Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Chapter 721: The Head in the Refrigerator

The landscaping in the Taohua Villa District is excellent, with trees providing cover, making the area lively even in winter.After all, Lu Chuan has a background in crime scene investigation as a detective.

Inspection is always the first step upon entering any scene.

Instinctively putting on gloves, Lu Chuan carefully observed the entrance gate to the courtyard.

Each of the two townhouses has a main gate.

At the moment, the villa where Chen Weixi lived had its gate securely locked, and inside there should be a courtyard.

There were no signs of the lock being tampered with.

"Zhaokai, send someone to climb over from the neighboring side and open the gate. Be sure to wear gloves and avoid touching anything you shouldn’t."

"Yes."

The captain of Team One sent a nimble team member over the wall of the neighboring villa to open the courtyard gate from the inside.

"Old Gao, start from this gate and collect fingerprints."

Since it had been confirmed that the deceased was indeed Chen Weiwei, her residence was likely the initial crime scene.

Lu Chuan instructed everyone else to wait outside, taking only Wang Zhaokai inside with him.

Both cautiously donned shoe covers.

"Captain Lu!"

Upon entering the courtyard, Wang Zhaokai suddenly pointed to a brown stain on the ground.

Lu Chuan looked down to see bloodstains!

Dried bloodstains!

And from the pattern of the bloodstains, it appeared to be a continuous drip.

Following the trail, some of the brownish bloodstains fell on the stone path, and some into the nearby grass, stretching all the way to the entrance door.

"Hold on!"

Lu Chuan squatted directly next to the bloodstains for a closer look.

In bloodstain analysis, the diameter of the droplet and the length of the spatters can help calculate the height from which the blood fell.

Generally, if the perpetrator was holding a body, the height of the blood drop is about the natural hanging arm’s height. From this, the distance from the perpetrator’s arm to the ground can be inferred.

Furthermore, a normal person’s limb-length-to-height ratio is relatively fixed.

The height of the arm from the ground is proportional to the person’s height.

From this, one can roughly estimate the perpetrator’s height range.

Of course, there are exceptions where some people might have particularly long arms but average height.

So, it’s only a rough estimate.

It’s not an absolute possibility.

"Zhaokai, bring the crime scene investigation camera over and photograph these bloodstains."

"Yes."

The Criminal Investigation Team here is not the same as the Criminal Investigation Team over there; they don’t have specialized crime scene investigation detectives.

Gao Wenxiang is only a fingerprint identification analyst; his fieldwork is actually quite average.

So, when a scene is called, the scene investigation work is actually done by the criminal investigation squad members.

In fact, the structural setup of the Criminal Investigation Team has been improving over the years.

Such as a technical group or a crime scene group.

But a setup is a setup, and structure is structure; what matters is if there are any personnel.

The High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team’s three squads all handle cases tightly, leaving no room to set up any technical groups.

The young want to engage in rewarding work, while the older ones lack the ability.

The middle-aged detectives are all core personnel, and taking them out to form a technical group would significantly impact field case handling.

Hence, many reforms are challenging to implement at the grassroots level.

The idea is perfect, but reality is harsh.

Ultimately, there are too many cases and too few people.

In the courtyard, Lu Chuan advanced cautiously, observing the bloodstains on the ground and carefully searching for any footprints left behind.

"Here, mark it with chalk."

From the gate to the entrance door, there is approximately a ten-meter distance in the courtyard.

Lu Chuan had already discovered roughly four or five footprints.

It had been a long time since Wang Zhaokai had worked at a crime scene, but his actions were not rusty, rapidly completing whatever Lu Chuan instructed.

Approaching the entrance door, Lu Chuan gave it a gentle push; it was ajar and not locked.

And on the door, there was a smeared bloody handprint.

All signs indicate that this was indeed the initial crime scene.

Using the crime scene camera in hand, Lu Chuan photographed the bloody handprint, preparing to return for comparison analysis.

Upon entering the room, the sight was chaotic.

The entire first floor looked like it had been ransacked; all the drawers were pulled open, with contents scattered everywhere.

"Robbery-murder?"

Wang Zhaokai, following Lu Chuan into the room, couldn’t help but think of this term at the sight before him.

But Lu Chuan shook his head.

"It shouldn’t be merely a simple robbery murder."

"If it was robbery-murder, the perpetrator would just need to kill the victim and take the belongings. There would be no need to go to such lengths to dismember the deceased and discard the body."

The key point of robbery-murder lies in the robbery itself.

The aim is to rob money and kill to prevent self-exposure.

But the perpetrator’s main goal was the robbery.

It seems that the perpetrator of this case had motives beyond just killing for robbery.

Because they dealt with the body in such a meticulous way, which would have taken a significant amount of time.

If it was merely for robbery, this behavior does not make logical sense.

Killing was the primary objective.

Rummaging for money might have been incidental or intended to create a robbery facade.

Most criminal suspects are not versed in psychology.

So they don’t understand the difference between a genuine robbery-murder and a fabricated one.

Additionally, when Lu Chuan entered, he had already observed that the entrance gate had no signs of being pried open, and the door lock was intact without any marks of forced entry.

So, if the perpetrator committed a robbery-murder, how did they enter the property?

Through the window?

The Taohua Villa District is of high quality, and each unit’s windows are equipped with alarm devices.

If someone entered without permission, the property management would be the first to know.

Moreover, the management of the neighborhood is very strict.

Earlier, at the entrance to the neighborhood, Lu Chuan had already observed that even delivery personnel couldn’t enter the premises.

Items had to be left at the gate and then delivered to the homeowner by the property staff.

So, within this community, the possibility for outside strangers to enter is almost nil.

So if it was theft-robbery, an outsider is impossible. Could it be someone from the community property staff?

In comparison, Lu Chuan was more inclined to believe it was someone brought in by a resident.

At the gate, only the vehicles of residents don’t require inspection.

Those inside the vehicle are naturally not required to register.

All other outside visitors must register their information.

And contact is made via telephone with the resident before they can enter the community.

"Captain Lu, over here!"

From the kitchen, Wang Zhaokai’s voice called out. Lu Chuan went over to see...

The stark dark red was splattered everywhere.

On the chopping board, there was a sharp boning knife covered in blood.

On the floor, a bone-cutting machine with dried, dark red splattered blood.

The entire kitchen still carried a pungent bloody odor.

This must have been the first crime scene where the murderer killed and dismembered the body.

Surveying the room, Lu Chuan noticed the refrigerator next to the kitchen door, with evident bloody handprints on it.

With a furrowed brow, Lu Chuan opened the refrigerator door.

Startling Wang Zhaokai next to him to instinctively step back half a pace.

"This, this..."

The victim’s severed head was finally found.

"Immediately dispatch personnel to secure the scene. I’ll personally conduct the crime scene examination!"

Lu Chuan promptly issued the order.