Chapter 883: Fingerprint Collection for All Members

However, the investigation work was not particularly smooth.

In the High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team’s meeting room, three days had passed since Lu Chuan set three directions for the investigation.

Sun Biao’s eyes were bloodshot: "Captain Lu, regarding the investigation of the taxi drivers... it’s been very difficult."

"Mainly because too much time has passed."

Sun Biao’s investigation into the situation of taxi drivers at the train station 10 years ago was indeed very challenging.

On one hand, there were few surveillance recordings from that year, and even if there were, after such a long time, the contents of these recordings had long disappeared.

On the other hand, a few years ago Haizhou City built a high-speed railway station. The original Haizhou City train station had become gradually abandoned with virtually no passenger flow.

Without passenger flow, the vendors who set up stalls around the station gradually disappeared too.

So many vendors who had been setting up stalls at the old Haizhou City train station for years are now nowhere to be found.

There’s no information from surveillance and the people have scattered, so investigating which taxi carried Hu Huihui back then is quite difficult.

But, Sun Biao and his team are not entirely without options.

"These days, since we can’t precisely find the taxi drivers from back then, we can only use a clumsy method."

One good thing is that 10 years ago, app-based ride services were basically nonexistent, and unlicensed cars were very scarce; taking a taxi meant taking a regular cab.

"We went to the traffic police brigade and checked the information of all registered taxi drivers from 10 years ago."

Sun Biao tapped the projector, which displayed a list of names: "Now, we can only search like finding a needle in a haystack, contacting these people one by one."

The workload... is truly enormous.

Ten years ago, there were a total of 7,982 taxi drivers in Haizhou City.

Sun Biao’s team could only contact each person by calling them one by one.

However, of these over 7,000 people, it’s just the data from then. What these people are doing now, no one knows how many have died or how many have left Haizhou City, it cannot be determined now.

So, the precision of Sun Biao’s work is quite lacking, especially since many people cannot be contacted now.

Fortunately, the police can query through the household registration system to find contact information, although it involves two more steps compared to direct contact.

"But one good thing is that the taxi drivers who picked up fares at the train station back then were a relatively fixed group. We are currently screening this particular group to understand the situation from back then, although there are no particularly good results at the moment."

Three days is too short; Sun Biao’s team had only checked fewer than 3,000 people, not even half.

Moreover, such ordinary people were contacted through burning the midnight oil.

"My situation... isn’t very promising either."

Sighing was Chen Jiang’s side.

Chen Jiang was in charge of investigating the construction teams from that year.

"Although we found the construction teams from that year, the people have scattered."

Even though the company awarded the bid back then had dissolved and reformed, Chen Jiang, using some information, still found the details of the specific foreman of that year’s construction.

"Once the whole road construction project was subcontracted, it was broken into segments and subcontracted again. But the subcontracted companies weren’t the ones doing the actual construction; they had to recruit construction teams, and in practice, the people doing the fieldwork were migrant workers."

Chen Jiang had actually prepared mentally for this.

Road construction and real estate construction aren’t much different. The construction workers didn’t really have any technical skills; they just did what they were told to do.

"Because of this, the workers on-site at that time weren’t very fixed. We are now investigating the list of people working on-site on June 28th."

Chen Jiang’s progress was also slow: "Although there is a record of the number and names of workers back then, finding these people is quite difficult."

Through the investigation, Chen Jiang found out the construction workers were quite mixed; some worked for a few months, and some only for a day.

So, in the background files kept by the construction side, only names were recorded, and even contact details or ID numbers were missing, as these people were basically casually recruited by the foremen in the labor market.

Salaries were settled daily, with payments made after each day’s work. Some workers might not return the next day, so the staff turnover was relatively high.

"Currently, we found the driver who operated the roller back then."

Although finding everyone seems quite challenging for now, some long-term workers at the road construction site have already been identified.

"Different construction segments had different roller drivers, each responsible for compacting specific road lengths."

Chen Jiang turned on the projector, displaying a photo of a middle-aged man: "This man is Wang Shuai; he was the driver of the roller at the segment near Beihong Village, doing the compaction work."

"Did you say the body was run over by his roller?"

Chen Jiang nodded: "Because there was only one roller on that road section at the time, the body must have been crushed by it. We conducted a focused investigation on this person, but found no clues. Fingerprints were collected but didn’t match anyone."

"This person is currently in Haizhou City, and we met him last night."

Even though Chen Jiang’s findings did not directly point to a criminal suspect, his investigation provided a useful exclusionary clue to the three squads involved.

"Shovel!"

Chen Jiang switched the projection to show a found shovel at the scene: "The opposite side confirmed that this type of shovel wasn’t among the tools at the road construction site."

"Additionally, we found the subcontractor foreman from those days and two other located individuals who also confirmed that this sort of shovel wasn’t used by their construction team."

Chen Jiang switched the projection again: "Their construction team used shovels with a large head."

Lu Chuan turned to look at Wang Zhaokai.

"How is the investigation result from the first squad?"

Since it was confirmed the shovel wasn’t a tool from the construction team, it likely originated from the village.

"I’ve already investigated families that had marriage proposals with Hu Huihui and the bachelors in Beihong Village, and found no valuable clues."

Wang Zhaokai’s leads similarly held no significant value; they thoroughly investigated the men who had interactions with Hu Huihui back then and collected fingerprints, but no matches were found.

"So my suggestion is... to collect fingerprints from everyone in Beihong Village and some neighboring villages!"