The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

At this moment, the corner of Director Hou’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly, as if he were forcibly suppressing the turbulence surging in his heart.

His gaze grew grave, as though he were rapidly reconstructing the logical chain of the case in his mind.

”Viewed this way, this is indeed a rather obvious criminal signature.”

Director Hou spoke slowly, ”This kind of behavioral feature is actually quite rare among ordinary offenders.”

Mr. Qin stepped forward upon hearing this and responded in a low voice, ”Indeed, this was a major oversight in our early investigation.”

”We focused excessively on the technical aspects of physical evidence collection and behavioral reconstruction, yet neglected the behavioral signature conveyed by the offender’s specific acts.”

”Next, we need to center our systematic investigation around this direction, and re‑sort the Crime Scene examination records and the victim’s social network.”

”I fully agree,”

Director Hou immediately added, ”Behind signature behaviors there are often hidden the offender’s psychological motives, and even clues to identity.”

”This signature may be a kind of ’autograph,’ a subconscious product of the offender’s attempt to leave a personal imprint at the Crime Scene.”

Meanwhile, the three forensic assistants standing opposite the autopsy table were now openly displaying genuine admiration on their faces.

They exchanged glances with one another, their eyes reflecting not only submission to such professional insight, but also reflection on the limitations of their own understanding.

It should be noted that the autopsy on this deceased had in fact already been performed repeatedly several times; some routine, obvious forms of evidence—such as wound morphology, biological specimens, toxicological reactions, and so on—had long been thoroughly documented.

At a stage when it seemed there were no new clues left to unearth, who could have imagined that, in just the brief span of ten minutes just now, Captain Jiang An would so keenly and decisively lock onto this detail that everyone had overlooked, and endow it with the key attribute of a ”criminal signature.”

Moreover, this ”criminal signature” can indeed become an important means of screening suspects; it injected a shot of strong medicine into an investigation that had fallen into confusion, which cannot but command respect.

Through this matter, the three of them came to a deeper understanding of the far‑reaching implications contained in ”forensic inference of the injuring instrument.”

For the average person, seeing crescent‑shaped fingermarks on the neck might only reveal the first level: namely, the direct fact that the deceased was killed by another through manual compression.

However, for an expert, that is only the first step.

In their eyes, every static trace of physical evidence is a cipher awaiting interpretation; they are committed to transforming these frozen instants into dynamic behavioral processes, reconstructing the scene and interactions at the moment the crime occurred.

To read, from a cold corpse, information pertaining to the offender’s personality traits, behavioral habits, and even potential psychological abnormalities, unquestionably requires deeper experience, a cross‑disciplinary knowledge base, and an almost intuitive power of insight.

While the others were still immersed in their shock and reflection, Jiang An had already continued to devote himself to the rigorous examination.

His gaze moved steadily downward, sweeping in sequence over the deceased’s chest and abdomen.

From the chest to the pelvic region of the deceased, there was an extremely neat transverse autopsy incision, the mark left by the earlier systematic dissection.

However, it had now been tightly closed with meticulous sutures, preserving the body’s final dignity and integrity.

The young forensic assistant standing opposite pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and respectfully asked, ”Mr. Jiang, do you think we need to cut these sutures open and re‑examine the conditions in the thoracic and abdominal cavities?”

Jiang An paused briefly; his eyes did not leave the body. He then waved his hand, his tone decisive and clear: ”No need.”

”Since the major organs were already removed during the previous autopsy, and detailed histological and toxicological examinations have been completed, with the relevant pathological changes and injuries recorded, reopening the cavities would have little significance. On the contrary, it might damage the body’s current integrity and interfere with the correlative analysis of existing external traces.”

He paused slightly, further clarifying their direction, ”Our current focus should be on those external injuries that may have been overlooked yet hold higher value for behavioral analysis, especially those that appear minor, are located in special positions, or show abnormal morphology.”

As he spoke, his gaze fixed precisely on the junction between the roots of the deceased’s thighs on both sides and the private area.

There, several irregularly shaped, darkened patch‑like skin abrasions could be faintly made out.

Although the prolonged storage of the body had caused a marked color change compared with fresh wounds, presenting a dark reddish‑brown, old‑injury hue,

their outlines still displayed a distinct, abnormal character in contrast to the surrounding normal skin.

At this moment, Mr. Qin also walked over, following Jiang An’s line of sight to that region, his brows knit tightly, ”Mr. Jiang, this is the point about this body that has left us most perplexed.”

”We repeatedly collected biological specimens and used the most sensitive detection techniques, yet were never able to detect any male bodily fluids in the deceased’s genital area.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang An pondered briefly, then looked up at Mr. Qin: ”You mean the killer may not have used sexual assault in the traditional sense, but rather employed other means—such as fingers, or some form of foreign object?”

Mr. Qin nodded solemnly, his tone grave: ”The senior forensic doctor responsible for the autopsy back then did indeed raise this possibility.”

”He believed it highly likely that the killer, due to extreme nervousness, a psychological disorder, or some functional impairment, was unable to complete normal sexual intercourse and therefore resorted to substitute methods.”