Chapter 489: Autopsy (1/2)

Unsurprisingly, the bodies had already been dissected and bags of human organs were placed in front of us. I stared at them in a daze when I was interrupted by Captain Tang. ”If you need anything, just let me know, Consultant Song.”

”You may not know this, but I don’t perform internal autopsies.”

”You don’t? Then how do you examine the... Oh, never mind. Don’t you worry, the three bodies were dissected by senior coroners of the bureau. They won’t make any mistakes. Here are the autopsy results.”

While Bingxin went through the results, I opened the body bags and uncovered the victims.

From my observation of the anatomy, the first victim was a strong, 28-year-old man. The time of death was thirteen days ago. However, his body had been frozen, so the degree of decay was marginal. The cause of death was a blow to the back of the skull, which resulted in a star-shaped fracture with subcutaneous hemorrhage and bruising. The murder weapon was most likely a blunt object such as a wrench which caused a contrecoup injury on the other side of the skull. The killing blow caused a rupture of the arachnoid membrane and intracranial hemorrhage.

Additionally, there were injuries on the body that were inflicted after death. The coroner concluded that these wounds were caused during the moving of the corpse.

The presumed weapon used to slit the victim’s abdomen was a pair of scissors. There were binding marks on the victim’s wrist that were left after death, possibly due to being forcefully dragged by the murderer.

There was another odd detail–the victim’s head was shaved and a wig was glued to his head!

After examining the body, I came to a similar conclusion as the coroner, though I noticed the slight peeling on the chest, abdomen and thigh, as if the skin had been torn off by force. Was it blunt force trauma? At the moment, I couldn’t determine the exact cause.

Female victim no. 1 was 27 years old, overweight, and had given birth. I found a mark on her middle finger left after wearing a ring for a long time, suggesting she was a married woman.

The cause of death was a blow to the forehead. The murderer laid a heavy hand on the victim so bone fragments collapsed into the skull. She had been bludgeoned in the right temple, a move the murderer made to ensure she was dead.

Like the male victim, female victim no.1 died thirteen days ago and had been frozen. In order to dress the body, the murderer applied a hot towel on her joints.

However, there was no indication of the same treatment for the male victim which showed the murderer’s inexperience at the time, causing damage to the articular cartilage.

Both victims’ stomach contents consisted of a matching variety of foods, indicating they shared a meal before they were killed. They were most likely a couple!

At this point, I motioned for Bingxin to stop. After comparing the victims’ thighs, I pulled out the Echolocation Rod and listened as I gently moved the joints. ”The murderer has a freezer in his home. The peeling of the skin was not caused by dragging, but by forcefully separating the two bodies which were frozen together,” I analyzed. “Since the bodies were curled up in the freezer, we can assume the freezer isn’t large, probably similar to the ones you see in the convenience store.”

”Your analysis makes a lot of sense!” Captain Tang flattered. “This is negligence on our part. The two bodies were dissected by two different coroners so they weren’t able to connect the dots.”

”This sort of freezer isn’t generally used by the public. Could the murderer be operating a convenience store?”

”I’ve yet to determine that,” I admitted. “Bingxin, I need your help.”

The point of my focus was the irregular abdominal wound on the male victim. Like the coroner, I believed the wound was caused by a pair of scissors.

As usual, Bingxin and I wore rubber gloves. I instructed her to piece the top part of the skin with tweezers, while I handled the bottom part. Wounds were bound to split due to skin tension. When we reconstructed the wound, we found a piece of skin in the middle missing.

Appalled, Captain Tang cried, ”There’s a piece missing? We didn't notice it at the time!”

”Did the murderer remove a piece of skin as a souvenir?” suggested Bingxin.

”Don't jump to conclusions yet!” I cautioned. “I’d like to take another look at the fatal wound.”