Chapter 320 - Source of the Dismembered Corpses (1/2)
The ones who reported it this time were an elderly couple who worked at the garbage collection station all year round.
The garbage collection station at the outskirts of the city had a history of many years. Urban garbage would be transported here first for sorting and recyclable garbage was sent to a professional garbage disposal company to be recycled. Hazardous garbage was sent to another garbage treatment plant for complete destruction.
Yu Hanjiang walked over and questioned those who reported it. “How did you find these corpses?”
The old lady stood there with her head lowered. She was afraid to speak and was obviously horrified by the terrible scene.
The old man coughed and spoke in a trembling voice. “We both drove the garbage truck this morning and came to work as usual. The garbage over there was piled up. We wanted to load the garbage into the truck as soon as possible. I didn’t pay attention at all. It was my wife who suddenly screamed and said there was a hand in the garbage dump. I looked over and sure enough, there was indeed a dark hand!”
The old lady thought of this scene and s.h.i.+vered. “Yes, it was a burnt hand and obviously didn’t belong to a small animal. It had five fingers and looked like a human hand. I looked through the trash bin and found another hand! My legs weakened in fright and I didn’t know what to do. My husband responded quickly and told me to call the police.”
The elderly couple were obviously pa.s.sersby who had nothing to do with the case. They accidentally came across the dismembered corpses in the garbage dump and were so scared that they were still shaking.
Yu Hanjiang wrote it down while asking, “How often is this garbage collection station cleaned up?”
The old man replied, “Around every three days. The city has too much garbage. If it isn’t sorted and cleaned up in time then there would be no room.”
“In other words, this rubbish was delivered within the last three days?” Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly. He was shot three days ago. Was it a coincidence or was the organ trafficking organization suddenly disposing of the corpses after detecting that something was wrong?
“It should be?” The old man spoke uncertainly. “We cleaned this area three days ago and no dead bodies were found. It was only when we came this morning that we found it. This batch of garbage should be newly delivered within the last three days.”
“Can you tell where the garbage came from?”
“It’s too difficult.” The old man frowned in a distressed manner. “The rubbish from all the communities, streets and schools will be sent here and piled together. It is hard to identify what is from where.”
All the garbage from the city was gathered here so the specific source of the corpses was indeed difficult to trace.
Yu Hanjiang endured the pungent smell in the air and took a breath. Then he crouched down and examined the pile of garbage carefully. In addition to the burnt corpse parts, there was also a large amount of garbage such as rotten vegetable leaves, peels, takeout lunch boxes and other household waste.
His keen eyes found a takeout box with the words ‘Good Taste Porridge Store’ on them as well as disposable plastic chopsticks and paper towel packaging bags with a small yellow man and the words ‘Spicy Rice Noodles’ on them.
He stood up and asked the colleague next to him in a low voice, “Where is the largest vegetable and fruit warehouse in our city?”
The male colleague answered, “I remember there is a farmer’s market in the west of the city. Vegetables and fruit are sold in boxes there and it is especially cheap. The city’s vegetables and fruits should be purchased from there?”
Another female colleague whispered, “Group Leader Yu, do you suspect the corpses came from a vegetable market?”
“No.” Yu Hanjiang’s expression was cold. “For this batch of corpses, it seems they were hurriedly processed. There are burn marks on the corpses. The other party wanted to cremate the corpses and burn them to ashes without leaving any evidence. There might’ve been an accident during the cremation and the corpses weren’t completely burned. Therefore, they hurriedly threw the body parts into the trash can where they were transported by the garbage truck here.”
Yu Hanjiang pointed to the large amount of vegetable leaves and fruit peels in the garbage dump. “There should be a large farmer’s market near the trash bin where they threw the corpses. It is difficult for urban residents to produce this much vegetable leaves, fruit peels and other garbage in three days. In addition, there are cartons, woven bags and other garbage that are also used for the vegetables and fruits at the farmer’s market.”
His colleagues listened to his a.n.a.lysis and nodded in agreement.
The forensic doctor accompanying them spoke bitterly. “Group Leader Yu, these body parts are too fragmented and burned. It will be difficult to determine the time of death and manner of death. I don’t even know how many are dead. I will have to take back the corpses for DNA testing and compare the genetic data to missing people. The results will be given to you tomorrow at the latest.”
Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Thank you everyone, you’ve worked hard. Let’s call it a day.”
Today’s criminal police officers were a bit of a mess. They followed Yu Hanjiang to search through the entire garbage dump looking for corpses and everyone smelled very bad. After returning to the police station, they went to take a shower and change clothes.
Yu Hanjiang took advantage of his time in the shower to continue communicating with Xiao Lou. “I’ve locked onto a suspected area. It is the farmer’s market distribution center in the west of the city. If we can find the ‘Good Taste Porridge Store’ and ‘Spicy Rice Noodles’ store within 5 kilometres, the trash bin nearby is the most likely place where it was thrown. The organ trafficking organization might be around there.”
Xiao Lou was surprised by the efficiency. “You even found specific stores?”
Yu Hanjiang explained, “The takeout boxes for these two places were found in the garbage dump.”