Chapter 637: Chapter 637: There Really Is Barely Anything Left
When Lu Chuan and the others arrived at the scene, they were amazed at what they saw.
After receiving the report, the local Criminal Investigation Team conducted an on-site investigation and decisively decided to report the case to the Criminal Investigation Team.
Because there was indeed very little found at the crime scene.
The local police station officers were the first to receive the call.
"The person who reported the crime was a forest ranger from the mountains."
"This ranger used to be a hunter in the mountains years ago, and after the forest was closed for conservation, he became a ranger."
"As he was patrolling the mountains this morning, he discovered these remains. Upon closer inspection, he felt they weren’t the bones of wild animals or cattle and sheep but rather resembled human bones, so he reported it."
The ranger was familiar with animal bones from grilling hunted game during his days as a hunter.
As Zhang Hui was listening to the police report, Lu Chuan had already started the crime scene investigation.
The crime scene was in an open area of a valley.
There were no tall trees around, but there was some dry grass.
A forensic doctor from the Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team was present.
"After receiving the report, I conducted a preliminary examination and concluded that the bones were most likely human."
"However, I didn’t proceed with a detailed examination because there were very few ashes left at the scene. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to handle it, so I let the team leader report it."
The forensic doctor from the Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team was about to retire, around 50 years old, named Tian Feng.
Lu Chuan put on his gloves and used a nearby tree branch to sift through the ashes on the grass.
Different species’ bones leave different ash after burning.
Generally, the ashes from animal bodies are darker in color compared to the ashes left by human bodies after burning.
This is because most animals have thicker fur.
When the fur burns, the protein charring leaves behind a black powdery substance.
This black powdery substance, mixed with the remaining ash from animal bones, results in a relatively darker color.
However, the remaining ashes on the ground were pale white, closely resembling the color of human bone ash, indicating they were likely from burnt human remains.
But as Tian Feng mentioned.
The remaining ashes at the scene were indeed very sparse.
In skeleton identification analysis, DNA samples can usually be extracted from regular skeletons.
However, this is not possible with bones that have been burned.
DNA identification primarily involves two methods: DNA identification and RNA identification.
But whether it’s the former or the latter, both involve extracting nucleic acid.
It’s impossible to extract these substances from the ashes of burned bones.
Therefore, identifying the species of bones through DNA testing is challenging.
However, the act of incinerating a body in the wild to destroy evidence is not novel.
So, the crime scene investigators have their own strategies to deal with such situations.
"Brother Yang, bring the sieve."
Yang Sen nodded and, after completing the crime scene photography, returned to the vehicle to get a sieve.
For dealing with burned bones, using a sieve to sift through the finer ashes to extract relatively larger chunks is the best method for crime scene investigation.
In cases like these, determining the identity of the skeleton is crucial.
Most cases involving destruction of a body are committed by acquaintances.
Hence, identifying the victim’s identity is key to narrowing down the suspect list through their social relationships.
Because the time of burning is undetermined, and the ashes have been scattered by the wind over time, there’s barely anything left on the ground.
For a burned body, the investigation isn’t just about extracting clues from the final ashes.
The entire burning process is also crucial.
The burning of a body is very different from what one might imagine.
Burning a body in the wild is vastly different from using a crematorium incinerator.
In the past, even the process of cremation in a crematorium differed from now.
Previously, accelerants were added to aid in the complete incineration of the body in crematorium furnaces.
Moreover, during the incineration process, to prevent imbalances in the internal and external pressures of the body causing an explosion, some physical damage would be inflicted on the corpse.
Colloquially known as opening the torso.
Lu Chuan once watched a film in college, with a character named Li Fengtian.
He was a ruthless man who soaked his fingers in acid to hide his traces of crime.
In one scene, after committing murder, Li Fengtian attempted to dispose of a body using an incinerator.
But before that, he physically damaged the body with a spade.
The aim was to prevent the body from exploding during incineration.
But nowadays, most use high-temperature and high-pressure incinerators, rarely employing accelerants or physical damage.
Nonetheless, burning a body in the wild is a different process.
Exposed to the air, a body undergoing incineration can produce a legendary phenomenon known as reanimation.
During burning, the body might suddenly exhibit violent movements.
Such as abruptly sitting up.
In reality, it’s more akin to a boxer’s attack movement.
Legs lifted, arms bent forward, hands clenched into fists.
The entire body forms a bow-like shape.
This happens because, during burning, the muscles first lose moisture, and as they lose it, they naturally contract, resembling a boxer’s stance.
But this state doesn’t last long; once the muscles start burning too, the phenomenon disappears.
In the crematorium process, this doesn’t occur primarily because the body goes through physical compression once inside the furnace.
All major joints of the human body are destroyed, making such occurrences rare.
Yang Sen, Old Bai, and Tian Feng began sifting through the ashes, while Lu Chuan searched the surroundings for traces left by potential suspects.
In the North Mountain area, after forest conservation, most roads that lead here are overgrown with weeds.
Ordinary vehicles can’t come in, but bicycles or tricycles can, without much trouble.
The action group’s officers soon found some residual tire tracks around the body.
Lu Chuan took one look and knew it was a tricycle.
However, other traces were nonexistent.
Lu Chuan initially intended to make a mold of the tricycle tire tracks, but since they were quite old, making a mold was challenging, so he could only take photos.
Everything proceeded in an orderly manner.
The first discovery came from Yang Sen’s sifted ashes.
After sifting through all the ground ashes, a few slightly larger bones were found.
However, these supposedly larger bones were just small bones about three centimeters in length.
And there were only two of them.
Amidst the ashes, there were just two small, roughly three-centimeter-long blackened bones.
Additionally, there were two tooth-like remnants with melted edges.
