Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Chapter 674: Narrowing Down the Suspect Pool

This is the only potentially indicative clue obtained by the Criminal Investigation Team of Beizhou City.Lu Chuan has already reviewed it; this fingerprint is indeed quite blurred, making the analysis very challenging.

However, for Lu Chuan’s advanced fingerprint analysis skills, it just consumes a bit more time.

Lu Chuan did not immediately process this fingerprint.

Instead, he re-examined all the scattered items.

Judging from the range of scattered items at the crime scene, the murderer must have rummaged through the victim’s backpack.

Since the backpack was searched, there is a possibility of leaving fingerprints, skin flakes, or hair.

Lu Chuan intended to conduct trace evidence analysis on these items.

To see if he could discover anything.

Surely, this task is particularly tedious.

The items left at the scene are not only numerous but also have been exposed over a long time.

After more than half a year’s wind and sun exposure, many traces, even if left then, have long since disappeared.

Fortunately, these backpacks are waterproof, so some items inside may still have clues.

And this task can only be completed by Lu Chuan himself.

The entire major case squad went full throttle just an hour after arriving at the Beizhou City Criminal Investigation Team.

"Our daughter is especially well-behaved and doesn’t usually offend people. She gets along well in school, winning scholarships for four consecutive years."

"Her boyfriend is also one of the top students at school. They both found jobs together and planned to get married after this mountain trip."

"Wuwuwuwu... but the result..."

The team led by Song Mingguang began investigating the family situations and interpersonal relationships of the four individuals.

"Our son doesn’t have any enemies. Even though he isn’t that outstanding in school, I’ve never heard of any conflicts with classmates."

"These classmates were quite good in our class. We have over 30 people, and everyone has a good relationship, with no usual conflicts."

"We knew about the last expedition. Actually, a few more classmates wanted to go, but since they were two couples, the rest of us thought it was pointless, so we decided against it."

Three days passed quickly.

Song Mingguang’s investigation didn’t result in any breakthrough results or significant progress.

The family backgrounds and interpersonal relationships of the 4 victimized students were relatively simple.

No suspicious circumstances were found from their life and study trajectories.

A survey of their parents’ work and life also revealed no special circumstances.

In the meeting room, Song Mingguang reported.

"My results indicate that we can basically rule out the possibility of the four being killed due to grudges, financial disputes, or family disputes."

"Therefore, I tend to believe the four, while exploring in the mountains, may have had a conflict with other teams or individuals, leading to the tragedy."

Li Donglin has been under a lot of pressure recently.

The news of three skeletons found in Beiliang Mountain couldn’t be suppressed.

It had already spread.

Now, the exploratory teams in the mountains have all fled out.

Even online, doubts about the safety and stability of Beizhou City’s tourism environment have started circulating.

The provincial department leader called Li Donglin yesterday, requesting them to solve the case quickly.

"Wang Song, how is your investigation going on your side?"

Over the past three days, Wang Song’s team carefully investigated all the teams that entered the mountains concurrently with the victims.

"My investigation is basically complete."

"We reviewed the Beiliang Mountain police station’s records of expedition teams entering and leaving the mountain."

"Teams with records were led by guides. At that time, there were a total of 12 teams entering the mountain, based on overlapping timelines."

"Among them, three teams lingered at the mountain’s foot without going further, only to livestream, with fewer members; each team had two people with a guide."

"We communicated and investigated the mountain routes of the other nine teams with their guides."

"From the current situation, their traveling routes did not overlap with the victims’."

"Our investigation suggests it’s highly unlikely that the concurrent teams are the perpetrators."

Wang Song’s side verified all the members of every team during the investigation.

It’s not easy for a single person to lie undetected, but the chance of several people collectively lying without detection is low.

Generally, if team members were coordinating stories, their details and phrasing might be similar.

But there was no such finding in Wang Song’s investigation.

Each team member’s wording was different, and there were no inconsistencies in details or the environment.

"Additionally, we’ve consulted with guides frequently entering and leaving Beiliang Mountain."

"The so-called guides of Beiliang Mountain are just some residents living permanently at the mountain’s foot."

"These residents often go up the mountain to gather herbs, mushrooms, and other mountain goods, so they’re familiar with the mountain environment."

"But each person’s route entering the mountain and the range for gathering mountain goods is different."

"This leads to most teams choosing different guides, making it unlikely to repeat routes."

"The guide of the victims took them through an old hunting trail from decades ago."

"According to local guides, the victims’ mountain path went deep into the mountain."

"And it is very secluded; non-locals generally don’t know the path."

Li Donglin keenly caught the key point in Wang Song’s statement.

"Do you mean... the case was committed by locals?"

Wang Song just mentioned that they’ve investigated all concurrent exploration teams and confirmed they weren’t suspects.

Then he said, the victim’s path was obscure, known only to locals.

And there are just two types of expedition teams not registered at the Beiliang Mountain police station.

One enters the mountain privately without a guide.

In that instance, they wouldn’t have found the victims’ hidden hunting trail.

The other unregistered entrants are local residents.

They don’t register but know the old hunting path.

Wang Song means that the perpetrator is likely a local.

Wang Song nodded heavily: "Though lacking substantial evidence, current analysis suggests a higher probability of a local committing the crime."

"Therefore, my recommendation is to focus the investigation on locals around Beiliang Mountain."