eurekapd Chapter 973 Discoveries in Autopsies
Chapter 973 Discoveries in Autopsies
Li Ming looked intently at the record book, his brow furrowed. "Thank you for your hard work. The forensic team will have to work through the night to conduct an autopsy and investigate the deceased's identity. We need to confirm the deceased's identity as soon as possible."
The operating lights in the autopsy room shone with a blinding white light. Zhang Lin wiped the scalpel on a sterile cotton ball, the clanging of metal instruments particularly clear in the cold, silent space. When the corpse was pushed onto the autopsy table, the putrefaction had already spread to the neck, and dark green putrefied veins ran beneath the skin. Even through three layers of masks, a nauseatingly sweet and fishy smell could still be detected.
In the practice of Polish sexual entities, the most important thing is actually determining the cause and time of death, and it is also the most difficult part.
Zhang Lin knelt before the autopsy table, his protective mask almost touching the deceased's swollen, blackened jaw. Holding a stainless steel probe in his left hand and a medical magnifying glass in his right, he carefully observed the dense colonies of maggots inside the deceased's mouth under the cold, white light of the operating lamp. These wriggling white larvae were greedily feeding on the decaying tissue, forming a constantly surging swarm deep within the throat.
"Determining the time of death is the cornerstone of forensic work," Zhang Lin said into the body camera on his chest, his voice echoing in the closed autopsy room. "And entomological evidence often provides the most precise time coordinates." He carefully picked up a maggot with tweezers and placed it on a measuring slide. The respiratory pores at the larva's tail were clearly visible under the microscope. "Blowflies are most sensitive to fresh corpses and usually lay eggs within 10 minutes of death." These third-instar larvae were already 1.2 centimeters long, which, combined with the local average daily temperature of 28°C over the past three days, perfectly matched the developmental cycle of blowflies from egg to third-instar larvae.
Within forensic medicine, there's a branch called entomological forensics, which uses the presence of insects on a corpse and their generational distribution to determine details such as the time of death and other aspects of the deceased's demise.
The assistant quickly took notes, sweat dripping from his pen almost blurring the paper. Zhang Lin then pointed to the pupal shells piled up behind the deceased's ear: "These reddish-brown pupae have cracks on their surfaces, a sign that they are about to complete their emergence. The pupal stage of blowflies is about 14 days at the current temperature, plus the 7-day larval stage, which makes a total of 21 days for death." He suddenly tapped the deceased's temple with a probe, and several newly emerged flies buzzed and took flight, their wingbeats jarringly loud in the silent autopsy room.
"Insect activity patterns don't lie." Zhang Lin pulled up an insect development chart on his tablet, showing different stages of blowfly morphology displayed on the screen. "Observe the color of these maggots' digestive tracts; a dark brown color indicates they're nearing the end of their feeding phase and about to pupate. Combined with the degree of putrefaction—obvious green spots on the abdomen and initiation of intestinal autolysis—all the evidence points to this precise timeframe of 21 days ago."
The scalpel suddenly stopped at the victim's neck. Zhang Lin used tweezers to pick up a small piece of skin tissue: "Look here again, the clustered feeding marks from fly larvae at the wound are completely different from the erosion on normal skin. The ruptured carotid artery caused by the murder weapon is the ideal egg-laying site for blowflies, which is why the density of larvae around the wound is three times that of other areas. These details together construct a complete chain of chronological evidence."
As Zhang Lin placed the last pupa into the specimen bottle, dusk had completely enveloped the forensic center. He removed his gloves, stained with corpse fluid, and looked at the fly eggs hatching in the incubator; the tiny white particles trembled slightly under the constant temperature lamp. For forensic entomology, these insignificant lives are the most faithful witnesses to deciphering the code of death.
The time of death was accurate to 21 days prior.
Then Zhang Lin used a probe to pry open the deceased's mouth, and maggots fell down along the jawline.
"The corneas were highly cloudy, and adipocere formed in the armpits and groin." His latex gloves, coated with talcum powder, paused abruptly when his fingertips touched the corpse's abdomen—there was a fifteen-centimeter-long, arc-shaped scar with silvery-white edges, a typical appendectomy incision that had healed at least five years ago.
With a roar as the chainsaw started, Zhang Lin made the first incision along the corpse's hairline. The instant the skin separated from the bone, a pungent stench of decay filled the air, and his assistant quickly turned on the ventilation system. When the skull was completely removed, the exposed brain tissue had liquefied into a brownish, viscous substance, and on the inner side of the occipital bone, three parallel depressed fractures were clearly visible. "These wounds have been there for at least six months," Zhang Lin said, picking up a bone fragment with tweezers. The cross-section was pale yellow, "an old injury caused by repeated blunt force trauma."
As the scalpel cut open the chest cavity, the abnormal curvature of the ribs caught his attention. "The third and fourth ribs on the left side showed signs of healing." He held the X-ray film up to the viewing lamp; the callus formed by the misaligned bones resembled twisted vines under the fluorescent light. "The fracture occurred three to four months ago; it didn't heal naturally, and the bone-setting technique was quite crude." The assistant's pen paused: "Could it be related to the deceased's living environment?"
Zhang Lin didn't answer, his gaze fixed on the corpse's back. It was covered in large tattoos, but the decaying skin had fragmented the designs, leaving only the vague outlines of intertwined chains and flames. He picked up a magnifying glass and examined it closely, discovering something unusual near the shoulder blade—faded ink mixed with tiny metallic particles, gleaming coldly under ultraviolet light. "This isn't ordinary tattoo ink," he thought, placing the sample in a petri dish. "It's probably an industrial dye containing iron."
As the scalpel sliced through the neck muscles, the wound at the location of the carotid artery was exposed to the light. The wound was an irregular tear, with jagged edges, and deep enough to expose the bone. "This is a fatal wound." Zhang Lin measured the width of the wound with a probe. "The murder weapon must have been a serrated sharp object, such as a can opener or a multi-purpose military knife." He suddenly frowned, pointing the tweezers to the fine burn marks at the edge of the wound. "There are high-temperature burn marks around the wound, indicating that the murder weapon was heated before use."
When the autopsy reached the stomach, putrid contents gushed out. Zhang Lin, enduring the discomfort, cleaned the stomach with gauze and found undigested beef and corn kernels. "The last meal was four to six hours before death." He handed the samples to his assistant and contacted the forensic department to compare them with the types of canned food found at the scene. In the duodenum, he extracted tiny glass fragments, which appeared frosted under a microscope.
"Look here." Zhang Lin raised the deceased's right hand; although the skin around the tiger's mouth was decomposed, clear bite marks were still visible.