Chapter 288: Chapter 283 The Child Who Drowned in the Pickle Jar_1
An hour later, the car arrived in Hai’an City.
On the way, Xu Dayuan had already received several phone calls and reported the details of the two cases in Rudong City to Mr. Hu. Of course, at the end of the conversation, Xu Dayuan mentioned Fatty’s matter.
Mr. Hu was silent for a long time but eventually agreed to Xu Dayuan’s arrangement, putting this case at the very end of the task force’s agenda.
As soon as the car stopped, there were already quite a few people standing in front of the car door. Judging by their insignia, they were the leaders of Hai’an City Bureau. This enthusiastic reception was quite a contrast to Rudong’s, a significant difference indeed.
The captain of this criminal police brigade was named Zhang Chunbo, and he seemed to be quite familiar with Xu Dayuan. The two chatted briefly before Zhang greeted everyone else. Xu Dayuan said a few simple words with the sole purpose of making it clear that their arrival was about clearing up backlog cases—work came first, and he managed to send everyone away.
Zhou Ning and others followed Xu Dayuan and then came to a meeting room, only to find that it was already filled with people. Zhang Chunbo grinned and said,
"Don’t be surprised. We’ve been waiting for you guys for a while now. I had someone stationed at Rudong City Bureau last night. I’ve got firsthand information about your investigation progress. Seeing that things wrapped up there, I figured you’d come today, so I just gathered everyone here. Why don’t we analyze the case?"
Looking at the enthusiastic Zhang Chunbo, Xu Dayuan also felt a bit helpless.
"Why are you so impatient? Oh, can’t we rest a bit now that we’ve arrived?"
Zhang Chunbo waved his hands, with a look of indifference.
"Rest? Why rest? After finishing the investigation of these few cases, won’t it be pleasant to go home and rest? What do you mean? When you went to Rudong, I heard you got to work the same day. So what’s lacking here?"
Xu Dayuan laughed, threw a punch at Zhang Chunbo, and took a seat in the center. Zhang introduced the names of his team members, and Xu Dayuan glanced at the files in front of him, momentarily pausing.
"There should only be two backlog cases reported by your department. Why are there three files here?"
Zhang Chunbo bared his teeth in a smile.
"Don’t get worked up, boss. Indeed, there are only two backlog cases. The other one is a case we are currently investigating where we’ve been unable to identify the victim. So when we heard Director Zhou was coming, I thought we might as well bring it forward, to help us determine a bit about it, giving us a direction for the investigation.
After all, if we can ascertain the identity of the victim, the investigation of this case is likely to become clear. So should we start with the older cases first?"
Xu Dayuan glanced over at Zhou Ning, who remained silent, and then nodded to Zhang Chunbo.
"Introduce the case."
Zhang Chunbo opened his notebook and began speaking eagerly.
"The first case is the 8.14 massacre in 2011. The incident took place in Jiaotuan Village, Baisha River Sub-district. On the morning of August 14, the clerk of Jiaotuan Village reported that there had been a death in the family of Wang Hongzhan. Our criminal police squad arrived at the scene at 8:22.
After an examination by the forensic doctor Bai Hua and her team, they found a victim in the middle of the courtyard, Wang Hongzhan’s wife, Ho Dongmei, face down toward the gate with a knife stuck in her back piercing her heart.
After evidence collection and analysis, no DNA other than Ho Dongmei’s was found on the knife, and only the prints of fabric gloves were present. The yard was in a closed state, with the gate locked from the inside. The gate had a ten-centimeter hole, used for unlocking and bolting the door.
All windows had bars, making it impossible for someone to enter or exit, except for the kitchen window, which had no bars. However, no adult could fit through it; therefore, we assume the murderer was either a small-sized adult or a tall, thin teenager.
In our investigation, we learned that Ho Dongmei was at home with their two-year-old son, Wang Jiahan. Wang Hongzhan worked in Shen City year-round, coming home for just over ten days during the Spring Festival. He rushed back upon hearing of the murder of his wife and child.
Our search led to the discovery of Wang Jiahan’s body under the eaves of the main house, in a pickle jar pressed down by a stone.
The child was stuffed into the jar head-down and had drowned. He had died during the same timeframe as Ho Dongmei, between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm on August 14.
The pickle jar was 45 centimeters in diameter and 45 centimeters tall. Neighbors reported it was used for pickling vegetables by the Wang Family, but it hadn’t been used since the elderly Wangs passed away in a car accident in 2009. Since then, Ho Dongmei and her child, who usually lived in the city, seldom returned. However, last July, they were informed that a land survey required someone to stay at the house, prompting Ho Dongmei to return with her child and even offer free tutoring to village children.
From our inquiries, we encountered two theories. One suggested that Wang Hongzhan had offended someone, which was why he left Hai’an City. Our investigation showed that Wang Hongzhan was skilled in IT and was planning to buy a house in Shen City, intending to relocate his family there; unfortunately, this tragedy happened.
Some elderly villagers expressed that the Wang family parents died so suddenly, they left nothing behind. However, the Wangs used to be the biggest landlords in Jiaotuan Village, owning all the land there. Rumor has it that when policies changed, they weren’t given their land back but were repaid their seized money, apparently in quite a few gold bars.
Despite a thorough search of the Wang’s old house, we found no hidden gold bars or any substantial clues. We only discovered two sets of footprints by the west wall flower bed, front and back, none of which matched any from the villagers.
One of the footprints was very clear, with soil underneath. We’ve taken them back for samples. As for the Wang family’s old house, Wang Hongzhan left the keys, and no one has entered in the past year. We’ve also investigated Wang Hongzhan himself; he had a good relationship with his wife, being classmates since middle school with no signs of infidelity."
"Were the victim’s phone and the last call records or any clues left in the messages found at the scene?"
Zhang Chunbo nodded.
"The phone was there. We verified all call records with colleagues and relatives, but there were no unusual contacts. We’ve reached out to everyone she had called within a week and checked their alibis for the time of her death, finding no valuable information."
Xu Dayuan kept taking notes as the large screen displayed photos taken during the crime scene investigation. They were incredibly detailed. When the photo stopped on a footprint, Mr. Zhao raised his hand and called out for a halt.
A middle-aged sister operating the computer looked up at Mr. Zhao, obviously, she was the local forensic doctor Bai Hua.
A female forensic doctor who could shoulder the workload of a county-level city indicated that her capabilities were absolutely not inferior to Xu Guanhai of Rudong City. Furthermore, the meticulousness of the crime scene photos truly demonstrated her diligence.
Mr. Zhao stood up and gestured with his thumb and index finger.
"Doctor Bai, can you enlarge the picture to make the sole prints fill the screen? I want to take a closer look at the tread pattern," he requested.
Bai Hua nodded her head while enlarging the image and said,
"We’ve compared them, and this is a pair of sports shoes with the size being 43. The shoes are from this year’s spring collection, and they are quite expensive, costing even after a summer discount, 1868 yuan.
Jiaotuan Village isn’t exactly affluent, so those who could afford such shoes would likely be fashion-conscious young people. We screened all the young people who entered and left Jiaotuan Village on August 13th-14th, but we haven’t found a match yet."
Mr. Zhao didn’t panic at all, smiling and nodding at Doctor Bai.
"Doctor Bai, you’ve been very thorough. Just now, Mr. Zhang mentioned that the piece of mud with the footprint was brought back. May I know where it is kept and if I could take a look at it?" he inquired.
Mr. Zhao’s persistent questioning caught Xu Dayuan’s attention, who glanced over. Typically, Zhao Xinli was quite modest, unless he had discovered something, and Zhou Ning was still, clearly supporting Mr. Zhao’s approach. Xu Dayuan followed suit by looking toward forensic doctor Bai Hua.
She nodded again.
"Just a moment, I’ll fetch it. To prevent it from drying out, it’s preserved under a sealed cover to maintain humidity," she explained.
Shortly after, Bai Hua returned with a transparent plastic box. She placed it in front of Mr. Zhao. Zhou Ning patted his body while Sun Gaotie stood up and gestured towards the lower floor. Zhou Ning slightly shook his head.
He was accustomed to using that LED magnifying glass to observe the details, but since Mr. Zhao wanted to look, he must have made some discovery. Zhou Ning wasn’t in a hurry and waited patiently. Everyone watched Mr. Zhao’s actions as he continuously wrote calculations on the paper, then finally, he stopped and said,
"Doctor Bai, I’d like to ask if the distance between the two footprints was measured during the crime scene investigation. Could you tell me the measurement?"
Bai Hua flipped through her notes.
"The stride length is 97 centimeters," she replied.
Mr. Zhao ran some more calculations before ceasing his actions.
"Based on the depth of the footprints in the mud, the size and shape of the footprints, the distribution of force points, the stride length, and so on, I have estimated the height and weight of the suspect who left the footprints. The suspect weighs around 150 jin and is estimated to be between 175 to 180 centimeters tall.
From the footprints, it can be observed that the suspect’s feet are slightly larger than the shoes. At the tip of the shoes, the impression made is quite deep, especially around the big toe and the ball of the foot. I believe that the normal size of the murderer’s feet is 44, with a hallux valgus of more than 20 degrees."
This analysis made Xu Dayuan turn his head; he instinctively looked at Zhou Ning, who solemnly nodded in agreement, acknowledging Mr. Zhao’s judgment.
However, on the other side, Bai Hua slightly furrowed her brows and looked again at the footprint inside the transparent box. She indeed agreed with Mr. Zhao’s details, but such analysis was not her forte.
"Is there a formula for this?" she asked.
Mr. Zhao nodded, handed her the piece of paper he had used for his calculations, and Bai Hua remained with a locked brow after reading it. She obviously was not convinced by this method.
Zhou Ning was all too familiar with that kind of look. It was a sign of skepticism, seeing Zhao Xinli as too young, lacking a convincing face, not sporting a receding hairline, nor was he over forty years old. Zhou Ning didn’t care; he knew Mr. Zhao wouldn’t mind either.
In fact, the case was quite mysterious. The victim had not resided at the old home for years, returning for just over a month and giving daily tuition to the village children, only to be killed overnight.
Especially since the child was drowned in a water tank, was it revenge or for money?
Mere speculation from villagers cannot be taken as fact.
The victim faced the courtyard door and was stabbed in the heart from the back while in the yard. In the photos, the victim was wearing a cool nightgown, with no shoes on her feet or around the body. She was startled awake in the middle of the night and was attempting to flee or cry for help when she was fatally stabbed.
The courtyard door was locked from the inside, with no traces of forced entry, which suggested the murderer had not entered through the main entrance. It was probably for this reason that the detectives from Hai’an believed the perpetrator had entered through the kitchen window.
Zhou Ning gathered his thoughts and looked toward Bai Hua, saying with a slight smile,
"The mathematical formula for such calculations was taught to me by my teacher Li Chengbin. Doctor Bai, if you’re interested, I can have Zhao Xinli transcribe a copy for you later; there are many relevant formulas."
Upon hearing the name Li Chengbin, Bai Hua obviously started, sitting down on a chair. Seeing that she had nothing more to say, Zhou Ning then continued:
"May I know if the victim’s body has been continuously preserved, or has it already been dealt with?"
