Chapter 566: Chapter 566: Qinzhou City 116 Case

Li Donglin looked at Lu Chuan with anticipation.

Based on past experiences of the major crime unit in solving cases, Lu Chuan always managed to provide highly valuable clues in significant cases.

Crime scene investigation has always been the most crucial and fundamental aspect of solving a case.

However, due to differences in individual abilities, varying conditions at the scene, and the amount of traces left by the criminal, along with other objective factors, crime scene investigations always yield different results.

Some crime scenes can identify the criminal with just one fingerprint.

But there are also some crime scenes that seem to leave no trace, making the crime scene investigation appear futile.

An excellent crime scene investigator, like Lu Chuan, can find things others cannot, and locate details others miss.

This morning, Lu Chuan spent the longest time at the crime scene.

He effectively re-examined the scene.

Though half a month had passed, much of it couldn’t accurately reveal what happened at the scene to Lu Chuan.

However, some detailed observations still allowed Lu Chuan to find valuable clues.

"There are three perpetrators."

This judgment by Lu Chuan was consistent with that of the Tianzhou City Criminal Investigation Team; three unfamiliar footprints were very evident at the scene.

"Suspect number one, the murderer of the male victim with a slit throat, male, between 1.73 to 1.76 meters tall, weighing around 70 kilograms, with an old fracture of the right leg, which wasn’t properly treated."

The footprints of suspect number one are very distinctive.

The right foot’s print is lighter than the left and angled outwardly.

Such a condition is not congenital; it usually results from a previous fracture of the tibia, which was not properly treated during the healing process, leaving a certain degree of disability.

"Suspect number two, whose numerous footprints appear in the kitchen, is the murderer who dismembered the child, male, approximately 1.7 meters tall, weighing 60 kilograms, left-handed."

"Why are you certain he’s left-handed?"

Across from Lu Chuan, a middle-aged detective asked.

"Because of the angle of the knife wounds."

"There are a total of three suspects. From the pattern of the footprints at the scene, each of them targeted one of the victims."

This was something everyone agreed on.

"The second suspect in the kitchen, when dismembering the body, made cuts at an acute angle from the left."

"If the person held the knife with the right hand, the cuts should come from the right angle."

"Moreover, suspect number two... should be the suspect in the Qinzhou 116 murder case three years ago."

Qinzhou... the 116 mass murder case?

Everyone present had heard about this case.

Three years ago, there was a horrifying mass murder case in Qinzhou City.

On November 6, three years ago, a mass murder occurred at the Qinzhou City Vocational and Technical College.

A dormitory that housed six female students was massacred overnight, leaving only one survivor.

The case was highly prioritized and directly supervised by the provincial office.

Now, Lu Chuan was saying that suspect number two was the suspect from back then?

Li Donglin also looked gravely at Lu Chuan.

He had visited the case back then but hadn’t solved it, and it remained unsolved to this day.

How could Lu Chuan conclude that suspect number two was the one from the old Qinzhou case?

"Lu Chuan, are you certain?"

Lu Chuan nodded seriously: "Director Li, I should be able to confirm it."

Lu Chuan turned on the projector, linking it to his phone via Bluetooth.

"I saw the Qinzhou 116 case file during a fingerprint analysis campaign organized by the provincial office."

In fact, this case shouldn’t have been included in the fingerprint campaign database.

Because no fingerprints were left at the crime scene by the perpetrator.

Without fingerprints, it naturally wouldn’t enter the fingerprint campaign database.

The reason it was included was that there were some major unsolved cases in the province, and during each fingerprint campaign, experts were invited to take a fresh look.

It wasn’t about reopening the investigation, just seeing if anyone might find something, even if there’s only a one in a million chance.

Lu Chuan had reviewed the case documents back then and had studied them carefully.

"The perpetrators left no fingerprints at the scene back then, but look here."

The photo showed a dim, brownish mark.

"This is a mark I found this morning on the lower cabinet door in the kitchen at the crime scene."

The mark was about the size of a thumb, devoid of ridges, just a blurred stain.

Initially, Lu Chuan thought this mark was left by the perpetrator wearing gloves and casually wiping off blood.

But remember the 116 case files, Lu Chuan knew it wasn’t.

"The mark seemed somewhat familiar at first. I wasn’t entirely sure. Before the meeting, I checked the 116 case files again from back then."

If Lu Chuan were solely a crime scene investigator with the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team, he wouldn’t have access to the electronic files of Qinzhou’s 116 case.

However, he was also a member of the provincial major crime unit, giving him the privilege to access electronic files of cases across the province.

"Everyone, take a look!"

At this moment, the projector displayed another photo.

It was also a blurred mark about the size of a thumb, matching the mark Lu Chuan found on the lower cabinet door of the massacre crime scene.

However, one was dark red, and the other was black-brown.

Lu Chuan moved the mouse, gradually overlapping the two images, and then...

Everyone was amazed to find that the two blurred marks of different colors had aligned perfectly!

Yes, like fingerprints, they overlapped!

This was why Lu Chuan asserted that suspect number two was the murderer of the Qinzhou 116 case back then!

Li Donglin, looking at the overlapping marks, couldn’t help but stand up, astonished, muttering, "...is it him?"

Others were also surprised at the overlapping marks on the projector.

Especially the crime scene investigators and trace analysts from the Tianzhou City Criminal Investigation Team.

"This..."

They had noticed this mark during their initial crime scene investigation but didn’t take it seriously.

They merely considered it a random mark left by the perpetrator, lacking clear fingerprint details, and therefore didn’t see any usable value.

But now, this mark had aligned with a mark from the Qinzhou 116 case three years ago...

What does this imply?

In the 116 case, this mark was also initially dismissed.

According to the records, the blood behind the mark... belonged to one of the victimized students.

After brutalizing them, the perpetrator, contaminated with the student’s blood, left it smeared on the wall.

But without fingerprint information, it was deemed an incidental trace at the time.