After Lu Chuan and the others completed their crime scene investigation, Wang Changjiang and Shen Yan began a further examination of the body.

Unlike the focus of the crime scene investigation, forensic doctors primarily determine the time and cause of death through examination of the body.

"Judging by the degree of skin swelling, the body has been submerged in water for more than twenty-four hours."

The degree of skin swelling varies with the length of time the body has been submerged in water.

Wang Changjiang is an expert in this area, having previously dissected many water-logged corpses and is very experienced in judging the degree of skin swelling.

Shen Yan listened attentively, taking careful notes.

Unlike Lu Chuan's rapid progress, Shen Yan's learning has been gradual, having learned a lot from Wang Changjiang over the past two years.

"The degree of submersion is mainly determined by the eyes and fingers."

Wang Changjiang deliberately taught Shen Yan: "The eyes are the most susceptible to water entry. The eyeballs become cloudy and can protrude slightly after water immersion."

"The skin on the fingers will show water-absorption wrinkles after more than ten minutes in water."

"Comparing the degree of swelling with other parts of the skin, you can judge the approximate time of submersion."

"Uh-huh," Shen Yan, a diligent student, recorded the useful information and occasionally asked questions: "Master, there are bite marks on the corpse's left ear. You mentioned before that if a body has wounds, you can judge the submersion time by the erosion of the wounds after submersion. How do you determine this?"

Wang Changjiang turned the corpse's head: "Look here, the blood stain seepage points have disappeared, and the edges have begun to show burrs, which is characteristic of more than twenty hours of submersion."

"But the wound hasn't rotted, indicating the submersion time is less than forty-eight hours."

Being a forensic doctor or doing crime scene investigation is a field of experience.

Theory is important, but experience is more crucial.

The same judgment criteria may lead to different changes in the body under different temperatures, humidity, or indoor and outdoor conditions.

At this point, only those who have experienced it can make accurate judgments.

"Cause of death... clear neck marks from strangulation, purple lips, face has turned blue and purple, no other visible wounds; the preliminary cause of death is determined as mechanical asphyxia."

The reason Wang Changjiang made a preliminary determination is because the final determination of the cause of death requires an autopsy for a definitive conclusion.

However, whether or not an autopsy is performed must be discussed with the parents.

In Wang Changjiang's years of working cases, most families agree to autopsies in adult death cases.

Family members of some female corpses may disagree.

In cases of minor deaths, the vast majority of parents do not consent to autopsy.

Of course, this is on the condition that the forensic doctor can provide an opinion on the time and cause of death without an autopsy.

Families also need to sign in agreement.

For example, if the deceased ingested some drug administered by the perpetrator, such as a sedative, it cannot be detected without an autopsy.

Being suffocated to death after taking a sedative, the cause of death is still asphyxiation.

But the sedative factor, because the family did not agree to an autopsy, was not detected, losing an important clue.

This might be the key to solving the case.

Hence, both parties need to sign the confirmation.

"Based on the condition of rigor mortis... the time of death is approximately around forty-eight hours."

The child disappeared after going to school two days ago, with less than fifty hours between the disappearance and the discovery of the body.

This means that, according to Wang Changjiang, the child was killed about one or two hours after leaving home.

However, the submersion time does not exceed twenty-four hours.

This means that the perpetrator waited almost a full day and a night to dispose of the body after killing the child.

So the specific time of body disposal should be between last night and early this morning.

This assessment also corroborates the judgment from the crime scene investigation that the area near the well is indeed not the primary crime scene.

After reporting the results of the crime scene investigation and autopsy to Qin Yong, various pieces of information came together, allowing Qin Yong to easily make the above assessment based on his experience.

"Old Liu, we'll need you guys to help out a bit more."

Opening the navigation on his phone, he enlarged the nearby map.

"Here's the child's home. Normally, the child leaves here for school and walks along this road for about two kilometers to reach the Natural Village."

"However, the surveillance in the Natural Village did not capture the child."

After the child was reported missing, the police from the West Suburb police station had thoroughly reviewed the footage and confirmed that the child was not seen.

"In other words, the child's disappearance is concentrated on a stretch of road one to two kilometers long."

"The perpetrator killed the child, hid the body, and then disposed of it sometime between last night and early this morning."

"Check along this road and see if a detailed crime scene investigation can provide any clues."

Qin Yong also held a try-and-see attitude.

Based on the current clues, it can be established that the perpetrator acted along this one to two-kilometer stretch of road.

However, whether the murder also occurred on this stretch of road is still uncertain.

The perpetrator could have first abducted the child, then murdered them elsewhere, hid the body, and used the cover of darkness to dispose of it during the night or early morning.

"Even if this stretch of road is not the primary crime scene, it is certainly where the perpetrator first abducted the child, and..."

Qin Yong zoomed out on the map to reveal a red dot he had deliberately marked.

"This is the location of the well where the body was found, about three kilometers from the area where the child disappeared."

"The perpetrator must have hidden the body after the murder, Sun Jun!"

"Present!"

"Use the well as the center, and search all the nearby households within a five-kilometer radius!"

"Understood!"

"Ren Qiang, your team is responsible for investigating the child's parents' background. I want a complete understanding of any enemies they may have or any conflicts they may have gotten into!"

"Got it!"

The three teams put forth all their effort, advancing on three fronts.

In the spring, the grape picking garden.

Wang Zihan's parents grew most of their grapes for winemaking.

However, in recent years, to increase income, they also planted some table grapes near the road, which city people came to pick during the fall harvest.

It was now spring, and as the ice and snow melted, the grape vines remained buried in the soil for warmth, with only rows of cement posts on both sides of the road, standing like lonely ghosts in the fields.

From Wang Zihan's vineyard, Lu Chuan, Liu Guodong, and Old Bai headed west.

"Brother Bai, use this; the spotlight can detect biological tissues invisible to the naked eye."

This time, Lu Chuan and the others were armed to the teeth.

Liu Guodong held an instrument for targeted detection of biological traces, while Lu Chuan had a hyperspectral scene trace evidence searching and recording device.

Old Bai had just learned to use a laser evidence investigation instrument that Lu Chuan taught him.

Watching the screen as bright spots occasionally appeared, Old Bai quickly collected the detected evidence.

"This thing works really well."

Grinning, Old Bai remarked, "If only we had this thing before, we wouldn't have so many unsolved cases."

"It's just... it finds too many things..."

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