The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

”If both fell into the water at the same time, the probability of drowning indeed greatly increases.”

As he spoke, he pointed to the motorcycle that had been retrieved, his tone carrying a sense of experiential inference.

However, unlike the others, alarm bells were already ringing in Jiang An’s mind.

As an experienced criminal investigator, he was well aware that behind every abnormal death, there often lies a more complex truth.

He always believed that ”there’s something fishy when circumstances are unusual.”

Even though the scene before him looked consistent with the characteristics of a traffic accident.

The road was narrow, the water turbulent, indeed an area prone to accidents.

But he still found it difficult to entirely rule out other possibilities.

Abnormal deaths are generally one of three possibilities: homicide, suicide, or accident.

Even guessing blindly, there’s a one-third chance of being right.

But since embarking on the path of a criminal detective, especially after becoming a leader of the detective team, Jiang An had long abandoned the habit of solving cases based on intuition.

He insisted that every conclusion must be built on solid evidence, and every judgment must withstand repeated scrutiny.

No longer as eager as in his youth to express opinions, he focused more on observing in silence and simulating during the process.

For this reason, he calmly issued the order: ”Scene investigation team, speed up the progress, make sure it’s comprehensive and meticulous, leaving no clue unchecked.”

”The salvage team should continue to cooperate, as soon as the bodies are ashore, conduct a preliminary identification to determine the identities of the deceased quickly.”

Upon hearing this, Li Dong immediately curbed the lingering fear on his face and nodded solemnly in agreement: ”Understood, Mr. Jiang.”

”I’ll personally make arrangements to ensure nothing is overlooked.”

At this time, the two bodies had been placed side by side in a temporary area by the shore.

Jiang An walked slowly forward, his gaze sharp—his forensic instinct quickly brought him into the right state of mind.

He noticed that although both bodies were retrieved from the water, there were evident differences in their presentation.

The male deceased was relatively robust, while the female appeared frail.

What particularly caught his attention was that the female’s lips were noticeably cyanotic, her eyes slightly closed but still showing petechial hemorrhages in the conjunctiva.

More crucially, her neck showed signs of jugular venous distension, and during retrieval, a large amount of fluid had overflowed from her mouth—all these symptoms strongly indicated typical pathological signs of drowning.

The most prominent feature of a body that died from drowning is the large amount of fluid entering the body.

Whether through oral and nasal intrusion into the respiratory and digestive tracts or forced into the abdominal cavity due to water pressure, the body ultimately accumulates a considerable amount of moisture internally.

When people struggle violently in the water to survive, they unconsciously inhale more fluid, which, along with the breathing movement and body spasms, enters the trachea, bronchi, and even alveoli, and can also be swallowed into the stomach and intestines in large amounts.

Once the body is retrieved ashore and laid flat on the bank, with the sudden change in body position and possible local pressure or movement during handling,

the fluid originally accumulated in the thoracic, abdominal, or even respiratory tract may naturally seep out or be pressed out through external pressure.

This phenomenon is not uncommon in drowned bodies and can be considered a typical manifestation of a drowning corpse.

However, what particularly captured Jiang An’s attention was that, unlike the female deceased, the male corpse showed no signs of fluid overflow during the retrieval ashore.

This anomaly immediately triggered his alertness.

A vague premonition of unease arose in his heart.

The two bodies were retrieved from the same water area almost simultaneously.

Yet they presented such different bodily phenomena, which is extremely unusual.

Attributing the difference to individual differences or variations in the water environment might still be understandable.

But the differences between these two bodies were too glaring, beyond the normal range.

Based on Jiang An’s understanding of the human drowning reaction, generally speaking, the stronger the person, the more intense the survival instinct when drowning, and the more violent the struggle.

Violent struggle would lead to more fluid being inhaled into the deep respiratory tract, along with asphyxiation signs due to lack of oxygen.

Such as significant cyanosis of the face and lips, petechiae in the conjunctiva - these signs should be more typical.

Based on Jiang An’s experience in examining multiple drowning incidents, those robust deceased often displayed extremely obvious asphyxiation appearances.

Lips turning black, nail beds cyanotic, even the entire face appearing dark purple, resembling the appearance during sudden oxygen deprivation of severe heart disease patients.

However, the male corpse before him completely lacked these typical characteristics.

He then turned to his assistant: ”Li, expose the livor mortis on his back; I need to take a closer look.”

The bespectacled forensic assistant, Li, cooperated with colleagues to turn the male body over, fully revealing his back.

Sure enough, large areas of patchy livor mortis could be seen on his back, dark red in color, with indistinct edges, characteristic of gravitational livor mortis.

In contrast, the female body’s back showed no similar manifestations of livor mortis.

This discovery further confounded Jiang An: when the bodies were retrieved they were clearly in a prone position, face down, floating on the water surface.

Logically, livor mortis should form in the lower body areas, that is, the front side of the chest, abdomen, and facial region.

Why did the male corpse have livor mortis on the back?

If livor mortis needed to form, it should primarily appear on the front side of the body, not the back.

Especially for bodies in water, due to the influence of buoyancy, water pressure, and water flow, the conditions for fixation and formation of livor mortis are unstable, rarely forming typical livor mortis.

In the case of the male deceased, the clear and typical location of livor mortis was particularly invaluable for reference.

However, the livor mortis on the back of the male corpse was completely inconsistent with the position he should have held in the river water.

If he drowned naturally, the livor mortis should have formed on the front.

This abnormal situation suggested that the body might have been moved post-mortem, or that the death wasn’t a natural incident in the water, possibly involving human factors.

He then turned to the salvage team and spoke seriously: ”Please conduct a thorough and meticulous sweep of the underwater area with a dragnet search, particularly looking for other important evidence like clothing, personal belongings, or even potential murder weapons.”

Finally, he emphasized, speaking each word clearly: ”No clue can be overlooked.”

Captain Huang immediately nodded and responded: ”Understood, we are equipped with professional trawling devices to comprehensively cover this water area in a dragnet operation.”

”If there’s anything abnormal, we’ll surely find it.”

At that moment, Li Dong hurriedly arrived to report the latest development: ”We have verified the identities of the two deceased.”

”They are a couple, primarily engaged in the fruit business locally.”

”According to the preliminary investigation, they were still normally selling fruits at the market during the day.”

”It is speculated that the incident occurred last night.”

”Additionally, this road is their daily route home—they live in a village but travel to and from the market daily to set up stalls.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang An pondered for a moment and asked further: ”Can you confirm their last known whereabouts?”

”Are there any eyewitnesses or surveillance support?”

Li Dong replied: ”We are still verifying this part further.”

”However, according to neighbors, usually the husband rides the motorcycle commuting between their residence and business location.”

Jiang An promptly asked: ”So, does the wife know how to ride the motorcycle herself?”

Li Dong answered: ”According to several neighbors’ recollection, they have almost never seen the wife ride a motorcycle; it has always been the husband driving.”

Pausing briefly, Li Dong asked in a deep voice: ”Captain Zhang, given both died simultaneously, it appears to be a traffic accident.”

”Should we hand the case over to the traffic police department?”

In a brief moment, Jiang An’s expression became solemn, resolutely stating: ”Mr. Li, this is not a traffic accident, it’s murder!”