The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

Inside the forensic laboratory.

Under dim lighting, Jiang An stared at the yellowed White Bone on the lab bench, his brow furrowed tightly.

He slowly leaned forward, using his gloved fingers to gently move each part of the skeleton, every motion exuding professionalism and caution.

Zhou Yong stood by, sighing as he said, ”This corpse is indeed somewhat of a pity!”

”We cannot reconstruct the damage to the deceased’s skin and muscle tissue.”

”If the soft tissue was still present, it would be very valuable for analyzing damage patterns and formation mechanisms.”

Jiang An nodded, shifting his gaze to several tattered garments placed on another lab bench.

Those clothes had been exposed to the elements for years, parts had rotted into semi-transparent sheets, edges riddled with tiny holes.

”Due to severe weathering, it’s challenging for us to determine whether certain damages were sustained while the deceased was alive or caused postmortem by insect activity or natural decay.”

”This has brought great difficulty to our identification work.”

As soon as the words fell, the laboratory fell into silence, only the ventilation system emitted a faint hum.

Moments later, Jiang An suddenly straightened up, a sharp glint in his eye.

”However, I don’t think it’s completely devoid of clues.”

His voice turned firm, ”Through systematic analysis of the bone damage patterns, I found that the distribution of fractures on the deceased exhibits very typical characteristics of a traffic accident.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yong, who had been standing beside, couldn’t help but step forward.

”Mr. Jiang, please tell us, we’ve all been waiting anxiously.”

Several other forensic assistants gathered around as well.

Jiang An picked up a femur, pointing at the cracks on it: ”Firstly, the fractures of the tibia and fibula in the lower limbs are particularly noteworthy.”

”The direction and pattern of this linear fracture highly correspond with the damages caused by a vehicle bumper impact in traffic accidents.”

He spoke while gesturing the impact angle with his hand, ”From a mechanical standpoint, this should be the result of flat impact force.”

”The force was moderate but acted over a large area, just like the damage formed when a vehicle impacts a pedestrian head-on at moderate speed.”

Two young forensic assistants quickly recorded, one of them asked: ”Mr. Jiang, we understand this.”

”But how should we explain the fractures on the deceased’s fingers and the skull top?”

”The damages in these areas seem quite different from the lower limb fractures.”

Jiang An put down the femur, picked up a skull fragment, his expression solemn.

”That is exactly the key point.”

After a slight pause, he continued, ”In a traffic accident, apart from the initial impact, there often accompanies an important subsequent process - the toss.”

His finger moved slowly along the radial cracks on the skull.

”When the impact force is sufficient, the victim can be flung into the air, then fall at a certain angle.”

”If the occipital bone hits the ground, it will form this typical wedge-shaped fracture.”

”Look at the direction and branching characteristics of these fracture lines, completely consistent with the damage pattern caused by large flat surface object impact.”

Zhou Yong nodded with understanding, ”It indeed makes a lot of sense.”

”This damage sequence indeed aligns with the characteristics of a traffic accident.”

”But that’s not all!”

Jiang An continued, his voice growing deeper.

”After the victim lands, if the offending vehicle doesn’t brake in time, it may inflict secondary injuries on the fallen body.”

He carefully picked up several finger bone fragments, ”Observe closely the minor damage at the distal end of the index finger — bone material crushed but not completely fractured, the edges irregularly serrated.”

”Considering the anatomical structure of fingers, the distal ends of the index and middle fingers are the most vulnerable areas to this crush injury.”

”This particular damage pattern is highly likely to be caused by the wheel running over.”

The laboratory fell into dead silence, everyone listening intently to Jiang An’s analysis.

After a moment, Jiang An surveyed the crowd, summarizing, ”Combining all damage characteristics, this is the typical triad injury pattern of a traffic accident!”

”We can reconstruct a complete injury formation process.”

”First, the frontal impact of the vehicle causes wedge-shaped fractures in the lower limbs.”

”Then, the massive impact force flings the victim into the air, landing on the head causing radiating skull fractures.”

”Finally, the vehicle possibly continues moving forward, the wheels crushing over the finger area causing crushed bone at the distal end of the index finger.”

At this point, Jiang An shook his head regretfully: ”It’s a pity that all soft tissues have decayed, otherwise we would definitely observe more typical contusions and lacerations, which would make this conclusion more conclusive.”

Everyone was immersed in the rigorous logic of injury formation Jiang An depicted, this seemingly scattered White Bone.

Upon hearing Jiang An’s clear analysis, Zhou Yong couldn’t help but sink into contemplation.

After a long while, he muttered to himself in a low voice: ”Traffic accident collision, toss, crush...”

”Marvelous, truly marvelous.”

As a senior forensic scientist, although Zhou Yong hadn’t encountered many traffic accident injury cases, he had studied quite a few theory courses.

However, even an experienced investigator like Zhou Yong was witnessing for the first time a dynamic reconstruction of a complete traffic accident process like Jiang An’s approach.

The two young forensic assistants standing by were even more fascinated, their eyes shining with the light of knowledge.

Looking at Jiang An, their eyes filled with incredulous admiration, as if they were gazing at an extraterrestrial guest descended from the heavens.

Opposite Wan and Zhang Yean, though mentally prepared ahead of time.