The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

Jiang An exchanged a meaningful glance with Zhou Yong upon hearing.

”Are you suspecting that she might have been imprisoned?”

”Exactly!”

Chen Biao’s voice suddenly became excited, ”If illegal detention occurred, we need to determine the time of death accordingly.”

He suddenly raised his voice: ”Mr. Jiang! Can we determine the specific time of death based on the degree of skeletonization? Preferably pinpointed to a particular day?”

Jiang An slightly lowered his head, looking at the White Bone on the table.

After a brief silence, he said softly, ”For this degree of skeletonization, trying to pinpoint the exact day is indeed quite challenging.”

”However, we can perform a deeper forensic anthropological analysis of the bones, which might reduce the margin of error for the time of death.”

Hearing this response, Chen Biao obviously became invigorated.

”That’s great!”

”I think this timeline is very critical.”

”If the time of death closely matches the missing time, then this could very likely be the primary crime scene.”

”But if there’s a difference of days if not longer...”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone understood the implication — it meant Luo Xi might have experienced unspeakable horrors after her disappearance.

Moments later, Zhou Yong nodded, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the table.

”Indeed, the time of skeleton formation is extremely important for this body.”

”From a forensic perspective, the degree of skeletonization can provide us key clues about the time of death.”

Jiang An stared at the White Bone and said, ”No worries, we will immediately extract some bone fragments and conduct a comprehensive analysis based on their weathering degree, bone density changes, and surrounding climate.”

”Mr. Chen, we’ll expedite the process here and strive to determine the death time range as soon as possible.”

”That’s excellent, you’re the forensic expert here, we await your updates.”

Just as Chen Biao was about to hang up the phone, Jiang An suddenly gestured to pause.

He furrowed his brows and asked, ”Biao, how likely is it that a traffic accident occurred in that place?”

”Traffic accident?”

Chen Biao’s voice suddenly rose, and the sound of his rapid breathing came through the receiver.

”Why ask this question out of the blue?”

”Are you suggesting that the girl might have died in a traffic accident?”

Chen Biao looked shocked, nearly dropping the notebook in his hand.

He instinctively glanced around, as if to reassess his surroundings.

On the phone, Jiang An continued, ”Based on our examinations of the body, we found a typical wedge-shaped fracture on the deceased’s tibia, which is characteristic of injuries from traffic accidents.”

”Traffic accident injury? Are you sure?”

Chen Biao pursued the question, his fingers unconsciously gripping the phone tighter.

He quickly walked to the roadside, carefully observing the traces on the ground.

”If we’re talking about traffic accident injuries, there really is such a possibility here.”

He squatted down, ”This bend, poor visibility, accidents can easily happen when driving at night.”

”But...”

He stood up, his voice filled with confusion, ”If it were a traffic accident injury, would the driver have needed to drag the body away to hundreds of kilometers away?”

As he spoke, Chen Biao turned his head to look around, suddenly realizing the unusual environment.

The surroundings were extremely quiet, enveloped by dense mountains, with only the rustling sound of wind brushing through the treetops.

”If it were to bury the body...,”

He analyzed in a low voice, seemingly talking to himself, ”then randomly dumping it along the way might make it hard to discover anyway.”

Reaching this conclusion, Chen Biao suddenly raised his voice: ”If the perpetrator disposed of the body around here to cover their crime, wouldn’t it be even more convenient?”

”Because this place is more suitable for the burial process.”

”The soil here is loose, the forest dense...”

Hearing this, Jiang An did not immediately respond.

He stood by the laboratory window, various possibilities flickering rapidly in his mind.

He had not visited the scene, making it difficult to judge accurately.

He then said, ”We still don’t clearly understand where the primary crime scene is, and the psychological profile of the perpetrator hasn’t been fully analyzed.”

”Perhaps, the choice of distant body dumping reflects some particular psychology, or was intended to create an alibi...”

After pausing, he continued with a more determined tone: ”However, the specific timing of the body formation is still the key point.”

”If its formation time is very close to the time of disappearance, combined with the characteristics of the fractures...”

After hanging up the phone, the laboratory fell into a silence, with only the faint hum of instruments running.

Zhou Yong turned to look at Jiang An and noticed beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

”Mr. Jiang,”

Zhou Yong handed over a glass of water and said, ”The potential possibilities mentioned during the call, I think all of them could exist.”

”But from a professional perspective, the information provided by the body — the typical wedge-shaped fractures, impact fractures, compression fractures, are all conclusive evidence of traffic accident injuries.”

Jiang An nodded and said, ”The time of death is indeed very crucial.”

”If we can determine that the time of death matches the time of disappearance, combined with these injury characteristics...”

Before he could finish his sentence, his phone suddenly rang again, the piercing ringtone especially jarring in the quiet laboratory.

The caller ID showed it was Mr. Wang Yang.

”Hello, Mr. Wang.”

Jiang An pressed the answer key, and a colleague put it on speaker.

”Mr. Jiang,” Wang Yang’s voice carried exhaustion and excitement.

”I am now in the village at the foot of the mountain where the body was found.”

”After sorting through, there are over 200 people in this village with criminal records, but they are all for robbery and theft, no murderers.”

There was the sound of papers being flipped on the other end of the line, ”Additionally, we reviewed the local migrant worker situation and found that this village is a big village for migrant workers, with many engaged in various industries. Among them, 70 have connections to Qingzhou, mainly in construction, electronics factories, and garment processing work.”

Jiang An listened and quickly walked over to his computer, pulling up the case database.

Nodding, he said, his speech quickening: ”Mr. Wang, perhaps we need to conduct a detailed investigation on these 70 people.”

”Pay special attention to recent vehicle repair records or sudden changes in their financial situations.”

The sound of keyboard tapping was clearly transmitted through the phone, ”Just now, Mr. Chen Biao already contacted me, and they discovered that the deceased was last missing near the foot of a primitive mountain.”

”Foot of the mountain?”

Wang Yang’s voice suddenly rose, ”Is there any surveillance or anything?”

”No!”

Jiang An sighed, ”That place is quite remote, with relatively backward surveillance and security measures, and many technological methods can’t be used.”

Hearing this, Mr. Wang Yang suddenly said, with a tone of excitement for finding a clue.

”You know, among these 70 people, there are two who went to Qingzhou for transportation work!”

”One is long-distance fruit transportation, and the other is vegetable transportation.”

”Are you suspecting there’s a possibility of a traffic accident?”

As soon as the words were spoken, Jiang An immediately straightened up, his fingers unconsciously gripping the phone.

”Mr. Wang, this is so critical! Based on our examination of the body, we indeed found the possibility of death due to a traffic accident.”

”Especially the injuries we discovered on the deceased’s bones perfectly match the characteristics of vehicular impact.”

”We believe the possibility of dumping the body after a traffic accident cannot be ruled out.”

”Alright then!”

Wang Yang’s voice became firm, ”I think the possibility of a long-distance body dump is possible as well.”

”I will immediately bring these two transportation workers back for interrogation, focusing on investigating their travel routes and vehicle conditions during the time of the incident.”

”Their trucks are fully capable of conducting long-distance body disposals.”

Jiang An nodded and said, ”Okay, Mr. Wang.”

”We will finish the skeletal morphological analysis as soon as possible and strive to determine the time frame for the death.”

After hanging up the phone, he turned to Zhou Yong, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth: ”Looks like we’ve found a breakthrough.”