ossification center of the costal cartilage increases, and the sternal manubrium and the sternal body heal; at the age of 50 to 60, the sternal body and the xiphoid process heal, and the larynx and costal cartilage begin to solidify; after the age of [-], the cartilage of the whole body will ossify. I used this to judge the ages of the two victims, but the error of this deduction is five years, so I can't guarantee that my deduction is correct."

"I want to know, how long did it take you to deduce this?" Si Hongzhang asked after taking a sip of tea from his water glass.

"Three days." Leng Qiming replied briefly.

"How many books have you checked?" Si Hongzhang asked again.

"Six books." Leng Qiming replied.

"Apart from your professional field, do you have any other discoveries?" Si Hongzhang asked with a serious expression.

"No more." Leng Qiming shook his head.

Si Hongzhang nodded after hearing this, and then shifted his gaze to another disciple.

"Guoxian, what do you want to say?"

Chen Guoxian pushed his glasses and said, "Teacher, I only tested the blood types of two people. Due to the limitation of our equipment, I didn't find anything else."

"What about Xiaolei?"

Jiao Lei spread his arms, and answered with a silly smile.

two

Seeing the performance of the three apprentices, Si Hongzhang was a little disappointed. After being silent for about a minute, he put down the water glass and said with a long sigh: "We have a case in our hands, and we have to learn how to carry out the work. You all combine your own As everyone knows, solving a case is the application of a comprehensive discipline, and you can’t tightly circle yourself in an imaginary circle. Let me tell you about my grasp of this case.”

After Si Hongzhang finished speaking, he got up from the chair and folded his hands behind his back: "The most important thing in this case is to find out the real identities of the two deceased, so that we can have a good starting point to investigate. It took Qiming three days to finish the investigation." The approximate ages of the two corpses were found, and the age can only play an auxiliary role in the detection of the case, and cannot provide solid clues for solving the case. You have to remember that no matter how shrewd the suspect is, it is impossible for the crime to be solved. It was done seamlessly. I have always believed that the physical evidence at the scene can speak, and it depends on whether we are the qualified listeners."

Si Hongzhang walked up to the three of them and continued:

"Although there are only two corpses at the scene, we can't determine where to throw them. It seems impossible to start, but in my opinion, these are enough."

"What? Is this enough?" Jiao Lei looked at the confident teacher and asked in disbelief.

Si Hongzhang smiled slightly and explained:

"First of all, let's talk about the place where the corpses were dumped. The coats of the two corpses are covered with algae. From the growth of these algae and the fact that the corpses have already appeared as giants, I can tell that the corpses floated on the Sishui River at least One week. We all know that the terrain of our country is high in the west and low in the east, so the dead body must have come to us from the upper reaches of the west, and the river course from our place to the source of the Sishui River is a straight line without any bays, so I According to the speed of the water flow, we can roughly judge the place where the suspect threw the body."

"Through my inquiries, I learned that the average flow rate of the Sishui River is three kilometers per hour. Based on this value, then within a week, the theoretical minimum floating distance of the two corpses without any obstruction is 504 kilometers." .”

"Then what if the corpse is stranded somewhere?" Leng Qiming was a little puzzled.

Si Hongzhang seemed to have expected that he would ask this question a long time ago, and replied: "This starts with the changes in the Sishui River in recent years. In the past few years, illegal sand mining was very serious, resulting in a large drop in the river bed. The closer to the upstream, the more turbulent the water flow, under the impact of the water flow, the corpse will not stay for a long time, this is one of them."

"Secondly, the Sishui River has been seriously polluted in recent years. Before 1990, many people raised fish in the river, but in recent years, due to water quality, this situation has basically disappeared, so there will be no fishing nets in the river. Interceptor."

"The third is the geographical distribution of the three cities in the upper reaches of the Sishui River. There are three cities from our city to the source of the Sishui River. From east to west, they are Dongshan City, Shungeng City and Nanyang City. Dongshan City and Shungeng City They are all long from north to south and narrow from east to west, and only Nanyang City, the source of the Sishui River, is distributed from east to west, wide from east to west, and narrow from north to south. The distance between the river channels of Dongshan City and Shungeng City is less than 100 kilometers, which is obviously too close. Excluded. Then Nanyang City is more likely.”

"However, the river distance from our place to Nanyang City is only 350 kilometers, and there is an error value of 154 kilometers from the theoretical floating distance. This difference is likely to be caused by the reverse flow of the water surface caused by the ships traveling from downstream to upstream. Yes. And you have also seen that these two corpses appeared in the river section of our city. If they were not discovered early and salvaged in time, they would probably continue to drift downstream. Combined with the three upstream cities to our place In other words, the two deceased are likely to be from Nanyang City.”

"Teacher, I have another question." Leng Qiming asked with a frown.

"Well, you said."

"How did you know there was a connection between the two bodies? I mean, is it possible that the two bodies just floated together by chance?"

Si Hongzhang replied with a smile:
"I don't need to answer your question. You just need to listen to what I'm going to say next, and you will naturally understand."

After finishing speaking, Si Hongzhang continued:
"After the analysis of the place where the corpses were dumped, we cleaned up the algae on the clothes of the two deceased and looked at their clothes. Through observation, I found that the pants worn by the two deceased were suit pants. Look, there is basically no difference. It can be seen that the pants they are wearing should come from the same manufacturer. I also found an interesting problem, that is, the male corpse is only wearing a white vest, while the female corpse is also wearing a white vest. Same, only a printed tank top."

"So, neither of the two dead men were wearing coats?" Leng Qiming seemed to have guessed something.

"You're right. The temperature outside is only about 15 degrees. Both of them are wearing thick trousers on their lower bodies. There is no reason not to wear coats. This is not in line with the living habits of normal people, so I dare to conclude that the suspect is here. After committing the crime, the coats of the two deceased were deliberately taken off. This shows that the coats on the deceased are likely to be some kind of identifiable clothes. Combined with the analysis of the same material of the pants they wore, I think that the two of them It is very likely that he was wearing some kind of standard clothing before his death. And this kind of clothing should be clothes that people can guess what the deceased is doing at a glance, otherwise the suspect will not take it off after committing the crime. This excludes general uniforms such as security guards, salespersons, and waiters. Therefore, I deduce that the identities of the two deceased were either corporate workers or government employees."

"Then is it a company employee or a government employee?" It was Jiao Lei who spoke this time.

Si Hongzhang took out a few cigarettes from his pocket and handed them out, lit them himself, took a puff and replied:

"The trousers on the lower bodies of the two deceased are relatively thick suit trousers, and the tops that the two deceased are currently wearing are all close-fitting clothing. Xiaolei, if you were the deceased, would you wear a white vest underneath? Just put on a police uniform outside?"

"How awkward to wear like that, you must wear a shirt in the middle!" Jiao Lei replied with a grin.

As soon as he finished speaking, he seemed to realize something, and looked at his teacher suddenly.

Si Hongzhang patted Jiao Lei's head and said with a smile:

"Xiao Lei, you are right. Based on the current temperature analysis, even adding a coat to the two deceased is a little thin, so I guess, the suspect took off two clothes from the upper body of the deceased. And these two pieces of clothing should belong to the category of uniforms that can be identified. Take our police uniforms for example. In addition to the "public security" logo on the coat, there are also police badges printed on the shirts and shirt buttons. Condition."

"From the suit pants worn by the deceased, it is not difficult to see that the uniforms worn by the two of them should be suits. There are only a few companies in Nanyang that can distribute uniforms. I checked, and their uniforms are basically relatively Loose cotton clothes, I’ve never heard of them giving suits to employees. So my guess is that the two dead are probably government workers, and they were in the same unit.”

"Teacher, is this all right?" Jiao Lei exclaimed with his small eyes wide open.

Si Hongzhang smiled, did not answer, took a sip of water and continued:

"I found a small amount of cash from the pockets of the lower body clothes of the two corpses, and a watch from the right hand of the male corpse, which shows that neither of the two deceased had any property loss, and the suspect did not go for the money. His motive was to kill."

Putting down the water glass, Si Hongzhang took out an evidence bag containing a watch from under the table and continued:

"After talking about the clothes, let's talk about this watch. The watch is the Shanghai brand A581-1 model. This watch is an improved version of the A581 model. It was only produced for one year in 1960. Maybe you don't know the name of this watch. Meaning, it was the dream of a man in the 60s and [-]s, when the four major items of marriage were watches, bicycles, sewing machines, and opera boxes (radio sets).”

"Shanghai brand watches have become a golden signboard for marriage, so it is impossible for someone to borrow this kind of watch, and they are all worn close to the body. In other words, the watch worn by the male corpse is likely to be bought when he got married. , In other words, the victim may have been married in 1960."

"At that time, this improved version of the watch was more expensive than the current luxury car. You might not be able to buy it even if you have money. Only families with political backgrounds can buy it through connections. Since it is a political family, the consciousness will be very high. , If you don’t reach the legal age, you will definitely not get married. In 1960, the legal age of marriage for men was 20 years old. According to this calculation, the male corpse must be at least 56 years old.”

"As for the age of the female corpse, it is easier to judge. You only need to measure the pelvis and observe the corresponding changes in the bones to draw a conclusion. According to my analysis, the age of the female deceased is about 50 years old, which is similar to Qiming's analysis."

Hearing this, Leng Qiming looked at Si Hongzhang with a look of admiration, because he knew in his heart that in order to obtain these data, he hardly closed his eyes for three full days, but his teacher obtained the comparison through a watch. He still needs to draw a detailed conclusion, how could this not amaze him!
Gudong Gudong, after taking two more sips of tea, Si Hongzhang wiped the water stains on his lips and said:

"Let's continue to look at the corpse table. The corpses have been inflated and swollen, so it is impossible to judge whether they had trauma before death, and no conclusion can be drawn from the corpse table. The hands of the two deceased were also peeled off due to corruption. , I used a scalpel to cut off the skin tissue with fingerprints from the two corpses, and I am processing them now. If the processing is done, I can get valuable fingerprints, which will be very helpful in finding out the real identity of the deceased."

"Next, let's look at the changes in the internal organs of the corpse. I cut open the stomachs of the two deceased, and I found that their stomachs were filled with a large amount of undigested food, which can indicate that they had just eaten before they died. And judging from the types of food in their stomachs, the two ate the same type of food before they died, which means that they both ate at the same table before they were killed. So the two bodies were killed at the same time, not Float together by chance."

"The livers of the two corpses were all dark black, which is a manifestation of poisoning. I suspect that the two deceased were poisoned while eating. After the two were poisoned to death, they were thrown into the Sishui River."

"Now that we have deduced a more likely suspect's crime process, we need to further analyze the relationship between the two deceased. If they can eat together, then the relationship between them is either husband and wife, or colleagues or relatives and friends. But if you think about it carefully, it seems that only husband and wife can explain a little bit, because if they are colleagues or relatives and friends, the death of the two people will involve two families, so the reporting rate is relatively higher. The criminal police team has been investigating for so long. All the cities in the upper reaches have not received any reports of missing persons, which can better illustrate this point. The suspect killed two people at once, and it may be for the purpose of eradicating the grass."

"Nanyang City is such a big place, there are not many government units that can properly distribute work uniforms, and under the situation of crackdown across the country, no matter which unit it is, the attendance system for work is very strict. , whoever comes, can be found out soon. If they are working staff, the unit will definitely notice it if they have been missing for so many days. But the case has passed for so long, and we have not found a related report. Judging from their ages, it is very likely that the two have left their jobs or retired. According to the legal retirement age in our country, the male is 60 years old and the female is 50 years old, so the bottom line of the age of the two deceased can basically be determined."

"Still wearing uniform after retirement?" Leng Qiming asked puzzled.

Si Hongzhang returned to his seat and continued: "The age of the deceased is about the same as my father's generation. If you ask this question, it shows that you don't understand the thinking of the generation born in the 50s and [-]s. Their love for uniforms is far away." Beyond your imagination, in many neighborhoods of our city, there are many old people who are over [-] years old and wear military uniforms all day long. Therefore, it is not surprising that the two deceased are still wearing uniforms after retirement, especially when they are attending the dinner party. On grand occasions, the probability of wearing a uniform will be greater."

After hearing this, the three of them nodded in agreement.

Si Hongzhang sat on the chair, leaned back and said:
"Based on the above, my conclusion is that the two deceased were from Nanyang City. They may be husband and wife. They worked in the same government unit and had retired. If neither husband and wife can be contacted, they are very likely to be killed. Combined with the fingerprints, clothing, watches and other information we extracted from the corpse, we can basically determine the source of the corpse. After this is confirmed, we will focus on checking the last two Who is the person who ate with the deceased? This person may be a suspect. But this is only a more practical clue to solve the case when the reasoning is completely reasonable. Of course, there will be many unexpected situations. The specific circumstances It still needs to be treated in detail. Solving a case is actually a process of constantly assuming and verifying.”

After Si Hongzhang finished speaking in one breath, he looked at the three young men, all of them were stunned.

According to the general clues provided by Si Hongzhang, the criminal police team arrested the suspect Xu Dazhu in only two days.According to his account, the two deceased were staff members of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Nanyang City, and they were husband and wife.The two parties had feuded for several years because of the issue of licenses. Xu Dazhu saw the opportunity when the two children were away and retired at home, and invited the two to dinner as a pretext for reconciliation. During the meal, they were poisoned and killed, and their bodies were thrown into the river.The floating corpse case that caused a sensation in several cities came to an end.

(End of this chapter)