Chapter 8: Facial Reconstruction Technique 2

  "Don't worry, otherwise you go back first, I'll notify you as soon as I have any news."

  "No, I'll just wait outside the autopsy room." After saying this, the emergency room doctor nodded to Zhang Tong and glanced at the autopsy table again before turning around and walking out. The scene looked very strange, a handover between two doctors, one facing the dead and the other facing the living.

  The atmosphere in the autopsy room suddenly became tense. Cameraman Old Zhang quietly adjusted his equipment. Every time an autopsy was performed, although he didn't have to do it himself and wasn't a forensic doctor, according to regulations, he had to record every scene of the forensic doctor's work truthfully. On one hand, it was for supervision, on the other hand, it was also convenient for providing court evidence later.

  Lying on the cold autopsy table was a two-year-old girl, extremely thin and weak. Her small body was covered in various scars, shocking to behold. After death, due to the cessation of blood circulation, all the bruises caused by external forces before death were now visible. The deeper ones were relatively older injuries, while the shallower ones were within 24 hours. Counting carefully, there were as many as 45 external injuries on the little girl's body. The most worrying were the two newest scars on the outside of the deceased's upper arms, clearly left by an adult tightly grabbing her arms. The force was so strong that the two thumb prints were clearly visible.

  The child's hair is sparse and yellow. A light pull, and a few strands came off. It can be seen that the child has not been carefully taken care of for a long time. The diet is very poor. From the signs of skin and bones all over her body, it can be preliminarily concluded that the deceased suffered from severe malnutrition and had been hungry for a long time.

  X-ray showed that the deceased's arm had been fractured multiple times due to external forces, as was her leg bone. Seeing such heart-wrenching evidence, Zhang Tong couldn't help but take a deep breath. It seemed that the deceased not only suffered from hunger, but also inhuman abuse. According to the hospital's medical records, she quickly found evidence of a fracture in the cervical spine area of the deceased. This was a fracture caused by external forces, and once the spinal cord inside the cervical spine lost its protection, it would be damaged simultaneously, causing breathing and movement to stop. Based on the obvious bruises on the deceased's two arms, Zhang Tong suddenly pieced together a terrifying scene: an adult grabbing the deceased's two small arms tightly, lifting her into mid-air, shaking her violently back and forth, and finally causing her cervical spine to fracture and leading to death.

  However, on the right rear occipital region of the deceased's head, Zhang Tong soon discovered another deep hole about one centimeter long. After carefully shaving off the hair from that area of the deceased's head, it was found that the edge of the skull around the wound had a radiating pattern of cracks. Obviously, the wound was formed by multiple violent impacts from an external force. There were also fragments of bone stuck with a substance similar to wall ash at the wound site.

  "Zhang Tong didn't even lift his head and said to his assistant Deng Ran standing beside him: "Little Deng, help me ask the emergency doctor at the door, when the deceased was sent here, were there any bloodstains on their clothes? A lot of bloodstains."

  Deng Ran nodded and went out. Soon he ran back: "She said no, very clean, not a single bloodstain on her clothes."

  "Quickly notify the homicide unit. The victim's parents are lying. This is a clear case of fatal child abuse."

  Wang Yan quickly took over the case. She brought the trace identification group's technical personnel to the deceased parents' rental house in the east of Tianchang City. The colleagues of the trace identification group found several wall holes with obvious bloodstains on the wall. The wall gray samples also completely matched the residual material of the deceased's head wound. In the trash can at the corner of the room, there was a set of children's clothes that were almost all stained red with fresh blood. After preliminary inspection, the bloodstains on it were identical to those of the deceased.

  The child's parents were immediately taken to the criminal police team.

  Inside the interrogation room. The child's mother looked flustered. She kept stealing glances at the investigators in front of her. No one spoke. The room was silent.

  After a long time, this haggard middle-aged woman finally let out a soft sigh.

  "She shouldn't have come into this world in the first place."

  "She is your own daughter, how can you bear to do this?" Wang Yan, who was also a young mother and in charge of the interrogation, couldn't help but ask angrily. "Even tigers don't eat their own cubs, let alone humans."

  "I... I'm also struggling." She said, her tears silently streaming down.

  It turned out that this couple came from a remote rural area in northern Shaanxi. Their hometown already had two daughters, one five years old and the other three years old. However, in order to have a son to "carry on the family line", they disregarded the relevant regulations of family planning. During their time working in Tianchang City, they secretly became pregnant with a third child. Who would have known that God played a huge joke on them. This third child was also a girl, who is the deceased. From then on, this weak and small life was doomed to an unfortunate fate.

  To make a living by working. This young couple had no choice but to send their third daughter back to her hometown in northern Shaanxi Province. However, less than a year later, news came from the hometown that the person in charge of family planning in the town was going to investigate the origin of this child. In a state of panic, the child's grandmother sent the little girl back to her parents who were working in Tianchang City. However, this couple had no time to take care of the child. The main point is that this third child was not the long-awaited boy they had been hoping for. Therefore, in the presence of these parents with extremely bad tempers, this innocent child would often be beaten and scolded for minor things. A two-year-old child who didn't understand anything couldn't even eat a full meal. During the day, she was locked in the house with a big lock, and at night, she wasn't allowed to come out. This tragic event occurred simply because the child was too hungry and wanted to find something to eat, but accidentally broke the thermos bottle at home. When she returned home and saw the mess on the floor, her mother, who had lost her temper, grabbed her frail daughter and shook her violently while cursing. Due to excessive force, not only did she hit the wall, but also dislocated her daughter's underdeveloped cervical spine. By the time the child's father discovered this scene and wanted to stop it, the child was no longer breathing.

  Finished writing the autopsy report. Zhang Tong raised his head and found Wang Ya Nan standing beside him with a worried face: "Ya Nan, when did you arrive?"

  "It's been a long time since I came. Seeing you're busy, I didn't dare speak."

  "You're in a bad mood because of that child." Zhang Tong put down his pen.

  "Humans are all made of flesh and blood. That child is so pitiful. I've been a detective for so many years, whenever the cases involve children, my heart feels uncomfortable."

  "I am too... Cough... Forget it, the case is already closed. You should go back, it's getting late and I need to get off work." Zhang Tong stood up and started gathering the papers scattered on his desk.

  "It doesn't matter." Wang Yanan shrugged indifferently, her hands tucked into her pockets. "I'm alone anyway, no strings attached. Going home early or late makes no difference. Let's go together."

  The flower base on the outskirts of Tianchang City. Every two months, a cleanup is required for the outdoor storage of mixed flower fertilizer. Today was another fixed day for cleaning up the flower fertilizer. So early in the morning, the work team entered the site. Looking at the high piles of flower fertilizer, the team leader frowned and shouted: "Brothers, let's work hard! With so much to do, if we drag our feet, we won't be able to finish by nightfall!"

  "Alright." Several of his subordinates skillfully brought over the ladder, set it up on the pile of mixed fertilizer, and then carried shovels as they climbed up using their hands and feet.

  "Don't even think about slacking off, hurry up!" The team leader shouted loudly while walking towards the transport truck parked beside the fertilizer pile. Before long, the high-piled fertilizer was thoroughly mixed and slowly slid along the long chute into the back of the truck.

  Time passed minute by minute, second by second. It was almost noon. The fertilizer pile had shrunk a lot. Suddenly, a worker let out a loud cry and his body swayed, nearly falling off the more than two meters high fertilizer pile.

  At this scene, the workers around him rushed forward to grab him. The team leader also heard this terrifying scream. He frowned and walked closer: "What's going on? Can't you hurry up and work? You're all wasting time over there."

  Several workers remained motionless, staring blankly at the pile of fertilizer beside them.

  The team leader sensed something was amiss and followed closely up the ladder to the work platform. Just as he was about to grumble a few complaints, his words were stuck in his throat by what he saw in the fertilizer pile. His first reaction was a wave of nausea in his stomach. The noodles he had eaten that morning hadn't even been digested yet and came spewing out.

  After a while, the team leader came to his senses. He wanted to climb down the ladder, but his legs were weak and trembling. The workers around him also looked pale. He had no choice but to grit his teeth, shivering as he took out his phone and dialed 110.

  Zhang Tong received a call from the bureau just as he was about to leave for work. His mother's call came in, chattering non-stop: "I'm telling you, Tongtong, how can you be so unreasonable? Your uncle introduced you to this girl and you blew it again. As soon as you opened your mouth, you said you're a forensic doctor who deals with dead people every day. Can't you see that would scare her off? The young man is really nice too. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

  "Mom, I was a forensic doctor to begin with. I couldn't deceive others." Zhang Tong impatiently placated his mother. "Alright, alright. Next time we arrange a blind date, I won't say anything. I have to hurry and go now. The bureau is urging me."

  "Hey." My mother sighed over the phone. "You're so busy, you'll end up being an old maid that no one wants for life. Silly girl."

  "Mom, spare me. Don't forget to take your medicine on time. I'm busy now. Bye." After finishing speaking, Zhang Tong hung up the phone.

  When they arrived at the scene, Wang Yanan and the major crimes unit had already arrived in advance. About 50 meters away from the scene, a conspicuous police isolation belt had surrounded the mixed flower fertilizer pile where the body was found. Outside the isolation belt, several workers wearing base work uniforms had gathered, their eyes filled with terror and unease.

  After showing their credentials, Zhang Tong and his assistant Deng Ran walked into the isolation zone. In front of them was a pile of flower fertilizer about 5 square meters wide and 2 meters high. Next to it were several shovels used by workers and a small truck for transporting flower fertilizer. On the surface of the mixed flower fertilizer pile, five ladders were placed. Climbing up the ladder to the work surface, they saw that the flower fertilizer had been shoveled open, emitting a strong foul odor. At the very top was something resembling a human thoracic cavity. Underneath it was a bundle of indistinguishable fabric in terms of color and shape. Zhang Tong put on his gloves, squatted down in front of the fertilizer pile, gestured to Deng Ran to take close-up photos while stretching his hand into the fertilizer pile for further search. Before determining that this was a murder case, they had to find as many relevant human remains as possible, rather than just a simple thoracic cavity-like object.

  Because it was a pile of mixed fertilizer, the richness of things inside was imaginable. Not long after, some animal remains and human waste were found. Although the weather wasn't very hot, the smell of the fertilizer still made everyone's heads dizzy. Zhang Tong and Deng Ran, two forensic doctors, put on masks and carefully searched for things similar to human remains, block by block. They worked until the sun was about to set, and the high pile of fertilizer was finally flattened. On the black plastic sheet next to the fertilizer pile, a complete skeleton had been laid out. There were still some muscle tissues left on the deceased's skull. Finally, Zhang Tong struggled to stand up, removing his gloves and mask. Due to squatting for a long time, his legs were almost completely numb.

  "Yan should be able to finish it."

  "How long has this body been buried here? Can you give a rough time frame now?"