The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1346 Details of the Forensic Discovery

“This fragment isn’t made of the clothing itself,” he said, picking up the fragment with tweezers and examining it under the light. “It has curved patterns on the surface, like a fragment of some kind of plastic bottle. Let’s compare it with the Nongfu Spring bottle found at the scene.” Assistant Lin immediately took out photos of the evidence from the scene. After comparison, the curvature and material of the fragment perfectly matched the neck of the plastic bottle.

The core of post-mortem examination is determining the time of death, which is particularly difficult for highly decomposed corpses. Zhang Lin first pressed on the joints of the limbs: "The joint mobility is still acceptable. The jaw joint can open 3 centimeters, and the elbow joint can bend 45 degrees, indicating that the decomposition has not yet reached the late stage." He then pinched the putrid green spots on the abdomen with his fingers. "The green spots have spread to the entire abdomen, but have not affected the back. Combined with the degree of skin waxiness, the preliminary judgment is that the time of death is between 30 and 40 days."

"Professor Zhang, isn't there a risk of error if we rely solely on surface characteristics?" Assistant Lin questioned. "The low temperature of the soil environment might slow down the decomposition process." "Therefore, we need to combine multiple factors." Zhang Lin walked to the incubator next to the autopsy table and took out soil samples extracted from the cadaver's nasal cavity and ear canals. "This soil was extracted on-site; its temperature remains at 12-15°C year-round, which is 3-5°C lower than the ground temperature, and it does indeed slow down decomposition. But we have a more precise method of judgment—the development of fly larvae."

He used a sterile probe to open the corpse's nasal cavity, where several dead fly larvae, about 0.8 centimeters in length, remained. "During the on-site investigation, a small number of fly larvae were found around the corpse; these are the remaining larvae. According to the developmental patterns of the common green bottle fly in the area, it takes 12-15 days for the larvae to develop from egg to 0.8 centimeters in an environment of 12-15°C. After the larvae die, the corpse's decomposition enters a relatively stable stage." Zhang Lin took out a magnifying glass to carefully observe the morphology of the fly larvae. "These larvae had entered the late third instar stage, and the time of death was about 18 days ago. Adding the 15 days of larval development, the total time since death should be between 33 and 36 days."

To further verify this, Zhang Lin extracted vitreous humor from the corpse for testing. "The concentration of potassium ions in the vitreous humor is a crucial indicator for determining the time of death," he explained. He injected the vitreous humor sample into the testing instrument. "After death, potassium ions seep into the vitreous humor from the eye tissue, and the concentration gradually increases over time. Based on the test results, the potassium ion concentration was 13.8 mmol/L. Combined with the correction factor for the low-temperature environment of the soil, the time of death was determined to be approximately 35 days, with an error margin of no more than 2 days."

Assistant Lin quickly recorded the data: "The preliminary time of death is determined to be 35 days ago, around October 16th. By this time, the Xipo Coal Mine had already shut down, and the outsourced team had also left, which matches the previous investigation leads." Zhang Lin didn't respond, but instead began examining the body for external injuries. He carefully wiped every inch of the corpse's skin with iodine, searching for possible fatal wounds beneath the green stains of decay.

“There is a 2cm x 1cm subcutaneous hemorrhage on the outer side of the left arm, dark red in color, with clear borders. It should be a contusion formed before death.” Zhang Lin pressed the bleeding area with his fingers. “But this injury is not fatal. There are no obvious blunt force injuries on the chest, abdomen, or head. Could it be a sharp force injury?” His gaze returned to the tear in the shirt, and he used a probe to examine the subcutaneous tissue along the direction of the tear. “There is slight subcutaneous bleeding in the chest wall area corresponding to the tear, indicating that the force used when cutting was not great and did not damage the ribs or internal organs.”

"Could it be death by poisoning?" Assistant Lin hypothesized. "No obvious fatal injuries were found at the scene, so poisoning is highly likely." Zhang Lin nodded: "This is the key area of ​​investigation. Let's perform an internal autopsy first to see if there are any abnormalities in the internal organs." He picked up a scalpel and made a standard Y-shaped incision along the midline of the abdomen. The blade made a slight "hissing" sound as it cut through the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

The scalpel penetrated layer by layer, cutting through the rectus abdominis muscle and peritoneum in sequence. The moment the peritoneum was cut open, a stream of dark red fluid, approximately 200 ml, flowed from the abdominal cavity. "There was a small amount of blood in the abdominal cavity, but it wasn't fresh blood; it had already coagulated and putrefied," Zhang Lin explained. He used a suction device to remove the blood and carefully examined the organs inside the abdominal cavity. "The liver was enlarged, with multiple pinpoint hemorrhages on its surface, and its color was dark brown; the spleen was soft, with petechiae along its edges; the gastric mucosa was congested and edematous, with a small amount of gastric contents remaining."

He used scissors to cut off part of the stomach wall tissue and stomach contents, and put them into a sterile container: "The stomach contents still contained some undigested food residue, including rice, green vegetables and a small amount of meat, indicating that the person ate 2-3 hours before death. Assistant Lin, extract stomach contents samples for toxicological testing and component analysis, focusing on checking for common toxins such as organophosphates, rodenticides, and heavy metals."

During the examination of the thoracic organs, Zhang Lin made a crucial discovery. When he cut open the sternum to expose the heart and lungs, he found a 1.5 cm x 1 cm rupture in the lower lobe of the left lung. The lung tissue around the rupture was dark red, with obvious bleeding and edema. "This rupture is the fatal wound!" Zhang Lin's voice rose several decibels. "The edges of the rupture are neat and wedge-shaped, consistent with the characteristics of a sharp object stab wound. It is likely that the assailant used a sharp object to stab the chest cavity, causing the lung to rupture and bleed, ultimately leading to hemorrhagic shock and death."

Assistant Lin immediately leaned over to examine the wound: "The wound is very small and in a hidden location, making it difficult to spot on the surface. No wonder no fatal wound was found during the autopsy. Approximately how deep is the wound?" Zhang Lin inserted a probe into the rupture and measured it before saying, "About 4 centimeters deep, it pierced the densely vascularized area of ​​the lower lobe of the left lung, causing massive internal bleeding. But strangely, the amount of blood in the chest cavity was only about 300 milliliters, not enough to be immediately fatal. The deceased must have struggled for a while after being injured before dying."

"This explains why the victim's fingernails were broken and there were signs of struggle at the scene." Assistant Lin suddenly realized, "After the murderer stabbed the victim with a sharp object, the victim resisted, and the fingernails broke during the struggle, leaving dirt and weed fibers under the fingernails." Zhang Lin nodded and continued to examine the heart: "There are a few bleeding points on the surface of the heart, the myocardium is normal, there are no underlying diseases such as coronary heart disease, so the possibility of natural death is ruled out."

While examining the neck tissue, Zhang Lin discovered further abnormalities: slight bleeding in the muscle tissue on the left side of the neck, an enlarged thyroid gland, and congestion of the tracheal mucosa. "Are there any signs of strangulation here?" Assistant Lin asked. Zhang Lin touched the skin beneath the neck with his fingers: "The muscle bleeding is not obvious, and there are no signs of tracheal compression or narrowing, so it shouldn't be strangulation. However, the enlarged thyroid gland may be related to the deceased's lifestyle and might provide clues to confirm the identity of the deceased."