Chapter 115: Chapter 115: Opening the Case File, Decapitation

After hanging up the phone, Li Jian hadn’t even opened his mouth when the smiles on everyone’s faces instantly disappeared.

In the work of a criminal police officer, everyone understands one principle.

When a leader asks whether you are in the office or the team, it must be that there is a case.

Chen He asked, “Is there a new case?”

“It’s not a new case, it’s a high fall incident that happened three months ago, we need to review the conclusions again.”

Chen He shook his head, “I guess the deceased’s family has a motive beyond the obvious, they are likely dissatisfied with the compensation outcome from the site and are looking for a breakthrough through our case line.”

Li Jian took a deep breath. “It’s still unclear at the moment, I’ll go over and take a look.”

“Mr. Li, you should go!”

“We’ll set a place for you to meet us tonight.”

Li Jian waved his hand and quickly headed to Mr. Ma’s office.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Come in.”

Mr. Ma looked up and glanced over.

“Li Jian, come and sit.”

“Mr. Ma, okay!”

After Li Jian sat down, Mr. Ma handed over a case file.

At this moment.

Mr. Ma’s expression was somewhat serious.

He picked up a pack of Huazi cigarettes, pulled out two sticks, handed one to Li Jian, and lit one for himself.

After taking two puffs, Mr. Ma said, “Right now, this case is having a significant impact.”

“When the deceased was found, their head was detached, leading to a sensational media report.”

“Plus, the fact that the death occurred on a construction site, and the families being unsatisfied with the compensation.”

“Some people even began to question the Jiangcheng Criminal Investigation, they think a body with such separation must be a murder case.”

While opening the case file, Li Jian said, “Cases of falls from height resulting in head dislocation and separation, I’ve encountered twice before, it’s not an uncommon occurrence.”

Mr. Ma displayed a grave expression.

“The first investigation scene involved Wu You and Zhang Yean, and our team’s excellent investigators also took part in the investigation.”

“Whether it was the site investigation, body examination, or investigating the site personnel, no abnormal situations were found.”

After a long while, Mr. Ma said, “However, ordinary netizens don’t understand this, there’s a lot of public opinion, and the effect of that is significant.”

Li Jian quickly browsed through, flipping to the conclusion section: “Upon investigation, the deceased fell from a height accidentally.”

“Mr. Ma, this case is not complicated.”

“Those involved in the scene investigation, besides Mr. Wu, include two scene investigation elites, the conclusion should not be wrong.”

Mr. Ma sighed and said, “High fall death cases are not uncommon in Jiangcheng, we have already established very effective investigation, inquiry, and disposal procedures.”

“However, the deceased’s family does not accept our conclusion.”

Li Jian closed the case file and said, “Based on my previous experience of handling similar cases, sometimes the family isn’t disagreeing with our conclusion, but rather is dissatisfied with the compensation from the site.”

Mr. Ma nodded. “The possibility you mentioned indeed exists.”

“At that time, the contracting team did not timely purchase personal accident insurance, so the deceased did not receive accident insurance compensation, the site only provided part of the burial expenses.”

Li Jian looked down again, glancing at the personnel involved in the case investigation and handling back then.

He smiled lightly and said, “Mr. Ma, this high fall is not a criminal case.”

“Moreover, the people involved in the investigation of this case are our battle-hardened criminal investigation officers.”

“Therefore, as for this investigation conclusion, I believe there should be no problem.”

After a long while, Mr. Ma said, “To my knowledge, one of the deceased’s family members is a forensic teacher at a college.”

“This is also one reason why the family keeps holding onto this case.”

Li Jian smiled.

“Mr. Ma, isn’t it better this way?”

“If in the future we need to explain related forensic phenomena, having a forensic teacher involved should make it easier to gain the family’s approval.”

Mr. Wang nodded, “Let’s hope so.”

“Since it’s a complaint forwarded by the Petition Bureau, we, as a unit of the same level, still need to deal with it seriously.”

“You take this case back and carefully review it.”

“If there is indeed an issue, we will clarify it promptly.”

“If there is no issue, then issue a conclusion letter of investigation and feedback to the Petition Bureau.”

“Yes! Mr. Ma.”

“I’ll take this case back and organize the criminal investigation team to study it tomorrow.”

“It’s only been three months since the case, everyone should still remember it.”

Mr. Ma nodded.

Lastly, Li Jian said, “Mr. Ma, before getting off work tomorrow afternoon, I’ll give you a written response, I won’t let you lose face at the Petition Bureau.”

Mr. Ma smiled and said, “You’ve improved! You know how to ease your leader’s worries and difficulties now.”

Li Jian smiled.

“Mr. Ma, when you were the chief of the criminal investigation team before, I didn’t understand your difficulties.”

“Later, when I became the chief of the criminal investigation team, I realized leading is not easy either.”

Mr. Ma chuckled. “I’ll wait for your written conclusion.”

6:30 PM that evening.

In a hot pot restaurant in the East District, Li Jian pushed open the box door and saw the core members of the criminal investigation team like Chen He, Wan, Jiang An, and Zhang Yean waiting there.

“Mr. Li, please take the seat of honor.”

“Have all the brothers from the criminal investigation arrived?”

Chen He replied, “We’ve booked four private rooms, except for those with urgent family matters, everyone else is here.”

Li Jian raised his teacup, “Tonight, during work hours, we have a rule, no alcohol. So, we’ll toast with tea to celebrate the solving of this complex case.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Jian turned to look at Jiang An.

“Here, I want to especially commend Comrade Jiang An.”

“At the crucial moment of solving the case, Jiang An always finds a way to break through the last mile in the investigation.”

“Let’s toast with tea, to celebrate our success in solving another case.”

…

The next morning, just as work started, Li Jian came to the forensics office with a thick case file in hand.

Jiang An and Zhang Yean were busy organizing documents.

“Busy?”

“Mr. Li!”

“Mr. Li!”

Li Jian put down a case file and said, “This is a case of death from a fall three months ago, please take a look.”

Jiang An took over the case file and glanced through it.

“This case doesn’t seem complicated, but the family never accepted the conclusion.”

Jiang An asked, “There should be a lot of surveillance information on the construction site, can we observe through video monitoring?”

“After all, surveillance footage is more intuitive and requires less reasoning, making it easier for the family to understand.”

Li Jian nodded.

He said, “There are indeed many surveillance cameras on the site, and they did see the deceased entering the fall location alone, but the family disagrees with the accidental death conclusion.”

“Moreover, the condition of the body in the end was quite tragic.”

“His head was separated from his body, with a lot of blood at the scene.”

“This may be the reason why the family doesn’t accept the accidental death conclusion.”

At this point, Zhang Yean put down the case file and walked over hastily.

“I know this case, I was also at the scene investigation at the time.”

“Then, Mr. Wu analyzed that during the fall from height, because there was a wire in the way, the neck just crossed over the wire, and the huge impact caused the head to separate.”

Finally, Li Jian looked at the case file.

“Mr. Ma has arranged for us to review the conclusion of this case again, and we must take it seriously.”

“If this death from a fall is not a criminal case, we must find sufficient evidence to convince the family.”

“If there are signs of someone else involved in this death from a fall, we must uncover the truth.”

“Yes, Mr. Li.”

“After lunch, we’ll gather everyone for a meeting to study this case.”

With that, Li Jian left the forensics office.

Jiang An opened the table of contents of the case file.

The first part was the report filing, the second was the original scene photos, the third was the scene autopsy, and the fourth was the investigation and surveillance situation.

Opening the first section: On April 1st, at the Jiangtai Construction Site, a worker discovered the severed head of the deceased, Liu Jun, while passing Building 5, and the construction site manager called the police.”

After quickly browsing the time and location, Jiang An opened the second part of the case file—original scene photos.

This was the part Jiang An valued the most.

In his view, witnesses might lie, but trace evidence wouldn’t.

These silent testimonies are the most honest and reliable.

The first photo showed a middle-aged man lying on the ground without a head.

Not far from the body was a severed head with eyes open.

Jiang An leaned closer to observe the point of separation on the deceased’s head and found the skin at the edge was very smooth, without signs of multiple chops, fitting a single force application.

Based on his understanding of human trauma, Jiang An believed a huge external force caused the head-neck separation, impossible to be human strength.

Recalling past death cases he had seen, Jiang An felt this closely matched a scenario where the deceased’s neck suddenly encountered a thin rope during a fall from height, creating a slicing action, leading to head-neck separation.

Next, Jiang An noticed at the neck separation of the body, there were significant arterial spray blood spatters visible on the ground.

From this, Jiang An inferred that when the deceased’s head fell, the heart should still have been beating.

After all, for the human body, head-neck separation doesn’t immediately cause the heart to stop.

At least, from this level, Jiang An felt assured that the deceased was still alive when falling and wasn’t thrown after death.

Soon after, Jiang An’s eyes fixed on the deceased’s clothing.

It could be seen that his clothes had some dust attached, distributed randomly.

However, the location of the body was on a wet surface.

Why would the dead man’s clothes have dust on them? Where did it come from?

After pondering for a while, Jiang An opened the second photo, which showed the position relation between the body’s torso and the wall.

Observing for some time, Jiang An’s pupils gradually contracted.

Wasn’t the corpse’s torso position too close to the wall?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep