Chapter 1143 - 585: Simple in Words, Not Simple in Truth! (Part 2)

"I’ve already sorted out the list of these 5 people, and I’ll present it to several leaders later."

"Additionally, Li Qian’s situation is somewhat unique; she is a divorced individual."

"While her love life isn’t as scandalous as Jiang Shan’s, it’s quite considerable."

"In the past six months, there are 12 people with records of booking rooms, among whom 10 had no available time to commit the crime on the night of the incident."

"The other 2 claimed they were sleeping at home, but this cannot be verified."

"Moreover, we’ve investigated their past relationship histories; both are outsiders, and there have been no anomalies detected."

"For the 7 individuals unable to provide an alibi, we’ve compiled a list, and our next plan is to conduct a detailed investigation into these 7 people to see if we can find any breakthroughs. That’s our current investigation status."

Deputy Director Chen Guan nodded after listening and said, "You’ve done a tremendous amount of sorting and investigation."

"I presume you’ve put in a lot of effort and examined meticulously. Next, be sure to focus the investigation on these 7 individuals to see if you can find any valuable clues."

Then he turned his head and said, "How is the Scene Investigation Group doing?"

A middle-aged man wearing glasses immediately responded, "Our group conducts detailed investigations on the scene."

"There were no valuable items missing from the interior, and there were no signs of any cabinets being rummaged."

"However, in Jiang Shan’s bedroom, we found some scattered items on the floor, including sunscreen, disposable toilet seat covers, and disposable toothbrushes, notably, the toothbrushes are the type provided by hotels."

"Seeing these items scattered on the floor, I suspect there must have been a box or bag temporarily taken out from that place."

"Earlier, before the meeting, I heard Jiang Shan was dumped into the river, so we suspect whether there might have been a box at that spot, simply temporarily taken by the murderer."

"Additionally, regarding the autopsy, Mr. Chen, Director Hou, and Mr. Jiang, you were all present and participating throughout."

"As for the cause of death, both victims died from mechanical asphyxia, but Li Qian had her neck compressed causing mechanical asphyxia, while Jiang Shan was suffocated by having her mouth and nose covered."

"No male components were found in the victims’ bodies upon laboratory examination."

"Due to limited ground conditions, the death scene hasn’t yielded any valuable footprints or fingerprints either."

After he finished speaking, Chen Guan nodded and then looked at Qin Feng.

"Mr. Qin, how is your retrieval situation?"

Qin Feng coughed and turned his head to say, "Let me briefly elaborate on the retrieval situation."

"We hired Blue Sky Salvage Team to conduct underwater retrieval in the water where the body was found, expanding nearly 1.5 kilometers back and forth."

"They conducted the retrieval twice but didn’t find any objects resembling boxes or bags."

"Furthermore, our crew surveyed the surroundings of the river and didn’t find any broken or toppled tree branches or weeds."

"So, the location where the body was disposed into the water should be that stone bridge Mr. Jiang deduced."

"Unfortunately, the stone bridge conditions were very poor for bearing traces, and we haven’t found any valuable fingerprints or footprints."

Everyone felt slightly disappointed upon hearing this.

After all, if none of the three critical aspects of criminal investigation—the body, the scene, and the investigation—yield obvious clues to solving the case, then naturally the pressure becomes very intense.

At this point, Mr. Chen’s face also turned somewhat grim.

Since he is the leader of Guangling Criminal Investigation, the pressure is naturally the greatest on him.

After listening to the three groups’ reports, Deputy Director Chen Guan turned to look at Director Hou and Jiang An and said, "Director Hou, let’s ask the leaders to give us some insights."

"This case is indeed quite rare for us in Guangling."

Director Hou heard this, his expression serious, turned to glance at Jiang An, who instantly understood.

In such a setting, it’s customary for the lower-level personnel to speak first, followed by a unified summary from the senior leaders.

Otherwise, how can leaders gather and express all viewpoints?

In Jiangcheng, Jiang An is known for this style—after everyone else has spoken, he offers his summary and commentary.

Of course, his expertise is strong, and more often he extends and expands the discussion.

Thus Jiang An gracefully began to speak.

"I’ll say a few words; what I say may not be correct, so let’s discuss and explore together."

After a brief pause, he said, "From the initial investigation, surveying, and retrieval, we can ascertain that the murderer had a process of moving the bodies and disposing them into the water after committing the murders."

"However, there are still some particularly unique aspects in this double homicide case."

"It significantly differs from typical murder cases, and mainly exhibits the following three distinctive aspects."

"The first peculiarity: Who was the killer’s target? Was it Jiang Shan who was taking a shower, or Li Qian who was clothed?"

"On this question, we’ve discussed it earlier, and many think Jiang Shan was the target because her injuries are the most extensive, and she was engaged more. However, I don’t share this view."

"The second peculiarity: Why are the corpse disposal methods completely different?"

"These two victims died under the same spatial and temporal environment, but when we arrived at the scene, one corpse was on the sofa, while the other was in the water, very far apart."

"This wide spatial separation of the bodies indicates the murderer treated the corpse disposal differently, but what exactly is the reason behind this different treatment?"

After a brief pause, Jiang An continued, "Regarding the analysis of the number of perpetrators, we found a significant amount of bleeding on the inner side of both shoulder blades on the back of the deceased Jiang Shan. This bleeding reflects that the victim experienced strong resistance prior to death."

"Analyzing from the angle of the power struggle between the killer and the victim, the stronger the victim’s resistance, the weaker the killer’s control ability, indicating a high possibility that the killer acted solo."

"Earlier, the trace investigation group mentioned finding scattered travel goods on the ground at the scene, such as disposable dental seat covers and toothbrushes. This suggests that the killer’s decision to move the bodies was impromptu, not pre-prepared."

"The third peculiarity: There are multiple injuries on the deceased Jiang Shan’s body, mainly distributed across female characteristic parts."

"However, strangely, no male components have been found in the victim’s body, which strikes me as very unusual."

"Furthermore, upon inspecting the corpse, we found no regular intervening factors that could prevent the killer from continuing the crime."

"On one hand, during the incident, there was no outsider entering the room; on the other hand, the victim did not have noticeable menstrual bleeding."

"Thus, this defies our past conventional assumptions regarding cessation of similar crimes."

Upon hearing Jiang An raise these three questions, everyone instinctively straightened up.

They originally thought Jiang An would briefly address the topic but didn’t expect such an extensive discussion.

At that moment, everyone remained silent, with their gaze fixed on him.

Even Director Hou, Mr. Chen, and Qin Feng listened attentively.

These three queries had been previously vague to everyone.

Now, after Jiang An’s analysis, they became much clearer.

"Posing questions is about solving them," Jiang An remarked deeply, "Our approach in criminal investigations is to make bold assumptions and verify cautiously."

"Regarding these three contradictions and peculiarity, this is how I consider it."

"Each contradiction viewed independently is isolated, but a line can weave them together..."