Chapter 904: Second Examination of the Corpse

As Song Mingguang and Wang Song made considerable progress, Lu Chuan also made significant advancements.

Fingerprint!

Hard work paid off when Lu Chuan finally extracted a fragmented fingerprint from that pile of firewood.

"Damn!"

Zhao Zhigao was stunned.

He had entered this house at least 20 times, spending almost every day there after the crime.

However, he truly hadn’t noticed the bunches of firewood placed beside the stove.

It’s not that he didn’t notice; he saw them and walked around them every time.

But he never thought the firewood might hold the fingerprints of the suspect.

"Is it possible?"

The fingerprint was very fragmented.

Given that the firewood is wooden and has a small cylindrical shape with an irregular surface, even after Lu Chuan discovered this fingerprint, it was completely mangled upon extraction.

To Zhao Zhigao, even with this fingerprint, it seemed likely useless.

The degree of fragmentation exceeded Lu Chuan’s expectations.

Judging by its completeness, it might yield two or three feature points at best compared to the 15 that can serve as forensic evidence, which is far inadequate.

Regardless, it was a crucial clue extracted from the site, possibly the suspect’s fingerprint, so Lu Chuan had to further investigate.

Fortunately, aside from this fingerprint, Lu Chuan also extracted some fibers and other trace evidence from the firewood in the side room and the plum tree.

"Whether it works remains to be seen; if it doesn’t, we’ll deal with it later."

Originally, Tianzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team hadn’t found anything significant at this scene, so his collection of some trace evidence and discovery of a fragmented fingerprint was already a big breakthrough.

By the time they completed the second site investigation, it was after nine in the evening.

Unfortunately, aside from the fragmented fingerprint found in the kitchen’s firewood pile, Lu Chuan found no more clues elsewhere.

The perp was extremely cautious and cleaned every area he had touched thoroughly.

For trace evidence analysis, Lu Chuan didn’t plan on doing it himself and instead handed over to the technical identification center.

Tianzhou City has a trace evidence analysis lab, though its technical level is average.

Of course, the "average" Lu Chuan referred to applied to their evidence collection rather than technical analysis.

After handing over the items, Lu Chuan had to conduct a second dissection of the body overnight.

Despite obtaining much information from Forensic Doctor Wang Jian of Tianzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team.

The second autopsy might not yield results.

Truth is, if Lu Chuan doesn’t personally investigate, he remains uneasy.

Dissection Room.

Body from the cold storage, retrieved after nearly 10 hours of thawing and thoroughly softening.

This time, Zhao Zhigao would oversee trace evidence analysis while Wang Jian would accompany Lu Chuan for the dissection.

"Captain Lu, where do we start?"

Though Wang Jian is a forensic doctor, ranking among the top technologists in the province, better than Wang Changjiang of Haizhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team.

Yet, Wang Jian greatly admires Lu Chuan’s expertise, especially Lu Chuan’s number one or two position in skeletal identification throughout the province.

Lu Chuan didn’t plan to conduct a comprehensive forensic examination and instead sought unique clues.

"Let’s start with the surface examination."

The body was discovered unclothed.

During Lu Chuan’s crime scene inspection, he found some incompletely burnt chemical fiber ash at the stove.

The suspect’s destruction of the victim’s clothing, without intent to conceal identity, likely aimed to aid combustion.

Since the clothes might contain blood, this action might obscure certain traces.

About some of the suspect’s physical traits, Lu Chuan formed opinions, though not utterly precise.

The body was found curled in an iron pot, unable to unfold, and with prolonged steaming or cooking resulting in much of the skin melting and adhering.

After conducting basic identification of death cause and time, Wang Jian hadn’t fully dissected the body.

Since cooked flesh crumbles easily, unlike with normal bodies, primary differences in dissection emerged.

Freezing and subsequent thawing intensified these differences.

Lu Chuan specifically observed neck knife wounds that, as Wang Jian stated, were repeatedly slashed, indicating the suspect’s unclear understanding of human anatomy even for testing the jugular’s location.

The suspect might have forcibly opened the deceased’s chest cavity and extracted the heart with bare hands.

The organ tear wound suggests brute tearing instead of cutting by sharp implements.

Lu Chuan focused on examining ties on Wang Jingya’s hands and feet.

"At the ankle, we extracted some fibers tested as nylon rope, yet none was found at the crime scene, meaning it was likely burned."

Wang Jian explained the work he undertook.

Lu Chuan nodded.

"Can time be determined?"

Wang Yan understood that Lu Chuan was inquiring about how long Wang Jingya was bound based on the markings.

"Around ten hours."

This evaluation stemmed from judging the restraint mark color depth as a guideline.

Lu Chuan acknowledged Wang Jian’s judgment and shifted focus to the hands, feet, and head.

Lu Chuan originally proposed Beiwang Town’s Wang Family Valley Village wasn’t the initial crime scene primarily due to lacking blood splatter.

This autopsy further stressed Lu Chuan’s assumptions.

Lu Chuan performed a detailed scene investigation, confirming no blood splatter points existed.

Upon examining the deceased’s extremities and scalp, Lu Chuan found no collision marks.

Judging from this, if the suspect directly bled out the victim and cooked the body inside a stove, such likelihood is minimal.

The reason lies in the victim’s constraints preventing effective resistance, yet minimal writhing occurred. In the murder process, possibly accompanied by movements causing extremity friction against the iron pot.

However, no injuries appeared on the deceased’s extremities.