Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Regarding the judgment of left-handedness, it is inferred from the fingerprint marks left when the suspect held the dagger.

Whether a knife is held in the left or right hand can be judged by the direction of the fingerprint wrapping.

At the same time, Lu Chuan discovered some skin residues under Chen Bing’s right fingernails.

During the chase and struggle, Chen Bing must have injured the suspect.

"Back to the team!"

After handling the work at the scene, Lu Chuan led the team back to the Criminal Investigation Team.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, and Lu Chuan needs to authenticate and analyze the information collected from the scene, especially fingerprints and footprints.

More importantly, the task is to notify Chen Bing’s family and his unit.

This task was assigned to Sun Biao.

Meanwhile, Lu Chuan provided a brief report on the situation to the district chief.

A homicide incident is always significant at any level, attracting attention, especially since this case is more particular, prompting the district to report at the municipal level.

However, neither the district nor the municipal branch imposed extraordinary pressure on Lu Chuan.

Both knew Lu Chuan would spare no effort in resolving this case.

Moreover, if Lu Chuan can’t solve this, it’s unlikely anyone at Haizhou City’s Public Security Bureau could.

However, the case investigation wasn’t very smooth.

Initial bad news came from Wang Zhaokai’s side.

The suspect was lost, albeit with some gains, as they found the suspect’s discarded T-shirt in a trash pile.

"I suspect the suspect has already left Haizhou City."

Wang Zhaokai’s face looked grim.

Throughout the investigation, the Criminal Investigation Team had contacted Chen Bing’s former unit and reviewed the case files from back then.

The suspect is quite cunning.

Although the suspect’s information hasn’t been effectively confirmed, and they’ve failed to identify his name or circumstances, there were several occasions over the past decade when they nearly caught up with the suspect, yet he slipped away.

"This guy has multiple hideouts; we found some of his information at the Gree air conditioner repair station where he worked, but it was all fake."

Chen Jiang reported more specific findings.

"The suspect rented a house on Qingyun Road, North First Lane; Chen Bing received this information from the air conditioning repair station and planned to check the rented house in the morning."

"But unfortunately..."

Within one day, the entire process of Chen Bing’s murder was clarified.

Based on eyewitness accounts from two pedestrians on Qingyun Road, North First Lane, Chen Bing coincidentally met the suspect, leading to a chase and conflict.

The chase began at North First Lane and continued to the vicinity of North Third Lane.

Then, the tragedy occurred.

"All these years, the suspect has drifted across multiple cities, renting houses under false identities."

Chen Jiang continued: "I visited the suspect’s rented house on North First Lane; the suspect is extremely cunning and cautious."

"The house is at the street corner on the second floor, allowing jumps to escape in two directions, observing three road intersections."

"The house’s layout is simple, suggesting the suspect is always ready to flee."

"Thus, I believe the suspect left Haizhou City immediately after the crime."

Chen Jiang concluded based on the case files and the current case resolution.

Indeed, such cases are challenging to solve.

The police don’t fear suspects hiding their identity in a single location.

It becomes challenging if the suspect keeps moving, here today, elsewhere tomorrow.

During pursuit, there’s always some delay in police information, but it provides an edge to a cautious suspect frequently changing locations.

Just like when Chen Ping pursued the suspect years ago: obtaining leads, acting on them after the suspect had already moved.

Lu Chuan took a deep breath.

Compared to the progress elsewhere, his advancement was indeed significant.

"Does anyone have other opinions?"

Lu Chuan stood up and moved to the whiteboard.

"If not, I’ll discuss the Crime Scene Investigation findings."

Everyone straightened their backs, attentively focusing on Lu Chuan.

"First, I’ll address findings where the suspect’s specific identity, confirmed through fingerprint matching, has been finalized."

Lu Chuan quickly identified this point.

Originally with a half fingerprint, Lu Chuan felt somewhat familiar, recalling several past fingerprint comparisons.

However, due to other tasks, Lu Chuan briefly reviewed without going deeper.

Today, the complete fingerprint extracted from the weapon did not match in the fingerprint database, but Lu Chuan confirmed the fingerprint against another case’s suspect.

"Remember the Tianshan District home invasion robbery three years ago?"

"Tianshan District? The one on Qianjin Street?"

Chen Jiang recalled a case.

Three years ago, a ridiculous home invasion robbery at Tianshan District.

Ridiculous, because the suspect only stole 1,900 yuan.

The victim was a paralyzed elderly person, severely cataracted, unable to see anything.

Resultantly, no features of the suspect could be described, except for some scattered footprints in the living room revealing basic height, weight, and age information.

Fingerprints were found but were not matched at that time.

The robbery was investigated for some time, but given the minimal amount stolen, it remained unsolved.

"Yes, that’s the robbery on Qianjin Street."

Lu Chuan displayed the report to everyone.

"Back then, the Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team brought the fingerprints over seeking my assistance; the suspect wasn’t in the system, hence unmatched."

"Now confirmed, the killer of Chen Bing is the same individual responsible for the robbery on Qianjin Street three years ago!"

Lu Chuan continued: "When Chen Bing first joined our team, he showed me a fingerprint photo of the suspect from a 15-year-old robbery and murder case in Beizhou City, feeling familiar."

"The fingerprint extracted from the weapon used to kill Chen Bing confirms it’s the same individual across these three cases."

Although no conclusive evidence pinpoints the suspect in Chen Bing’s murder,

Lu Chuan, through several fingerprint matches, confirmed that the suspect in Chen Bing’s murder was the same from the robbery and murder case in Beijing 15 years ago.

Concurrently, the suspect in the robbery case on Qianjin Street in Tianshan District three years ago.