Chapter 119 Methods of Determining Time of Death
"Indeed, it's impossible to tell how long Mr. Negishi has been dead."
Although she is completely an amateur player, Mao Lilan can also understand Lin Xinyi's words through the way of ordinary people's thinking:
like pork
If a piece of meat is left out for a long time, it will definitely smell and change color, which can be seen at a glance.
But if some unscrupulous merchants process bad meat at high temperatures and cook it, diners may not be able to tell how long the meat has been there.
"What should we do now?"
Mao Lilan asked curiously.
She is now like Nobita meeting Doraemon, she will go to Lin Xinyi whenever she has a problem.
And Lin Xinyi is really like the omnipotent Doraemon, he can answer her questions every time and let her learn knowledge.
This time, Mao Lilan was also looking forward to getting the answer from Lin Xin.
But Lin Xinyi did not answer as confidently as before.
"I haven't thought about this problem yet."
He gave a helpless answer and fell into deep thinking.
Determining the time of death of the deceased in post-mortem cremation cases is inherently difficult.
Conventional judgment methods such as corpse spots, rigor mortis, and corpse temperature are all ineffective due to carbonization of soft tissues, and high temperature will destroy the signs of decay inside the corpse and kill the decaying bacteria in the organs and tissues.
In actual case investigation, we want to determine the time of death in cases of corpse burning after death.
Usually, we first try to confirm the identity of the deceased, and then visit the family and friends of the deceased to confirm the time of the last meal the deceased had before disappearing.
Then, based on the degree of digestion of food in the intestines and stomach, or starting from gastrointestinal kinetics, by measuring the migration distance of the gastrointestinal contents of the deceased, and substituting it into the formula calculation, it can be inferred that the deceased was probably still alive after eating his last meal. How long.
Combined with the specific time of the last meal confirmed through interviews and surveys, the approximate time of death of the deceased can be inferred.
But now, this case is very special.
"That bastard Yutaka Abe, assuming he is the murderer, then he most likely hired someone to pretend to be the deceased, and then hired Uncle Mori to track the fake, creating the illusion that Mr. Negishi was still alive on Wednesday night."
"In this way, we have no way of knowing exactly what day and time the deceased disappeared."
"The time of the deceased's last meal is difficult to determine through investigation."
Thinking of this, Lin Xinyi had a headache:
After death, the body was burned, destroying the traces.
The murderer's tricks hindered the investigation again.
He also did not expect that the combination of counter-reconnaissance methods of destroying corpses and traces, and the murderous trick of forging alibi, would cause such a big trouble.
Think about it carefully, if the autopsy cannot confirm the time of death of the deceased
If you want to expose Yutaka Abe's lies, you can only rely on a search to catch the "actor" who was invited by Yutaka Abe to play the deceased.
But Yutaka Abe was so thoughtful, how could he not let such a big loophole go?
Since he dared to hire someone to pretend to be the deceased, he must have ensured that it would be difficult for the police to find that person.
Not to mention, since I met Megure Police Department, the current head of the First Investigation Section, and Kogoro Mori, the former detective of the First Investigation Section,
Lin Xinyi already had no hope in the search ability of the First Search Section.
It is indeed a bit difficult for them to find a person in the huge Tokyo without any clues.
"Mr. Lin Xinyi?"
Seeing that Lin Xinyi had been thinking for a long time without speaking, Mao Lilan gave a tentative shout.
"Yeah" Lin Xin came to his senses and said:
"Forget it, let's ignore the time of death and continue with the autopsy."
“Get ready to take photos and record, we still have a lot to do.”
The thoracoabdominal cavity is opened. According to the procedure, the next step is to observe whether there are any abnormalities such as swelling, lesions, rupture and bleeding in various organs.
But most of the corpse's internal organs had been shrunk and deformed by the high temperature, and a large amount of body fluids had evaporated, so many things were no longer visible.
Lin Xinyi had no choice but to do all the tests that could be done according to the procedure, and then remove the organs for further examination.
Forensic autopsy does not require the removal of all organs, but according to the procedure, major organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys must be taken out, photographed, weighed, and checked for pathological changes.
After the examination, a part of the organ will be fixed and used as a test material, and a small amount of blood will be taken for testing.
The gastrointestinal tract is generally not removed, but the stomach is cut open to examine the contents, and the contents are collected, weighed, and retained.
"No charcoal was found in the deceased's stomach."
"This is one of the reliable evidences that the body was burned after death."
"If the person was burned to death and opened his mouth to breathe the fire air before death, charcoal would appear in the stomach."
Lin Xinyi took a ladle and carefully collected the strange-smelling gastric contents from the deceased's stomach, while not forgetting to teach Mao Lilan a lesson.
After Mr. Negishi's death, he was forced to start a business, and by the way, he became a general education teacher for Lin Xinyi's good students:
"When we do the neck dissection, we should also find that there is no soot in his trachea, and there are no thermal burns from breathing before death."
"These are all ways to distinguish between burning before death and burning the body after death."
"Yes." Mao Lilan nodded seriously and wrote down what Lin Xinyi taught.
After a period of adaptation, she has gradually withstood the huge impact of observing anatomy.
Even Mao Lilan dared to get closer and observe the internal organs that Lin Xinyi took out from his chest and abdomen.
"This is the heart of the deceased."
"There is a stab wound in his left ventricle that penetrates the entire thickness of the ventricle, and there is still a large amount of blood in the chest that has not been dried by the high temperature. This proves my conjecture——"
"The deceased was indeed stabbed in the heart from behind by the murderer, causing massive bleeding and death in a short period of time."
Lin Xinyi held the heart that had just been taken out from the chest and showed it to Mao Lilan.
Mao Lilan's expression didn't change much.
Just like the people of the earth in 2020, they have watched too much exciting news and gradually become accustomed to it.
In this way, she silently helped Lin Xinyi take photos and records of various organs. At the same time, she continued to ask questions and learn various novel knowledge during the dissection process.
Time passed unconsciously in such a strong learning atmosphere, and this judicial anatomy seemed to have truly become a teaching anatomy.
Lin Xinyi and Mao Lilan worked hard for a long time and finally completed the systematic anatomy of the thorax, abdominal cavity, and cranial cavity according to the procedures.
And after the entire anatomy process is completed,
After they completed the anatomy teaching task, they had to face the original problem again:
"How to determine the time of death of the deceased?"
"Mr. Lin Xinyi, is there really no other way?"
Mao Lilan himself was completely confused and could only ask Lin Xinyi again what he thought.
Lin Xinyi was also confused about "this":
The dissection has been completed and all that remains is suturing.
If you haven't thought of a way to determine the time of death at this time, then the biggest purpose of this autopsy will undoubtedly be unsuccessful.
"Let me think again"
Lin Xin held his breath and concentrated, thinking carefully.
At this time, as a combination of criminal police and doctors, the advantages of forensic medicine are revealed compared to doctors who simply do anatomy.
Since the answer cannot be obtained simply from anatomy, then the "criminal police mode" must be turned on to reason from the case, which in turn will help determine the direction of the autopsy investigation.
"The suspect Yutaka Abe left Tokyo by plane on Wednesday morning. This has been confirmed."
"So, let's assume Mr. Negishi was really killed by him."
"Then the time he committed the crime was only Tuesday night before Wednesday morning, or even earlier."
"The body of Mr. Negishi was found in a burning bonfire on Thursday evening."
"This means that the time of death of the deceased was at least two days."
"So"
Lin Xinyi recalled what he had learned:
"With the recent summer-like temperatures, what signs will appear on corpses that have been dead for more than two days?"
"Corpse odor, decay, corpse greenness? These have been burned to the point where they can no longer be seen."
"So, what traces are there that can be preserved even after being roasted at high temperatures?"
"Hmm wait, if that's the place"
"The layer of flesh is relatively thick in that area, which should be able to protect the physical evidence from being burned!"
Just like a program that finally ran out the result after a long period of calculation, Lin Xinyi suddenly thought of something.
"Miss Mori."
Lin Xinyi turned around and said to Mao Lilan:
"I suggest you go put your gas mask on."
"I'm afraid the smell that comes next will be quite strong. Just wear a mask, and a novice like you probably won't be able to handle it."
"Huh?" Mao Lilan was slightly startled:
Just the smell right now, she already thought it was disgusting fucking opening the door to nausea - it was so disgusting.
Could there be a more disgusting smell?
"Mr. Lin Xinyi, where are you checking?"
"Rectum, anus."
Not paying any attention to Mao Lilan's slightly strange gaze, Lin Xinyi said with great devotion and excitement:
"For a body that's been dead for more than two days, there may be critical evidence there."
Mao Lilan: ""
She didn't expect that even though she had managed to hold on until now, her mental endurance still hadn't passed the test.
With an ambivalent mentality of resistance and curiosity, Mao Lilan couldn't help but asked:
"What can you find in a place like that?"
"maggot."
Lin Xinyi replied with a smile.