eurekapd Chapter 1391 Sealing Off the Scene
Chapter 1391 Sealing Off the Scene
Li Ming immediately issued the following orders: "The first team is responsible for sealing off the scene and setting up cordons around the landfill entrance, main passages, and core area to prevent garbage trucks and scavengers from entering; the second team will conduct a detailed interview with the complainant, Mr. Li, and record the time and circumstances of the discovery of the body, as well as the recent activities of personnel at the landfill; Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun, you two immediately take your forensic equipment and conduct a comprehensive investigation of the scene, focusing on extracting trace evidence. Be meticulous and do not overlook any detail."
Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun quickly donned their investigation suits, shoe covers, gloves, and masks, then shouldered their investigation kits and headed to the core area. The kits were neatly arranged with specialized equipment such as fingerprint scanners, magnetic powder, tweezers, evidence bags, measuring tapes, plaster casting tools, trace extraction tape, fiber adhesive, and lighting equipment. The two first observed the overall environment of the landfill: the landfill was an irregular trapezoid, approximately 500 meters long from east to west and 300 meters wide from north to south. The site was covered with layers upon layers of household waste, rotting food, worn-out clothing, discarded plastics, and other debris mixed together, forming uneven mountains of garbage. In some areas, the fermenting garbage was still emitting faint steam.
"Following the principle of expanding the scope of the investigation, we will first delineate an initial investigation area with a diameter of 100 meters, centered on the slope where the body was found. We will focus on checking passages, garbage dumps, and weeds within the area, looking for suspicious footprints, vehicle tracks, and other clues," Xiao Yang said to Xiao Sun while shining an investigation light on the ground. "Landfill sites are complex environments, and traces are easily destroyed. We must speed up the process while ensuring the accuracy of the extraction." Xiao Sun nodded in response and immediately took out a tape measure and a sketchbook to begin drawing a site location map, marking the location of the warning tape, the coordinates of the core area, and the surrounding environmental features in detail.
Starting from the landfill entrance, the two men gradually advanced towards the core area along the main passageway. The ground of the passageway was covered with tire tracks of varying depths and messy footprints from the long-term wear and tear of garbage trucks and scavengers' tricycles. Xiao Yang crouched down and carefully examined the ground with a surveying light: "There are two main types of tire tracks here. One is the tire track of a large truck, about 20 centimeters wide, with obvious longitudinal patterns, likely left by a garbage truck; the other is the tire track of a small tricycle, about 8 centimeters wide, with a serrated pattern and a spacing of about 3 centimeters, consistent with the characteristics of a scavenger's commonly used tricycle." He carefully extracted samples of both types of tire tracks using trace extraction tape, labeling them "Tire Track Sample No. 1 at the Scene" and "Tire Track Sample No. 2 at the Scene," respectively.
About 50 meters from the core area, in a patch of weeds, Xiao Sun discovered a clear footprint. "Xiao Yang, we've found something here!" Xiao Sun immediately gestured for Xiao Yang to come over. "The footprint is on soft soil at the edge of the weeds, not covered by trash, and relatively well-preserved." Xiao Yang took out a footprint measuring instrument and carefully measured it, saying, "The footprint is male, shoe size 42, rubber-soled athletic shoe, with a grid-like tread pattern. The forefoot tread shows moderate wear, while the heel shows less wear. We estimate the footprint owner to be between 25 and 35 years old, 175-180 cm tall, and weighing 65-70 kg." As he spoke, he poured plaster powder into the footprint: "We'll extract this footprint first, and then check the surrounding area for similar footprints to determine if they were left by the suspect."
The expanded investigation lasted nearly two hours. Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun discovered and collected three different types of tire track samples, five footprint samples, four scattered clothing fiber samples, and suspected remains including a broken plastic bottle, half a cigarette butt, and a crumpled delivery slip. On a small road near the core area, they found a continuous set of tricycle tire tracks, consistent with the characteristics of the previously collected "Scene No. 2 tire track sample," and next to the tire tracks was a footprint of the same type found in the weeds. "This set of tracks is very suspicious," Xiao Yang analyzed. "The tricycle tire tracks and the footprint run parallel and point directly towards the core area. It's speculated that the person who left the tracks likely drove a tricycle carrying items to this location, and it's possible they were left by the suspect when disposing of the body."
Around 9 a.m., after completing the expanded investigation, Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun began to narrow down the search area, focusing on the core area where the body was found. The body was abandoned on the south side of a garbage pile about 2 meters high, mostly covered by household waste, with only the right hand and right foot exposed. The two first cleaned up the garbage around the body, strictly adhering to the principle of "cleaning from the outside in, layer by layer" to avoid destroying any possible traces or evidence. "When cleaning, pay attention to the layers of garbage accumulation to determine if the time when the body was abandoned coincides with the time when the garbage accumulated," Xiao Yang reminded Xiao Sun while using tweezers to move the garbage aside.
After more than half an hour of cleaning, the full appearance of the body gradually became clear. The deceased was male, lying supine on the garbage heap, head facing northeast and feet facing southwest. He was wearing a black long-sleeved T-shirt and dark jeans, which were covered with a lot of garbage and stains, and some areas showed signs of damage. Xiao Yang measured the body length with a tape measure: "The body length is 178 centimeters, which matches the height range estimated from the 42-yard footprints extracted earlier." He carefully observed the deceased's hands: "There are slight skin abrasions on the right hand fingers, and a small amount of dirt and fiber residue in the fingernails, which may have been formed during the struggle." Xiao Sun immediately used an adhesive device to extract the residual sample from the deceased's fingernails, marking it as "Sample No. 6 from the scene."
About one meter above the head of the body, Xiao Yang found a discarded cardboard box with bloodstains. "We'll extract this box to test if the bloodstains are from the deceased." Xiao Yang carefully removed the box with tweezers and placed it in an evidence bag. "The bloodstains on the box are splattered and irregular in shape, suggesting that the blood may have splattered onto the box when the victim was murdered, and was later disposed of by the suspect along with the body at the landfill." Xiao Sun found several black hairs in the trash at the feet of the body, which he extracted with tweezers and labeled "Sample No. 7 from the scene."
The ground in the core area was mainly composed of garbage and loose soil, making it difficult to preserve traces. However, Xiao Yang still found a blurry footprint about 0.8 meters west of the body. "This footprint is the same type as the one found in the weeds before, but some of the patterns are blurred because it has been crushed by garbage."