novelaction Chapter 1478 The Corpse in Zhangjiagou River
Chapter 1478 The Corpse in Zhangjiagou River
On a crisp early autumn morning, before the thick fog had completely dissipated, a series of urgent shouts shattered the tranquility of the mountain village from the riverbank outside Zhangjiagou Village. "Dead! There's a dead body in the riverbank!" Villager Zhang Youde, carrying a shovel, staggered towards the village, his face filled with shock. He had been assigned by the village committee to dredge the silt accumulated in the riverbank in preparation for the upcoming flood season, but instead discovered a curled-up body in the reeds of a shallow area downstream. Upon receiving the call, Li Ming, from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment, had just finished organizing case files overnight. Rubbing his throbbing temples, he immediately issued the order: "Notify Yang and Sun from the technical team, gather all the forensic equipment, assemble, and proceed immediately to the crime scene on the Zhangjiagou riverbank!"
Twenty minutes later, three criminal investigation police cars, shrouded in the morning mist, drove into Zhangjiagou Village. The village is nestled against the mountains and beside the river, with the Zhangjiagou River meandering through its west. The crime scene was located on an abandoned riverbank downstream, about one kilometer from the village. The area was overgrown with weeds, with only a narrow dirt road leading to the riverbank, and few villagers usually passed through. After getting out of the car, Li Ming immediately secured the scene, instructing his team to set up a cordon, designating a 50-meter radius around the river as the core investigation area, prohibiting unauthorized personnel from entering. He also contacted the village committee to inquire about recent activity around the river and to check if any villagers had seen suspicious persons or vehicles.
"Xiao Yang, Xiao Sun, the on-site investigation is your responsibility. Work according to the principle of 'from far to near, layer by layer,' focusing on footprints, tire tracks, debris, and all kinds of traces. Make sure to leave no blind spots and miss no clues," Li Ming said seriously as he approached the two members of the technical team. Xiao Yang was a key member of the team, with eight years of experience in on-site investigation, skilled in trace extraction and analysis; Xiao Sun was a rising star in the field, possessing a high sensitivity to identifying and securing traces. The two immediately nodded in agreement, quickly donned their investigation suits, shoe covers, gloves, and masks, slung their investigation kits over their shoulders, picked up their tools, and headed towards the area within the cordon.
The investigation officially began. Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun divided the work: Xiao Yang was responsible for the overall investigation and analysis of traces at the scene, while Xiao Sun focused on the identification, fixation, and extraction of traces. Following the investigation protocol, the two started from the dirt road outside the cordon and gradually advanced towards the riverbank, conducting a thorough search, proceeding with extreme caution at every step, afraid of damaging any potential traces or evidence. "First, conduct a preliminary examination of the surrounding environment to establish the investigation baseline. Using the reed bed where the body was found as the center, conduct a radial investigation outwards, highlighting any suspicious trace locations," Xiao Yang explained to Xiao Sun, holding an investigation lamp and illuminating the ground.
The dirt road surrounding the warning line was about two meters wide, with a gravel surface. Due to the recent lack of rainfall, the road was dry, providing good conditions for preserving tire tracks. Xiao Sun crouched down and gently brushed away the loose sand from the surface. After careful observation, he said, "Brother Yang, we found a set of tire tracks on the western edge of the dirt road. Preliminary judgment is that they were left by a motor vehicle tire. The tracks are quite clear, with no obvious deformation from being run over, so they should have been left recently." Xiao Yang immediately stepped forward, took out a measuring tape and a tire track record book, and began measuring and recording the tire tracks: "The tracks are 18 centimeters wide, the tread pattern is horizontal stripes, spaced about 2 centimeters apart, and the tread depth is 0.3 centimeters. Preliminary judgment is that they were left by a small truck or SUV tire. Further analysis based on the tire tread details is needed to determine the specific vehicle type."
The two continued their investigation along the tire tracks, discovering that the tracks originated from the north side of the dirt road, extended beyond the warning tape, and headed towards the riverbank. Some tracks became blurred due to the unevenness of the gravel road surface, but the overall direction remained clear. "The tire tracks showed no drag marks at the edges, and the tire tread pattern showed no obvious uneven wear, indicating that the vehicle was traveling at a slow speed. The driver may have been deliberately observing the surroundings, and we cannot rule out the possibility that it was left by the vehicle used in the crime," Xiao Yang noted, making a preliminary judgment. He then instructed Xiao Sun to use plaster to fix and extract the clear tire tracks, "to quickly create a plaster model, preserving complete tire tread details and dimensional data to provide a basis for subsequent vehicle comparison."
Xiao Sun quickly took out plaster powder, a mixing container, and water, mixed the plaster slurry according to the ratio, and carefully poured it onto the tire tracks, ensuring that the plaster slurry completely covered the tracks. At the same time, he gently smoothed the surface with a tool to avoid creating air bubbles. While waiting for the plaster to harden, the two continued to investigate around the dirt road and found another set of blurry footprints next to the tire tracks. "There are footprints here, the tread pattern is not clear, it should have been trampled by later people, initially judged to be the footprints of an adult male, shoe size about 42." Xiao Sun shone his investigation light at an angle on the ground, and with the help of light refraction, he discovered this set of damaged footprints. The footprints were left by rubber-soled shoes, and because the sand and gravel particles on the road surface were large, only the general outline could be made out, and the complete pattern details could not be extracted.
"Mark the location. We'll try to extract any remaining traces using an electrostatic precipitator to see if we can get any useful information," Xiao Yang instructed. The two then continued towards the riverbank, entering a transitional area. This area, about three meters wide, was where the dirt road met the riverbank. The ground was covered with weeds and a few pebbles, and the vegetation was quite dense, making it difficult to preserve traces. Holding a survey knife, Xiao Yang gently parted the surface weeds, carefully examining the ground. At the same time, he used a survey light to illuminate the vegetation leaves, checking for traces of clothing fibers, bloodstains, or other minor marks.
"Brother Yang, we've found what appears to be trampling marks here. The weeds are clearly flattened, and the direction they're falling is inwards, pointing towards the inner side of the riverbed," Xiao Sun said, stopping in the middle of the transition area and pointing to a patch of weeds. The two crouched down and examined it carefully. They found that the stems of the weeds were broken, the angle of the flattened weeds was about 30 degrees, the soil around the roots was slightly loose, and there were no other signs of trampling nearby. They initially determined that the marks were left by the perpetrator or the deceased. "Use photography to document the scene. Take pictures of the flattened weeds from different angles, marking the direction and extent of the fall. Also, extract trace amounts of material from the weed stems to check for fingerprints or skin tissue residue," Xiao Yang said.
Xiao Sun immediately took out his DSLR camera, adjusted the parameters, and took photos of the area where the weeds had fallen from three angles: front, side, and overhead. Each photo was labeled with the location of the survey and the time of the photo. Then, he carefully used tweezers to pick up the broken weed stems, placed them in an evidence bag, sealed it, and preserved it. At the same time, he used cotton swabs to wipe the surface of the weed leaves to extract any traces that might be present.