Chapter 33: Who Prepared This Report?

In reality, given his rank, Lu Chuan would not normally have access to the provincial department level.

Fortunately, criminal investigation has heavily promoted intelligent office systems in recent years.

The direct benefit was that the fingerprint comparison systems across the entire province could be networked.

In addition, there was a secondary, somewhat useless feature.

The provincial department had established an online technical support group.

Theoretically, when grassroots units encountered technical difficulties, they could consult this online group to seek assistance.

Of course, that was only in theory. In reality, the technical group had limited personnel while the volume of inquiries from below was overwhelming, so one had to wait in line.

If you couldn't afford to wait...

You had to find a way yourself.

This was Lu Chuan's first time using the system, and he wasn't sure if he would even get a turn.

Actually, it didn't matter much; Wang Changjiang was already processing an application through the proper channels to request the provincial department's help with skeletal identification and analysis.

Even if Lu Chuan couldn't get through the queue, it wouldn't delay the case.

Furthermore, unlike fingerprint identification and analysis, cases involving skeletal identification were relatively rare, so resources were comparatively more relaxed.

The morning after the bones were boiled into soup.

Li Changeng was a doctoral student in forensic medicine at the Public Security University. For the year leading up to his graduation, he had been interning at the provincial department.

Unlike typical doctoral students, Li Changeng had worked before graduating from his undergraduate program.

After a period of time, he had taken the postgraduate entrance exam and continued his studies all the way to his doctorate.

If nothing unexpected happened, Li Changeng would be able to stay on at the provincial department after graduation, specifically in the high-status Technical Identification Center.

It was a career peak that most criminal investigators would never reach in their entire lives.

Opening his computer, Li Changeng browsed the platform information in the office system as usual.

This project was an important communication platform supported by the provincial department's Technical Identification Center for the subordinate criminal investigation detachments.

Li Changeng's current job was to be responsible for screening and reporting platform information.

Having been responsible for screening platform information for nearly six months, Li Changeng actually felt a certain disdain for the information submitted from below.

There was no other reason; there were no new developments.

Out of ten pieces of information, nine were requests for fingerprint comparison and analysis.

The remaining one was, nine times out of ten, a request for footprint analysis.

In the words of his supervisor, as long as a grassroots criminal investigation detachment encountered a fingerprint they couldn't solve, they would inevitably report it to the provincial department through the platform.

However, the fingerprint identification and analysis specialty at the provincial Technical Identification Center only had two or three people.

They were already overwhelmed with the fingerprints from major cases registered at the provincial level; they had neither the time nor the energy to deal with cases from below.

Of course, Li Changeng had once worked in a grassroots criminal investigation detachment, so he understood their difficulties.

Low funding, lack of talent—if a city's development was mediocre and they couldn't retain people, progress was indeed difficult.

"Hmm?"

Just as Li Changeng was about to close the system, he suddenly spotted an application that looked a bit different.

"Review of identification and analysis report?"

There was a technique to asking the provincial department for help.

The possibility of asking someone to do a fingerprint identification for you directly was certainly low.

After all, if it were truly a major case, the provincial department would have already intervened.

But some clever, or rather industrious, people didn't submit identification requests to the system, but rather requests for identification reviews.

In other words, they had already finished the work and needed an expert to help verify whether there were any issues with the identification results.

The workload for this kind of technical support was very small.

It was also the easiest way to get help from above.

Li Changeng dragged the mouse and clicked on the information, preparing to check the specific contents.

Although the vast majority of identification reviews failed to pass, at least they had made an effort.

Li Changeng gave every such request a certain level of attention; if it passed his scrutiny, the identification and analysis review application would be sent to the experts.

Wait?

Upon clicking the specific details of the information, Li Changeng was surprised once again.

"It's actually a request for a review of a skeletal identification and analysis report?"

"This isn't common..."

Actually, it wasn't that it wasn't common; in the six months Li Changeng had been at the provincial department, this was the first time he had seen a request for a skeletal identification review.

As a forensic scientist, and one who had worked in a grassroots criminal investigation detachment, Li Changeng knew all too well the level of skeletal identification being performed below.

Never mind the forensic scientists in the grassroots detachments—most only had undergraduate degrees. Even as a doctoral student, Li Changeng could only say he had a slight understanding of skeletal identification and analysis.

If he were actually forced to do it, he would be better than those below, but his ability was still limited.

The provincial Technical Identification Center had only one expert in this field.

His name was Zhang Yuanchao, the number one forensic scientist in the province, and a top-tier expert on the national level.

Impatiently, Li Changeng clicked on the attachment to read the skeletal identification and analysis report.

"Sacrum characteristic analysis: Female."

Li Changeng nodded; the other party was at least professional. Determining gender through skeletal remains was generally done via the sacrum and the skull.

"Osteological observation analysis: The deceased's age at death was 34."

Forensic scientists with proper training all knew about osteological aging, but it was very rare to be able to accurately determine a person's age from bone morphology alone.

Li Changeng could do it himself, but it was extremely taxing and offered no guarantee of accuracy.

"Radiocarbon dating of bone age: Bone age is 34 years."

"Bone age detection, combined with osteological observation, infers the time of death was within three months."

Li Changeng's brow furrowed deeply. This piece of analysis...

Moving the mouse, Li Changeng hurriedly flipped through the report.

"Tibia length analysis: The deceased's height was 1.63 meters."

"Bone density combined with height analysis... The deceased was engaged in long-term manual labor."

Li Changeng's frown deepened further. By the time he reached the end, he even felt a layer of goosebumps rise across his skin.

After reading this skeletal identification and analysis report, a complete human skeleton seemed to appear before Li Changeng's eyes.

Every single bone seemed to speak, telling people how it had died.

After reading through the report and reviewing the data analysis and processes for every conclusion, Li Changeng's hands trembled and his heart raced wildly.

"This... this couldn't be someone stealing Old Man Zhang's skeletal identification report, could it?!"

Li Changeng had seen skeletal identification reports written by Zhang Yuanchao.

He had even studied them many times.

In terms of the detail and accuracy of the analysis, this report was not inferior to Old Man Zhang's in the slightest.

If not for the significant difference in writing style, Li Changeng would have almost thought this was a report produced by Zhang Yuanchao himself.

Unable to calm his emotions, Li Changeng grabbed the printed report and rushed straight to the top floor of the Technical Identification Center.

As the most formidable forensic scientist in the province, Zhang Yuanchao had rarely worked on the front lines in the past two years.

It wasn't that he had become arrogant, but rather that his professional focus had shifted.

Currently, Zhang Yuanchao's priority was teaching students; he wanted to pass down his experience.

He wanted the provincial department to have three, five, or even ten "Zhang Yuanchaos" in the future.

In his office, Zhang Yuanchao was writing notes on his insights from years of forensic work. The old man was reminiscing about a skeletal case he had handled fifteen years ago.

Using detailed skeletal identification and analysis, he had used a few bones to lock in vital information about the victim. He had even worked with two painters from the Academy of Arts to reconstruct the victim's appearance from the skull, thereby finding the key clue to solve the case.

It was this very case that had completely established Zhang Yuanchao's status as the number one forensic scientist in the province.

*Bang!*

Suddenly, while the old man was writing happily, the office door was violently pushed open.

The massive sound nearly gave Zhang Yuanchao a heart attack.