Chapter 1168 - 599: Targeting Three Suspected Individuals

Upon hearing this, Jiang An nodded, his gaze heavy, his brow deeply furrowed.

"Indeed, if we follow normal criminal thinking, digging and covering soil in one place would definitely alert people to something unusual."

"After all, the surrounding soil is very old, so fresh soil would stand out and attract attention."

"But why isn’t the killer afraid?"

"Is he not afraid of being discovered? Or does he have confidence that he can control the scene?"

Upon hearing this, Director Hou nodded: "Actually, I’m more inclined towards the second option."

"Perhaps, as you said, since the killer chose to bury the body there, similar to what we often say ’far discard, close bury,’ it indicates he is very close to that area, at least quite familiar, and confident he won’t be discovered."

Jiang An nodded: "In that case, we may need to focus on investigating people whose registered residences are in that area."

.....

An hour later, a filtered list was delivered to the Criminal Investigation Team’s meeting room again.

Two young officers from the Criminal Investigation Team came in holding the report and said: "Mr. Chen, according to your work arrangement, we have organized men aged 30 to 35, whose registered residence is in this city. There are a total of 797 people, of which 697 have lived out of town, and 100 are still local."

After speaking, he immediately handed over two reports.

Chen Guan glanced at the reports and said: "That’s quite a number."

Director Hou also frowned: "First verify each one, see if there’s any activity trace?"

Soon, the two young officers re-checked these 797 people for deep trace verification according to Jiang An’s requirements.

Current technology is much better than before and can perform trace checks simply by entering ID card information.

In essence, trace checking is to see whether this ID card has been used.

For instance, an ID card would be used for hotel stays, train rides, flights, and even at tourist spots.

This big data information is all connected to the police internal web information database.

If anyone has activity trace during the inferred time of death, that person can basically be excluded.

After another hour, the two returned with another batch of data.

This time the data was very little, only 90 entries.

"Mr. Chen, upon tracing the activities of over 700 people, we found in the past year 90 people have no activity traces."

Quickly, Jiang An took the report and looked at it carefully.

According to previous age analysis, these 90 individuals are between 30 to 35 years old.

Jiang An reviewed and analyzed each person one by one.

Suddenly, he noticed there were three men whose ages perfectly matched the deceased, and their registered residences were not far from the crime scene.

Immediately he said: "Director Hou, Mr. Chen, look at these three individuals—Zhang Fei, 35, living at No. 7 Jihe Gou; Chen Bing, 32, living at No. 50 Jihe Gou; Li Jun, 30, living at No. 90 Jihe Gou."

"These people all once lived in the same village, and their ages perfectly match the presumed age of the deceased."

"You mean..."

Instantly, Mr. Chen’s face grew serious, "These three people might be the deceased?"

Jiang An nodded: "We cannot rule out that possibility."

"I just feel that three victims buried in the same place must have some connection."

"Given the conditions matching death timing and age, plus their simultaneous birth in one area, this is their common point."

Upon hearing this, Deputy Director Chen Guan took up the list of 90 people and skimmed through, noting the ages, genders, and addresses.

Indeed, only these three people’s ages match completely, and there is a certain overlap in their living environment.

He turned and asked, "Can these three people be contacted?"

"We tried, but found no means to contact these three people."

Immediately, Deputy Director Chen Guan said solemnly, "Promptly conduct a five-year trace search for these three people, find their relatives and friends."

"Okay."

Soon after, the two officers took on the task and began verifying.

After they went out, Director Hou turned and said, "Jiang Team, those three people you mentioned do indeed have issues."

"These three victims buried in the same place indicate they certainly did the same wrong deed."

"And under the premise of the same misdeed, if these three grew up in the same village, this might be the key intersection among them."

After a long silence, Jiang An nodded: "Actually, I’ve never understood why three men of different ages were killed at different times and ultimately buried in the same place."

"Now I’m gradually understanding. Perhaps the real purpose of the killer might have been to vent an inner hatred, which is likely related to a certain incident these three participated in together."

"I even suspect this incident has been suppressed for quite some time."

"Why?" Director Hou asked immediately.

"From examining the deceased’s bone injuries, all were hit on the occipital region, such occipital hit must be an unexpected attack, maybe even a sneak attack."

"Close contact possibility aside from stalking sneak attacks, there’s another possibility, the killer knows these three, having an opportunity to kill."

Upon this statement, suddenly, Deputy Director Chen Guan’s phone rang.

"Hello."

It was a young coroner from Guangling City Bureau on the call: "Hello, Mr. Chen, through re-cleaning and examination of the bones, we found only one wound at the occipital part of the entire skull, the cranium is somewhat fractured, scalp can’t be found, but the skull likely showed cracks."

"We deduce that the deceased might have been injured by a behind-on strike, we hypothesize the murder weapon might be a hammer, we’ll ask Jiang Team for guidance upon returning."

"Alright, thank you for your hard work."

After hanging up, Deputy Director Chen Guan turned and said, "The forensic examination results are out, other than the depression fracture on the head, no other injuries were seen on the deceased’s bones."

Upon hearing this, Jiang An nodded, seemingly everything was as anticipated.

From a male interval of hundreds, precisely locking onto these three individuals.

These three individuals have a critical overlap, which is their registered residences all in the same place.

This is why Jiang An always thought these three people had issues.

Generally, three deceased buried simultaneously at one site, if explained merely by coincidence, it’s too unusual.

The only plausible explanation is these three have a certain overlap themselves.

And this overlap is likely the reason for their successive murders.

At this moment, Deputy Director Chen Guan was also gloomy-faced.

The death of three individuals, for a municipal-level police bureau, could be said to be an immense pressure.

This pressure not only comes from the urgency of solving the case but also from the societal stability and opinion pressure.

As Jiang An previously expressed, in this case, the killer’s target might not solely be these three, there might be other potential victims.

It’s conceivable while solving the case, the killer might be plotting the next crime.

If extending these three to four or five individuals, the consequences could be unthinkable.

Thinking this, Deputy Director Chen Guan felt very stifled inside.

Then he took a deep breath and instructed: "Mr. Li, our entire excellent criminal investigation team must fully investigate whether these three individuals were truly victimized or just temporarily untraceable."

"Yes, Mr. Chen!"

After speaking, Qin Feng instantly turned energetic as if invigorated and walked out briskly.