Chapter 1058: Determining Ownership of the Trash Bag

Aside from the currently confirmed investigations, members of the Major Crimes Unit are also comparing the interpersonal relationships of victims from previous internship cases with those of the current case.

It’s just that the data volume is quite large, so no significant discoveries have been made yet.

As for the individuals who have been linked to the cases so far, all have clear alibi evidence, and the investigation in this area has not achieved substantial progress.

Additionally, the possibility of a connection or acquaintance between the victim and the killer is merely a speculation by the Major Crimes Unit here.

In reality, it’s still impossible to fully confirm this possibility; it’s just a direction for investigation.

After several aspects were reported, Li Donglin looked over at Lu Chuan.

"Lu Chuan, let’s see if there’s anything discovered here?"

This time, Li Donglin didn’t have high hopes for crime scene investigation.

Li Donglin had already gone through the autopsy report, and he had studied the case files multiple times, including those from previous cases.

This Red-clothed Killer seems skilled at creating confusion.

The fingerprints and footprints left at the crime scene implicated some individuals, but none of them were suspects.

The perpetrator has done this ten times before; there’s no reason to leave his own evidence the 11th time.

What can be confirmed is that the perpetrator only left his DNA information inside the bodies of these victims.

Apart from this, it seems all the evidence left at the crime scenes is fake, smoke screens the perpetrator uses to mislead the police investigation.

Although Li Donglin has this judgment, as a forensic detective with a technical background, he hopes the crime scene investigation can pinpoint the suspects through technical means.

Because that’s what constitutes ironclad evidence.

Lu Chuan hasn’t had a good sleep these past few days, resting only about three to four hours daily.

However, he still made significant findings.

"I have some discoveries here."

Lu Chuan stood up, opened the projector, and began reporting the details he found.

"First, I extracted some fragmented fingerprints on the black plastic bag."

The projection showed a photograph of a black plastic bag where the victim’s severed fingers were found, discovered in the garbage bin in North Second Lane off Jianguo Road.

Everyone was familiar with this photo; Li Donglin had seen it at least dozens of times.

"Successful matching?"

Li Donglin, being a technical detective by background, knew it was extraordinarily difficult to extract fingerprints from such black plastic drug bags, and the workload for successful matching was immeasurable.

Lu Chuan nodded affirmatively.

"It was only this morning that the match was finally successful."

The process of handling these broken fingerprints took even more time than initially imagined.

The fingerprints were too fragmented, and it had taken Lu Chuan almost two days to piece together these fragmented fingerprints using his experience, but he only managed to get 2/3 of the fingerprint.

"No fingerprints were found on the surface of the black plastic bag, but some fragmented fingerprints were found on the handle of the bag. After piecing and extracting these fingerprints, I obtained 2/3 of a fingerprint, which matched someone in the system!"

Lu Chuan flipped the projection.

A middle-aged man appeared on the screen.

"Huh? It’s him?"

Before Lu Chuan could reveal this person’s identity, Wang Song suddenly stood up.

"How could it be him?"

Seeing Wang Song’s reaction, Li Donglin felt a stir in his heart.

Lu Chuan is conducting purely technical analysis work, while Wang Song is mainly responsible for investigating the interpersonal relationships of the victim.

If there’s an overlap between these two...

Li Donglin’s heart suddenly quickened!

Lu Chuan wasn’t surprised.

When he successfully matched this person, the identity was confirmed to him.

"Correct. This person is Gao Zhiyuan, a procurement employee at Ai Family Supermarket."

The fragmented fingerprints found by Lu Chuan on the black plastic bag belonged to a person named Gao Zhiyuan, whose workplace was at Ai Family Supermarket with the victim, Zhu Panpan. They likely had work-related interactions and exchanges.

Finding the fingerprints of his colleague on the black plastic bag containing the victim’s severed fingers, what does this indicate?

"But... it’s impossible. I remember this person."

The workers at Ai Family Supermarket were investigated one by one by Wang Song. So although Gao Zhiyuan was just a procurement employee, Wang Song recalled him upon seeing his photo.

"This person might know the victim, but they are not particularly familiar. He is responsible for backend supplies procurement with little connection to the front desk; the two only know each other’s names."

"Most importantly, this person was out on a purchasing trip early morning on New Year’s Day and only returned on the sixth, not in Dongzhou City!"

Upon hearing this, everyone became stunned involuntarily.

Not knowing what to do, this scene seemed familiar, similar to previous cases.

Fingerprints found at the crime scene, yet the fingerprint owners all have alibis.

Different from previous cases is that this time the perpetrator intentionally left fingerprints on the black plastic bag, which, due to the material, were challenging to match successfully.

"Perpetrator left them intentionally?"

"Damn!"

Frustration.

Is the perpetrator doing this deliberately to mock the police investigating the case?

"Director Li, besides that, there are more findings regarding the black plastic bag."

Lu Chuan has been busy for three or four days and found much more than just a fingerprint; he has many other clues.

"We’ll set aside this person, Gao Zhiyuan, for now."

Lu Chuan operated the projection, revealing a photo of some tea leaves residue.

"What’s this..."

Seeing the items in the photo, everyone knew it was tea residue, but what does it have to do with solving the case?

"This is the tea in the plastic bag, right?"

Li Donglin had carefully examined the contents of the black plastic bag, which, besides the severed fingers, contained some tea residue, some toilet paper, and other kitchen rubbish and fragments.

Lu Chuan nodded: "Indeed, it’s tea residue from the black plastic bag."

"However, this is not ordinary tea residue."

Lu Chuan continued operating, showing a tea packaging box in the projection below.

"The tea type is Da Hong Pao Tea, but it’s not the ordinary Da Hong Pao; this tea residue indicates it’s a rather expensive type of Da Hong Pao Tea. In my research, this kind of tea costs over ten thousand yuan per tael."

"Clearly, Gao Zhiyuan... probably can’t afford such tea, right?"