National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 903 - 841 Analysis

"Jiang Yuan felt there was something wrong with the time of death. If we start counting from when the last eyewitness saw the victim... that means the body was not discovered until 8 days later. Such a time difference is too long."

In the meeting room, Captain Ma Jiyang of the Criminal Police Brigade’s Second Squad was doing the math, frowning heavily.

This case was originally assigned to the Second Squad for investigation, and as a star performer in the Changyang City Criminal Investigation Detachment, Ma Jiyang was rarely faced with forensic doctors drastically changing their estimation of a victim’s time of death.

"It won’t be as long as 8 days," Jiang Yuan made a slight correction. "I estimate it was more like five or six days before the victim’s body was discovered."

Although the exact reason was not yet fully determined, Jiang Yuan had tentatively adjusted the time of death from 3 days to around 6 days.

Ma Jiyang said, "Based on what we know now, on the evening of the 4th, the last patient left Li Yanmin’s clinic. The victim, Li Yanmin, did not open his doors on the 5th, only notifying everyone via a WeChat group that he would be resting for a few days and temporarily closing up. After that, no one saw Li Yanmin again. In the following days, Li Yanmin did communicate with people over WeChat, but he didn’t make or receive any phone calls."

"Has this kind of situation happened before? The clinic closing for several days, what would the villagers do if they needed medical attention?" Liu Jinghui inquired.

"There’s another clinic in the town, less than 10 kilometers away from the village," the responding police officer replied, then continued, "Li Yanmin often closed his clinic for short periods; he liked to travel abroad, taking off to have fun two or three times each year during the off-season. Sometimes he would close the clinic for a day or two as well. The villagers are used to it."

"He had quite a comfortable life, much more so than ours," Liu Jinghui was quite surprised. "You can run a clinic without having to mind the store?"

"The villagers’ take is that Li Yanmin was married once before; it was one of those quick marriages and quick divorces, and he didn’t have any children. He didn’t look for another partner afterwards, ignoring matches suggested by the villagers. Unmarried, childless, and owning both a house and the clinic, he definitely had a comfortable life," the police officer responsible explained with increasing envy.

Ma Jiyang coughed twice, soothingly said: "Don’t think like that. He wasn’t living more comfortably than us just because he was unmarried and childless. It’s just that, compared to us, everyone else lives more comfortably."

The assigned police officer looked at Ma Jiyang, who was known within the Criminal Investigation Detachment as the paragon of marital happiness, and said, "Captain, hearing you say that makes me feel a lot better."

"Right? Don’t fear marriage; anyway, in our line of work, getting married is difficult in itself, no need to worry about it. If someone is willing to marry you, it’s because she’s confused, not our fault," Ma Jiyang said, increasingly cheerful.

"Captain Ma truly is the epitome of psychological well-being," Liu Jinghui praised.

Ma Jiyang laughed heartily. Yu Wenshu, who was also present, watched with a smile, not intervening as the conversation veered off topic during the case discussion.

Ordinary case analysis meetings are not always conducted with utmost seriousness, or in other words, a relaxed atmosphere is conducive to creative thinking. Many Criminal Investigation agencies stress discipline, but during case analysis, the core decision-makers gather, and casual speech is still allowed.

Compared to the lower Criminal Police Brigades, the Changyang City Criminal Investigation Detachment is amongst the highest institutions in Shannan Province for solving criminal cases. Members of the team are also experienced, capable elites. In managing such a unit, Yu Wenshu has always emphasized not discipline, but skills.

After a few moments of light-hearted banter, naturally, a detective steered the conversation back to the case, saying, "Assuming that the time of death is modified to six days ago, that would be the 5th for the clinic closure, then the 7th or 8th for the death. During those two days, there was communication from Li Yanmin’s WeChat; if he was already dead, is it very likely that the messages were sent by the murderer?"

"WeChat chat records? Bring them here for me to see," Yu Wenshu beckoned.

Immediately, a police officer handed over the printed WeChat chat records to Yu Wenshu. Nowadays, using WeChat as evidence has become common in cases, with many financial transactions and relationships being proven through WeChat.

Yu Wenshu flipped through the WeChat chat records page by page. He had been following the case, but had not yet examined every piece of evidence in detail.

Liu Jinghui had looked at the WeChat records before and mentioned, "Li Yanmin’s mobile phone signal was cut off on the 9th. Whether he was under the killer’s control during that time is still uncertain, but it’s a direction for investigation."

Liu Jinghui wasn’t very optimistic about this lead.

The victim’s village had mostly leased its land for factory construction. There were large factories with a workforce of one to two thousand people and small operations with just a few to a dozen workers. Many self-built houses in the village had been subdivided into rentals, and some factories even had built dormitories. The environment was complex, and the population was mixed. Obtaining useful clues from such a place was impossible with simple inquiries; it required a level of investigation equivalent to a search operation.

Liu Jinghui was not daunted by searches, and with skills like those of Xu Taining, it was something he too was capable of, albeit it would just take a little longer to summon. Moreover, with Jiang Yuan present this time, the concern was not the search itself. The issue was that locating the mobile phone was far from finding the murderer. The phone being in the killer’s possession was merely a guess, not even a reasoned inference, and even if the phone were found, it didn’t necessarily lead to the killer.

On the other hand, as a high-value item, a mobile phone itself has a strong level of mobility. An easy assumption to make—if the killer had discarded the phone by the roadside, how long could it stay in a place teeming with transient people?

Furthermore, under the current mobile phone circulation model, it wouldn’t be surprising if a phone picked up and sold by someone reached Huaqiangbei within 24 hours. Liu Jinghui would not recommend a manpower and resource-intensive search for such a clue unless it was a last resort.

"I think we should focus more on the time of death," Liu Jinghui trusted Jiang Yuan’s findings more. In his mind, he had a level of trust in various pieces of evidence, but this was something he would not ordinarily express.

Yu Wenshu trusted Liu Jinghui as well and asked, "Director Liu, what do you think?"

Liu Jinghui said, "First of all, I see that Captain Ma’s team has already started working on the earlier time of death. Therefore, previous investigations should also be adjusted accordingly, such as surveillance footage, content from vehicle checkpoint recordings, and witness accounts from inquiries. We should extend these to at least before the 7th."

Ma Jiyang nodded from the side, "We’re working on that."

"Secondly, how did the killer manage to create such a discrepancy in the time of death? It must not be a common technique, right?" Liu Jinghui looked towards Jiang Yuan and asked, "If we can solve this problem, perhaps the case will be solved as well."

In reasoning through cases, if there are situations that clearly defy logic, explaining that situation often tends to explain the entire case—this was Liu Jinghui’s underlying thought process.

"I’ve been considering this issue all day. There are indeed some methods, but which specific one it is, we need to see the results of various examinations," Jiang Yuan said, making a particular note, "I’ve sent a large number of specimens for examination to the Toxicology Laboratory, Physical and Chemical Laboratory, Trace Evidence Laboratory, and DNA Laboratory. The queue is full; let’s see what the results show."

"I’ll have someone expedite it for you, move you up the queue," Yu Wenshu immediately said.

Without sufficient evidence, even Jiang Yuan’s skills couldn’t be effectively utilized.

The case analysis and discussion reached this point. Jiang Yuan quickly reviewed his technical checklist and said, "I’ll go to the Image Investigation unit then, see if Director Liu’s surveillance can yield anything."