An hour later, we arrived at the forensic laboratory of the Jiangling City Bureau.
Unsurprisingly, the bodies had already been dissected and bags of human organs were placed in front of us. I stared at them in a daze when I was interrupted by Captain Tang. "If you need anything, just let me know, Consultant Song."
"You may not know this, but I don’t perform internal autopsies."
"You don’t? Then how do you examine the... Oh, never mind. Don’t you worry, the three bodies were dissected by senior coroners of the bureau. They won’t make any mistakes. Here are the autopsy results."
While Bingxin went through the results, I opened the body bags and uncovered the victims.
From my observation of the anatomy, the first victim was a strong, 28-year-old man. The time of death was thirteen days ago. However, his body had been frozen, so the degree of decay was marginal. The cause of death was a blow to the back of the skull, which resulted in a star-shaped fracture with subcutaneous hemorrhage and bruising. The murder weapon was most likely a blunt object such as a wrench which caused a contrecoup injury on the other side of the skull. The killing blow caused a rupture of the arachnoid membrane and intracranial hemorrhage.
Additionally, there were injuries on the body that were inflicted after death. The coroner concluded that these wounds were caused during the moving of the corpse.
The presumed weapon used to slit the victim’s abdomen was a pair of scissors. There were binding marks on the victim’s wrist that were left after death, possibly due to being forcefully dragged by the murderer.
There was another odd detail–the victim’s head was shaved and a wig was glued to his head!
After examining the body, I came to a similar conclusion as the coroner, though I noticed the slight peeling on the chest, abdomen and thigh, as if the skin had been torn off by force. Was it blunt force trauma? At the moment, I couldn’t determine the exact cause.
Female victim no. 1 was 27 years old, overweight, and had given birth. I found a mark on her middle finger left after wearing a ring for a long time, suggesting she was a married woman.
The cause of death was a blow to the forehead. The murderer laid a heavy hand on the victim so bone fragments collapsed into the skull. She had been bludgeoned in the right temple, a move the murderer made to ensure she was dead.
Like the male victim, female victim no.1 died thirteen days ago and had been frozen. In order to dress the body, the murderer applied a hot towel on her joints.
However, there was no indication of the same treatment for the male victim which showed the murderer’s inexperience at the time, causing damage to the articular cartilage.
There was also peeling on the back of female victim No.1, which the coroner hypothesized was left when her body had been dragged on the ground.
Both victims’ stomach contents consisted of a matching variety of foods, indicating they shared a meal before they were killed. They were most likely a couple!
At this point, I motioned for Bingxin to stop. After comparing the victims’ thighs, I pulled out the Echolocation Rod and listened as I gently moved the joints. "The murderer has a freezer in his home. The peeling of the skin was not caused by dragging, but by forcefully separating the two bodies which were frozen together,” I analyzed. “Since the bodies were curled up in the freezer, we can assume the freezer isn’t large, probably similar to the ones you see in the convenience store.”
"Your analysis makes a lot of sense!” Captain Tang flattered. “This is negligence on our part. The two bodies were dissected by two different coroners so they weren’t able to connect the dots."
"This sort of freezer isn’t generally used by the public. Could the murderer be operating a convenience store?"
"I’ve yet to determine that,” I admitted. “Bingxin, I need your help."
The point of my focus was the irregular abdominal wound on the male victim. Like the coroner, I believed the wound was caused by a pair of scissors.
As usual, Bingxin and I wore rubber gloves. I instructed her to piece the top part of the skin with tweezers, while I handled the bottom part. Wounds were bound to split due to skin tension. When we reconstructed the wound, we found a piece of skin in the middle missing.
Appalled, Captain Tang cried, "There’s a piece missing? We didn't notice it at the time!"
"Did the murderer remove a piece of skin as a souvenir?" suggested Bingxin.
"Don't jump to conclusions yet!” I cautioned. “I’d like to take another look at the fatal wound."
The fatal wound was caused by some sort of heavy object. I discovered almost imperceptible wounds in the left temple, with grains of sand under the skin and shallow geometric textures around the wound.
After staring at the victim’s left temple for a considerable amount of time, I said, "This was left by the murderer’s shoe. The position of the wound suggests the victim was kicked after collapsing to the ground."
Captain Tang stared at the body open-mouthed. This was yet another clue ignored by a senior coroner!
Aside from that, I found a hard, transparent article on the victim’s shoulder. "Was this mentioned in the autopsy results?" I turned to Bingxin.
"No!" she shook her head.
Observing the object with Cave Vision, I stated, "Captain Tang, this is an important clue, yet it was overlooked."
"What?" Captain Tang flushed with nervousness.
"This is solidified glue with the murderer's fingerprints on it." Glancing at the top of the deceased's head, I added, "It seems like the murderer got glue on his fingers while attaching the wig and absentmindedly wiped his fingers on the victim’s shoulder."
Captain Tang widened to the size of saucers. "Consultant Song, your powers of observation are amazing!"
I told Bingxin to take a sample. Since the fingerprint was rather fuzzy, I wasn’t certain if it would be of any use.
My eyes roamed the victim’s head that was covered with solidified glue and tiny, white cotton-like fibers. The murderer most likely dipped a cotton swab in glue and daubed it on the victim’s head.
Upon careful examination, I noticed the hair follicles protruded outwards, as if the victim’s hair had been forcefully removed.
"The victim’s hair was pulled out," I surmised.
“The murderer seems to be filled with hatred for the victim, even torturing him after death!" noted Bingxin.
I shook my head. "That’s incorrect. From the direction of the protrusion of the hair follicle, the victim’s hair doesn’t appear to have been pulled out at once, but in clusters."
"Clusters?" Xiaotao was puzzled. "Could it be hair extensions?"
"Have you ever had hair extensions?" I asked.
"No, but I’ve watched the process. Hair is separated in sections fused to individual locks. If done properly, no one can tell if it's hair extensions."
I couldn't come up with any other probable explanations. "Looks like the murderer tried to install hair extensions but failed and ended up shaving all the victim’s hair off and using a wig."
"All that trouble!" blurted Xiaotao.
Turning my attention to the victim’s fingers, I found the fingerprints were removed with a sharp knife.
The coroner concluded that the victim's face had been melted with hydrochloric acid. When comparing the injuries on the victim’s fingers and abdomen, the injuries on the abdomen were obviously older, marked by the curled edges. I deduced that the murderer kept the body for quite some time in order to complete his "work."
The abdominal injury was caused by scissors, something easily found in every home. But the hydrochloric acid used to destroy the face as well as the knife used to remove the fingerprints could only be obtained with some amount of effort so the murderer went looking for the tools during the completion of the "work!”