Chapter 1054: Da Hong Pao Tea Leaves

The crime scene investigation at the dump lasted for less than an hour before the members of the major crime squad began their retreat.

Li Donglin was organizing a meeting for the major crime squad members in Meeting Room 2 of the Dongzhou City Criminal Investigation Team.

"My suggestion is to start the investigation from Zhu Panpan’s interpersonal relationships."

During the meeting, the members of the major crime squad began to share their opinions on the investigation direction for the case.

"I’ve studied the files of ten murders by the Red-clothed Killer and found a common detail."

From the moment they received the task, members of the major crime squad, including Wang Song and Lu Chuan, began reviewing the past murder files of the Red-clothed Killer.

Wang Song discovered a rather unique clue.

"Aside from all the victims wearing red clothing, there’s also a clue regarding the victims’ occupational characteristics — they all work in densely populated places."

As he spoke, Wang Song began to list the occupational characteristics of several victims.

"Fifteen years ago, the first victim worked at a battery factory, the second victim was at a supermarket, the third victim worked at a farmers’ market..."

"Fifteen years later, this victim was also working at a supermarket. These locations are all densely populated areas with high personnel turnover."

The police had made several assumptions about the identity of the Red-clothed Killer.

Firstly, is there any association between the Red-clothed Killer and these victims?

Do they know each other?

Is there a possibility of overlapping interpersonal relationships?

Psychology experts from the provincial bureau and many senior detectives believe there is likely a familiarity between the suspect and victims.

Or at least there might be overlapping interpersonal relationships.

"Personally, I believe there should be some overlap between the victims and the killer. Investigating from the victims’ interpersonal relationships might be more promising."

Wang Song felt the suspect and victims should be acquainted, but not very familiar.

Since previously, investigating the interpersonal relationships of ten victims didn’t reveal any significant clues.

Wang Song thinks the relationship between the suspect and the victims is fairly distant.

"Specifically, I believe it’s the kind of familiarity where they don’t have each other’s contact info but know each other’s name."

"I personally suggest investigating Zhu Panpan’s interpersonal relationships, especially among colleagues at the supermarket."

"Additionally, regarding the finger discovered at South Second Lane on Jianguo Road, I recommend collecting DNA information from all 593 suspected individuals."

After Li Donglin listened, he turned to Song Mingguang.

"Old Song, what do you think?"

"My thoughts are similar to Wang Song’s. We need to collect DNA information from all suspicious personnel within the suspect range and compare it with the DNA found in the bodily fluids of the victims."

Song Mingguang then continued, "Moreover, I suggest expanding the search scope, especially near the landfill site. Although there aren’t any cameras inside the landfill, there are on the roads leading to the landfill; we need extensive retrieval of those recordings."

"According to existing clues, the killer likely disposed of the body from the night of the fourth day to the daytime of the fifth day of the New Year."

There are people scavenging for trash at the landfill every day.

The red-clothed body was discovered during the daytime of the fifth day of the New Year, while someone accessed the landfill pit on the fourth day but didn’t find the body.

Hence, Song Mingguang and his team judged that the body was discarded on the night of the fourth day of the New Year.

"My suggestion is to identify all the vehicles and personnel that might have reached the landfill road during this time period, regardless of their destination and reasons, and collect DNA information from all of them."

After a thorough review of the Red-clothed Killer’s case files, Song Mingguang noted that the police had employed nearly all possible methods in the first ten cases.

Provincial experts, and even ministry experts, participated, yet they failed to catch the suspect in the first ten cases, making the probability of solving the case this time quite uncertain for the major crime squad.

Therefore, Song Mingguang proposed a conservative approach, screening all possible personnel, regardless of the time or cost, and collecting DNA information to compare with the bodily fluid DNA, determining the suspect this way.

Although this approach is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and may seem clumsy, Li Donglin also supports it.

The Red-clothed Killer has consecutively murdered 11 people, exhibiting mature psychological resilience. Their methods are cold and brutal, yet they effectively conceal themselves, possessing a strong counter-reconnaissance capability. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have remained at large for so many years.

"Lu Chuan, do you have any requests?"

Lu Chuan shook his head, "The technical team is giving us full support. I need to examine the bodies further, and conduct technical identifications on the black plastic bags containing the severed finger tonight, along with the garbage inside."

Lu Chuan’s main advantage lies in the crime scene investigation aspect. Although the crime scene this time is chaotic and no effective information was collected, there are some items the suspect might have contacted, which Lu Chuan intends to focus on.

The meeting quickly concluded, and each team carried out tasks based on their assumptions distributed by Li Donglin.

The Criminal Investigation Team of Dongzhou City was split up entirely, cooperating with the major crime squad for related investigations.

The Crime Scene Investigation laboratory of the Dongzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team.

Lu Chuan already obtained all the garbage inside the ridge of the black plastic bag where the severed finger was found.

Lu Chuan planned to perform a technical identification on the black plastic bag, primarily to check for the possibility of fingerprint discovery.

Additionally, the garbage inside the black plastic bag, including tissues, vegetable leaves, and other assorted trash, was all gathered and examined.

What caught Lu Chuan’s attention was the brewed tea leaves.

Due to the cold winter weather, the garbage hadn’t deteriorated, and after the Dongzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team collected relevant samples, they were promptly frozen.

"Da Hong Pao Tea?"

Lu Chuan discovered the tea leaves were top-grade Da Hong Pao, leftover after brewing.

Most residents on North Second Lane of Jianguo Road are working-class renters. Why would someone be able to afford such high-quality Da Hong Pao tea?

Lu Chuan is quite fond of tea.

He is certainly familiar with this top-tier Da Hong Pao.

It’s worth tens of thousands per ounce.