Chapter 405: Chapter 384 The Age of the Deceased_1
Mr. Zhao gave the three men a withering look, his demeanor screaming disappointment.
"Are you guys up for this or not? If not, just stop watching and go review the footage later. It’s only November. What would you do if it were summer?"
At that moment, the three men were more embarrassed than uncomfortable, but the disgusting feelings were uncontrollable. They all lowered their heads, continually adjusting their breathing. Zhou Ning stepped forward to assist Doctor Cao, arranging the body parts on the autopsy table one by one.
After everything was set, Zhou Ning didn’t rush to look at them but instead waved Mr. Qu over.
"Use the equipment we’ve assembled to take X-ray images of the body parts first."
Mr. Qu hurried into action. In fact, these preparations were done early in the day. As the images were taken, they appeared on the autopsy room’s monitor. Zhou Ning looked up at the monitor.
The deceased’s ribs showed multiple linear fractures. Judging by the placement of the fractures, it was determined that these injuries were caused during dismemberment and not prior to death.
There were no additional injuries to the limbs and spine, which corresponded with Zhou Ning’s initial suspicions.
Zhou Ning shifted his gaze to the body part with the fetus. The front side of the deceased’s abdominal skin originally had blisters from decomposition, but now they had burst, and a dense pattern of decomposed veins was visible.
The inner abdominal wall and uterus were intact, except for a cut at the bottom near the pubic symphysis, with marks that looked like they had been made by tweezers. It appeared that Dr. Cao had collected fetal DNA from this spot and had not removed the fetus entirely.
Just earlier on the X-ray images, the fetus was positioned butt-down with knees bent and hands crossed over its chest. There were no skeletal injuries; except for the breech position, everything else could be said to be normal.
Regarding the other body parts, Zhou Ning examined them one by one. The cuts from dismemberment were very neat, cut close to the joints. As for the ribs, they seemed to have been chopped with an axe or a cleaver—otherwise, they wouldn’t have resulted in linear fractures.
The size of the body parts from both arms and legs was basically consistent with no unevenness. This level of precision in dismemberment required knowledge of anatomy and a calm demeanor.
This was no mere chicken butchering: this was a pregnant woman, a living person. To calmly dissect her into parts and consider keeping them symmetrical was truly horrifying.
Moreover, the deceased was eight to nine months pregnant. Who could bring themselves to do such a thing?
Zhou Ning slightly raised his head. It seemed that to find the answers, he would have to search through the process of dissection. After all, Doctor Cao, out of caution, hadn’t examined the sex of the fetus but had only read from the DNA test report that it was a male.
Zhou Ning took the deceased’s pubic symphysis and then glanced at Liu Yongxin. With either newcomers or forensic examiners present, he couldn’t say much, but Liu Yongxin was forthright and quickly went over.
After all, they had already discussed the procedure beforehand. The pubic symphysis was the easiest part to estimate the deceased’s age and had to be extracted first since the genital swabs had already been collected.
Zhou Ning had checked them as well and found no signs of sexual assault. The deceased’s skin was fair, and there were no distinct moles, scars, or other characteristic markings on her torso or limbs. Even the vaccination scar for smallpox was not clear—quite a rare occurrence.
Liu Yongxin held a tray with the pubic symphysis, pulling along another intern, Pang Tianhang. The two headed straight for the pressure cooker. Pang Tianhang was already rigid with tension. Zhou Ning glanced at him and his reaction was all too genuine; if Zhou Ning had been taken to handle the pubic symphysis with a pressure cooker at that time, he probably would have gone weak at the knees too.
Putting aside those thoughts, Zhou Ning instructed Mr. Zhao:
"Mr. Zhao, give the autopsy report, and turn on the video recorder."
Mr. Zhao didn’t hesitate. He quickly moved closer, cleared his throat, and turned on the video recorder, beginning to introduce the body with rapidity, covering almost everything discussed the night before. The figures and timestamps were very accurate.
Standing next to Liu Yongxin, Cao Pingzhang kept nodding, giving Liu Yongxin a thumbs up. Liu Yongxin leaned over and whispered to him.
"Don’t be surprised. This kid’s been working smoothly with my star apprentice for two years. He’s very adept, and he’s just a forensic examiner."
Seeing Cao Pingzhang’s surprised expression, Liu Yongxin felt satisfied and folded his arms, turning to look at the autopsy table.
Zhou Ning took the scalpel and began the post-mortem examination section by section, missing no part, carefully observing and analyzing the muscle’s tear patterns, and the morphology of the cut surfaces.
Only in the last step did he gently slice open the uterine wall to reveal the fetus.
Of course, with that action, it seemed as though the odor in the autopsy room intensified, prompting Mr. Wang to be the first to dash out. Zhou Ning’s hands didn’t stop moving; he separated the fetus and placed it aside, examining it carefully.
In the X-rays, the fetus appeared to be eight to nine months along, but now, seeing the fetus in person, Zhou Ning could assert that the actual gestational age was at least nine months, or even close to forty weeks.
The fetus’s features were not overly deformed from decomposition, though the blood vessels on its body surface were darkly colored. There were no deformities on its facial features or limbs. However, the fetus’s size seemed unusually small.
Zhou Ning cut the umbilical cord and picked up the fetal body, signaling Mr. Zhao to bring the electronic scale over. Zhou Ning placed the fetus on it and checked its weight. It was only 1980 grams.
Zhou Ning paused. A fetus that appeared to be fully developed, even at nine months, seemed too light. Could there be something wrong with the mother’s health?
An earlier case he had studied during training in the "black room" dawned on him. Zhou Ning looked up, searching for Cao Pingzhang. Sensing his movement, Liu Yongxin quickly nudged Cao Pingzhang.
"Hurry up, my apprentice is calling for you!"
Cao Pingzhang approached, and Zhou Ning quickly asked:
"Doctor Cao, may I ask whether blood from the heart of the deceased was collected earlier?"
"The tissue blocks were extracted, and I conducted an external examination on the cadaver," Mr. Hen said. "I recorded video and took photos and collected samples from various parts to send for examination. As for the blood in the heart, I took as much as I could since I was thinking that if we manage to identify the victim, we could still perform a blood comparison, right?"
Zhou Ning nodded, quickly intercepting an excited Doctor Cao.
"Previously, I noticed in the test reports that the victim didn’t undergo a blood sugar test. Since you’ve collected the blood from the heart, let’s contact the lab and conduct a rapid blood sugar test. I need to know the victim’s blood glucose level."
Cao Pingzhang paused for a moment, but without asking another word, swiftly took out his phone, dialed a number, and then walked to the door of the changing room to talk. Meanwhile, Mr. Zhao had already turned off the video recording function.
Liu Yongxin leaned in closer, glancing at the fetus on the scale, considering its weight and state, he said:
"You think the fetus’s actual age might be greater than it appears, suspecting that the victim had gestational hypertension or gestational diabetes, which led to the lag in fetal development or the fetus being undersized?"
Zhou Ning smiled, it seemed his mentor knew him well.
"The fetus appears to be fully developed based on the facial features. However, the head circumference and body weight really don’t match. I think the fetus is near full term. Let’s wait for their examination results. This should be quick, and if we can proceed in this direction, I think the search area could be significantly reduced."
Liu Yongxin nodded, his face filled with hope.
"Indeed, let’s wait for the results."
It didn’t take long for Doctor Cao to hang up and hurry over with a hint of surprise on his face. After all, blood sugar tests are very fast.
"The victim’s blood sugar is 16.7 mmol/L, which is quite high. I didn’t even think of this earlier..."
Before Doctor Cao could finish, Zhou Ning turned around and walked up to the victim’s tissue block, finding the one near the upper abdomen. After distinguishing it, he noted that the parts of the digestive tract were all placed next to the tissue block at the lower abdomen’s rear side.
Zhou Ning squeezed the victim’s stomach, which was completely empty, and also checked the intestines. There wasn’t much content, but it was really difficult to determine whether the victim had an empty stomach or some food before death due to the missing head.
Nevertheless, a blood sugar level of 16.7 mmol/L was indeed very high, even for postprandial glucose.
"After the victim was dismembered and thrown into the water, the tissue blocks were in an advanced state of decomposition. Considering the temperature and water temperature at the end of October, the victim likely died around October 20th. I personally think the fetus was close to forty weeks old. Taking into account your previous deductions, we can now specify a search range.
The victim was between thirty-six to forty weeks pregnant, so her conception probably occurred from early February to early March. Nowadays, expecting mothers take their pregnancy seriously, and it’s almost unheard of for them not to have check-ups. After registration, they generally undergo different examinations each month.
Screenings for gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes typically happen between the 24th and 28th week, around six to seven months into pregnancy. Let’s calculate backwards, so the screening would have been performed between August 1st and August 28th.
I think, Doctor Cao, you can contact Mr. Huang now and check with major hospitals during that period for patients who went through antenatal check-ups, screened for gestational hypertension and diabetes, and who had very high blood glucose levels, then look into them one by one."
Cao Pingzhang, a bit excited, held up his notebook and paper, furiously jotting down everything Zhou Ning had just said.
Just as he was about to turn around, Liu Yongxin stopped him.
"Don’t rush. I think Zhou Ning hasn’t finished speaking."
Zhou Ning slowly nodded, but Doctor Cao had already dialed the phone and hurriedly requested Mr. Huang and Mr. Wu to come in and listen, since relaying the information could introduce errors. It was better to hear it straight from Zhou Ning to maintain accuracy.
Soon enough, the two men entered briskly, obviously not having gone far.
Liu Yongxin glanced at the time and took Pang Tianhang and Zou Jialong with him to extract and clean the pubic symphysis. These two, handpicked by Zhou Ning himself, were outstanding not just for their endurance to unpleasant odors, far greater than the average person, but also for their curiosity as they peered at the surface of the pubic symphysis.
Mr. Huang and Mr. Wu didn’t rush Zhou Ning, who apologized to them with a raised hand.
"Just a moment, please. I’ll take a look at the victim’s pubic symphysis surface to give the best estimate of the victim’s age range, which will benefit your further search."
The two men looked at each other and nodded seriously.
They had heard of such procedures before, but major criminal cases were so rare in Dayao City that it had been years since they’d dealt with any. Whenever there was one, specialists would come from the provincial department to form a special investigation team.
Zhou Ning ignored the others, carefully observing the morphologies of seven characteristic locations—the pubic crest, pubic groove, pubic tubercle, inferior extremity, dorsal margin, superior extremity with bony nodes, and ventral angulation of the pubic symphysis surface.
Having been trained in identifying age based solely on the pubic symphysis surface during a month in the ’black room,’ this was not difficult for Zhou Ning. After examination, he looked up.
"The victim’s age is between 20 to 24 years old."
"Director Zhou, are you sure?"
Facing Mr. Huang’s skeptical gaze, Zhou Ning paused.
"Certain. Of course, I haven’t finished. Regarding the deduction of the profession, would you like to hear my thoughts?"
.........
