Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Since the direction of the investigation has been confirmed, all that remains is to give it our all.

But three years have passed, and many things have changed significantly.

When Lu Chuan and his team returned to the robbery victim’s house from three years ago, they learned that the paralyzed elder had passed away last year due to illness.

This has brought certain challenges to solving the case.

Lu Chuan originally thought he could use some descriptions from the elder to roughly determine the suspect’s characteristics.

But it doesn’t matter either way.

Since they didn’t obtain any useful information from the elder’s mouth back then, it’s likely difficult to get anything now.

Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team.

Wang Gang personally handed over the case files from back then to Lu Chuan.

"We researched this case later, but due to the lack of clues, we gave up."

Lu Chuan nodded.

This case also wasn’t particularly prioritized back then.

On the one hand, it was because the amount stolen was actually quite small, only 1,900 yuan.

On the other hand, without the elder in the house, it would have been considered theft.

For a burglary amount of just 1,900 yuan, it would have been difficult to file a case.

Nowadays, for a theft case, if the amount isn’t above 3,000 yuan, generally the victim wouldn’t care much, and the police station wouldn’t be particularly proactive.

So, the Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team spent some effort back then, but after not discovering much, the case remained unsolved.

Truth be told, when they were trying to solve this case back then, they didn’t go all out.

After obtaining some basic information from back then, Lu Chuan began to deploy work.

"First Team, focus on inspecting the household’s neighborhood relations."

Lu Chuan began arranging related work in the conference room.

"Pay special attention to families with financial difficulties, or those with elderly people living alone or whose children often travel."

At the scene where Chen Bing was killed, Lu Chuan identified the suspect’s left footprints and analyzed some basic characteristics of the opponent.

Male, height: 1.73 meters, weight: about 70 kilograms, left-handed!

Age between forty and forty-five years old.

"He’s focusing on screening based on the suspect’s height, weight, and age characteristics."

"Yes!"

"Second Team," Lu Chuan looked at Sun Biao: "Your group focuses on inspecting the suspect’s relatives."

"Check all direct and collateral relatives, especially those living in Haizhou City, focus on them."

"The Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team conducted a probe on all relatives of the theft victim back then, and many fingerprints were collected."

"The robbery scene had the suspect’s fingerprints left, so the Criminal Investigation Team was optimistic at first."

"Concluding it was a familiar crime, and since fingerprints were left behind, all familiar people were probed, fingerprints were collected, and comparison might reveal the suspect’s identity."

But unfortunately, there was no successful match.

"Consider this case reopened for investigation, everyone whose fingerprints were collected before should have them collected again."

"Of course, the suspect might not be in Haizhou City currently, so focus on people with physical and age characteristics matching the suspect."

"Yes!"

Lu Chuan turned to Sun Biao from the Third Team.

"The Third Team focuses on investigating the robbery victim’s friends."

"Especially those who knew about the money withdrawal after the male victim went to the bank."

"The case files from back then noted they withdrew 100,000 yuan only three days before the incident."

"The suspect must have known about these 100,000 yuan because otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken such a big risk for just 1,900 yuan."

"So, investigate the male victim’s friends, such as who he drank with and who he disclosed the 100,000 yuan to before the incident."

"Yes!"

In comparison to the Tianshan District Criminal Investigation Team’s investigation back then, Lu Chuan’s arrangement was much more detailed.

After all, the Criminal Investigation Team back then only assigned a team with a few detectives responsible for it.

But the High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team is different this time, with all three teams pressed into action.

Moreover, this time, there are also the suspect’s physical and age characteristics, making the screening more precise.

Three days quickly passed.

Despite Lu Chuan’s very detailed arrangements covering many aspects, the results of the investigation were disappointing.

"Captain Lu, I’ve conducted a complete investigation on all the robbery victim’s relatives."

Chen Jiang’s news was quite disappointing.

Over three days, Chen Jiang and his twenty-plus Second Team members ran all over Haizhou City.

Even probing nearby new cities.

They investigated all 128 relatives of the robbery victim they could identify.

"Among these people, seven meet the suspect’s age and physical characteristics, we focused on them. However, they all have alibis for the day Chen Bing was killed, fingerprints were collected personally by me but didn’t match the suspect’s."

On the other side, Wang Zhaokai also came up empty.

"I investigated all residents of the neighborhood back then, not just that building, but everyone in the neighborhood who matched the suspect’s age and height characteristics."

"The permanent residents have been screened, those who match the suspect’s characteristics were focused on; fingerprints compared, no findings."

"In that time frame, temporary residents renting in the neighborhood were also screened, six matched the suspect’s characteristics."

"Among these six, four were found and are living in Haizhou City, no suspicions after screening."

"The remaining two, one died a year ago in a car accident."

"And the other one is in Tianzhou City; I asked my colleagues there to collect fingerprints, they got back with results... no match."

Wang Zhaokai and Chen Jiang’s groups have barely slept these three days, meticulously conducting a wide range of screening within their scope, but unfortunately didn’t achieve the desired results.

Lu Chuan looked at Sun Biao, but the latter shook his head as well.

"I investigated all outsiders who had contact with the family before the incident."

"Their family consists of four people; the paralyzed elder couldn’t go out and had little communication with others, so there’s barely any chance of exposing secrets."

Sun Biao began his report.