The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1305: Detailed Analysis of Anatomy

"There are no obvious blunt or sharp force injuries on the face, but there are scattered petechiae on the conjunctiva of the eyelids, which may be characteristic of death by asphyxiation, but further confirmation is needed." Zhang Lin gestured to Xiao Lin to adjust the lights, and used tweezers to lift the deceased's collar. The skin on the neck was dark green, with no obvious strangulation marks or ligature marks, and no signs of subcutaneous bleeding or skin damage. "The skin on the neck is intact, with no signs of external force, temporarily ruling out the possibility of death by strangulation or ligature."

Xiao Lin frowned in confusion: "Could it be death by poisoning? Or a sudden illness?" Zhang Lin didn't answer directly, but instead gently cut open the deceased's clothing with a scalpel—the dark coat and trousers were made of cotton, and underneath was a light blue synthetic fiber undershirt, consistent with the "light blue synthetic fiber" sample collected at the scene. "Keep the clothing for now, and send it to the technical department for comparison with the fibers found at the scene. Now we'll begin a detailed examination of the body surface, focusing on the torso and limbs for any hidden injuries."

The scalpel sliced ​​along the seam of the clothing, exposing the deceased's torso. No obvious sharp-force wounds or subcutaneous hematomas from blunt force trauma were found on the dark green skin. Only a 2-centimeter-long, clean-edged old scar on the back of the left calf was present, presumably from a previous injury unrelated to the current death. "There are no obvious signs of external force injury on the torso or limbs. The possibility of sudden illness or poisoning needs to be verified through an internal organ dissection." Zhang Lin put down the scalpel and picked up dissecting scissors. "Prepare to open the thoracic and abdominal cavities to examine the internal organs."

The dissecting scissors made a slight "snap" as they cut through the sternum. Once the chest cavity was open, organs such as the heart and lungs were exposed—the heart was slightly smaller, covered with a layer of pale green putrefactive fluid, and no bleeding points were found under the epicardium; the lungs were dark brown, firm in texture, and no fluid seeped out when squeezed, with minor emphysema at the edges. "Professor Zhang, the heart and lungs don't seem to have any obvious lesions. Can we rule out the possibility of sudden cardiac death?" Xiao Lin leaned closer, carefully examining the organs' morphology.

Zhang Lin used tweezers to pick up a small piece of lung tissue and placed it on a microscope slide: "There is no bleeding under the epicardium of the heart, no necrosis of myocardial cells, and no stenosis or blockage of the coronary arteries, ruling out an acute attack of coronary heart disease; although the lungs show signs of emphysema, there are no signs of inflammation or infarction, nor are there the characteristics of 'hydrophilic emphysema' commonly seen in drowning deaths, so respiratory diseases or drowning can be basically ruled out."

He turned to the abdominal cavity, where organs such as the liver, spleen, and stomach showed varying degrees of putrefaction—the liver was enlarged, dark green in color, soft in texture, and oozing putrid fluid from its cut surface; the spleen was shrunken, its capsule intact, without rupture or bleeding; the stomach was empty, its walls thin and transparent, its mucosa smooth, and no food residue or foreign objects were found. "The empty stomach and the absence of food residue on the stomach walls indicate that the deceased had not eaten for at least 12 hours before death. This does not conflict with our previous assessment of 7-10 days for death; on the contrary, it further narrows down the timeframe for death—the deceased may have died on an empty stomach, such as while sleeping at night."

Xiao Lin quickly jotted down notes on the whiteboard: "The cause of death is still unknown? There were no external injuries or obvious signs of illness. Could it really be poisoning?" Zhang Lin didn't deny it, but instead picked up a syringe and drew a small blood sample from the heart: "We'll send blood, liver, and kidney samples for toxicology testing to rule out the possibility of common poisoning. However, before the test results come out, we'll carefully examine the neck and mouth/nose areas, as sometimes the signs of suffocation are quite subtle."

He refocused on the deceased's neck, gently pressing the muscles on both sides of the neck with his fingers. Suddenly, he felt a slight indentation beneath the thyroid cartilage. "Xiao Lin, get the magnifying glass!" Zhang Lin's tone carried a hint of barely perceptible excitement. Under the magnifying glass, beneath the dark green skin of the neck, there was a shallow groove 0.5 centimeters wide beneath the thyroid cartilage. The skin on both sides of the groove had extremely fine epidermal peeling, which was almost invisible without careful observation.

“There’s something unusual here!” Zhang Lin pointed to the shallow groove. “The shallow groove below the thyroid cartilage is of uniform width, with slight skin peeling on both sides, consistent with the marks caused by pressure from a soft, band-like object—such as a towel or strip of cloth pressing on the neck. Although the force is not great, prolonged pressure can still lead to suffocation and death. It wasn’t noticed before because the decomposition of the skin caused discoloration, covering up the marks.”

Xiao Lin leaned closer with the magnifying glass and indeed saw the tiny abrasion of the skin: "So this is direct evidence of death by suffocation? But why is the ligature mark so shallow? Unlike typical strangulation cases where there is obvious subcutaneous bleeding." "It's possible that the ligature material used by the suspect was soft, and the pressure was relatively gentle, causing no obvious subcutaneous tissue damage, only leading to airway obstruction and compression of neck blood vessels, ultimately causing death by suffocation," Zhang Lin explained. "In this situation, the deceased's struggles may have been minimal, so no resistance injuries were left on other parts of the body."

To verify his hypothesis, Zhang Lin carefully cut open the deceased's trachea and bronchi—the tracheal mucosa was dark brown with a small amount of mucus on its surface, and no foreign objects or mud or sand commonly found in drowning were found; however, there were scattered hemorrhages under the tracheal mucosa, corresponding to the previously discovered hemorrhages in the eyelid conjunctiva. "Submucosal hemorrhage in the trachea is a typical feature of death by asphyxiation, further confirming our judgment—the deceased did indeed die of asphyxiation due to airway obstruction caused by a soft, strap-like object pressing against his neck."

At this moment, the technical department reported that the "dark gray cotton fibers" extracted from the scene, after testing, were consistent with the composition of cotton wadding in ordinary quilts. Upon hearing this, Zhang Lin thoughtfully remarked, "The dark gray cotton fibers came from a quilt, and the strangulation marks on the deceased's neck were caused by a soft, ribbon-like object. Could it be that the suspect accidentally strangled the deceased's neck with the corner of the quilt while wrapping the body? Or perhaps the quilt straps accidentally wrapped around the neck during transport? However, it's more likely that the suspect deliberately strangled the deceased with a soft object to avoid leaving obvious external injuries."

Xiao Lin added, "The on-site investigation also found tire marks from an electric tricycle and scratches from a shovel. Could it be that the suspect used an electric tricycle to transport the deceased to Dongshan Park, dug a pit with a shovel to bury the body, and wrapped the body in a quilt during the process to prevent the body from directly contacting the soil, while also covering up the strangulation marks?"

Zhang Lin nodded, agreeing with Xiao Lin's speculation: "That's possible. Now we need to further confirm the time of death—take stomach wall tissue and liver tissue, and observe the degree of cell autolysis through histopathological examination."