Chapter 878: The Missing Girl
Without time to eat at his father-in-law’s house, Lu Chuan told Shen Yan to drive back herself. He got off halfway and took a taxi directly to the scene.
East Valley Town is located on the northwest edge of Haizhou City, quite a distance from the city center. By the time Lu Chuan arrived, almost an hour had passed.
At the scene, although there were only two or three officers with Wang Zhaokai, the local police station had already sent quite a few people over, and the police line had been put up.
Many construction workers and local residents were watching.
No need for Lu Chuan to show his ID; the local police already recognized him and let him through immediately.
On the opened-up highway, several excavators were parked at the site.
"Captain Lu! Over here!"
From a distance, Wang Zhaokai saw Lu Chuan and immediately called him over.
"What’s the situation?"
Originally, it was reported that there was a fight here and someone got hurt, so Zhao Hai and I brought people over to take a look. How did we end up finding a skeleton?
"When we discovered the incident, we were handling those injury cases on site, and were about to leave when the excavators unearthed a skeleton from the foundation."
Wang Zhaokai led Lu Chuan to an excavator nearby.
The bucket arm of the excavator was still under the foundation after digging up the skeleton. Wang Zhaokai had everyone leave the site as it was, without further disturbance.
In the dirt pit, what could be seen was a somewhat rotten and tattered woven bag.
A skull was exposed.
"Have the excavator operator come over to lift the bucket arm, and then we’ll start the crime scene investigation."
After a brief look, Lu Chuan knew that the skeleton had been damaged due to the excavation.
But that was not important at all.
The focus of the Skeleton Identification Analysis is on analyzing the fracture damage caused by this type of excavator on old remains. Although it affects the crime scene analysis to some extent, it is not particularly significant.
"Have you notified the team?"
Wang Zhaokai nodded: "After reporting to you, I immediately called the team. They are currently on their way."
As he finished speaking, sirens sounded.
The team had arrived.
Lu Chuan did not act immediately since he left after work and did not bring any equipment, not even gloves or shoe covers.
Moments later, Wang Hao and others from the Criminal Investigation Team arrived, bringing the equipment. Lu Chuan and the others began their work.
By the excavators, the original driver was scared and refused to come back.
Wang Zhaokai coordinated with the construction team leader and found another driver brave enough to come forward after querying several others.
With the roar of engines, the excavator moved away.
Lu Chuan and his team donned gloves and began their excavation work.
The body was buried under the original foundation of the highway, so the surrounding compacted soil was very solid, making excavation difficult.
"Captain Lu, the soil layers here... the soil layers above and below the body are all compacted, the body must have been buried here during the last construction of the highway."
Wang Hao was carefully shoveling the dirt around the skeleton.
It was obvious that the soil layers above and below the skeleton were very firm, indicating that the skeleton was compressed repeatedly after being buried, causing the current state.
Lu Chuan nodded affirmatively, agreeing with Wang Hao’s judgment.
If the body had been buried before the roadwork, then the soil layer under it might not be so compact, considering there’s a solid object obstructing it.
While Lu Chuan personally inspected the remains, Wang Zhaokai began interviewing local villagers nearby.
"It was more than a decade ago, a woman in the village disappeared."
The nearest village, called Beihong Village, had hundreds of households.
When Wang Zhaokai inquired about missing persons, some provided information.
Over the years, only one person had disappeared from the village, a female.
Ten years ago, this woman ran a clothing business, and after going out one time, never returned. Her family reported it, but even after the police were notified, she was never found.
Eventually, it became a missing person case.
Wang Zhaokai followed this lead and found the missing woman’s family.
"When Xiaohui disappeared, there was no sign. She just said she was going south to get supplies."
The missing woman was unmarried, with only her parents left.
"We called her when she had finished procuring supplies and was already on the train back. She should have arrived home by noon the next day, but she never returned by then."
Hu Huihui’s father vividly recalled the details of his daughter’s disappearance back then.
They only had one daughter, which made her disappearance even more tragic.
"Did you confirm that Hu Huihui got off the train?"
Hu Zhiguo nodded: "After the report, officers checked and saw Xiaohui coming out of the train station on some surveillance footage."
"She usually took a taxi home from the train station."
"But that day... she didn’t return by evening. Her phone was off when we called her."
"The next day, she was still unreachable, so we went to the police at noon."
As he listened, Wang Zhaokai took notes and asked: "Did she have any boyfriends at the time? Did she offend anyone in her business dealings?"
"She had a boyfriend, a high school classmate from the neighboring village. They were going to get married."
Hu Zhiguo sighed: "During that trip to the south for clothing, her boyfriend meant to accompany her, but some family issue kept him."
"If they’d gone together... maybe nothing would have happened."
As Hu Zhiguo talked about the past, his emotions were calmer; after all, ten years had passed.
For ten years, he visited the police station monthly, seeking news of his daughter.
But there was none.
It was as though she had vanished from the earth.
"As for enemies... Xiaohui used to sell clothes wholesale on stalls, just small business, not likely to offend anyone."
Then, Wang Zhaokai went through some routine questions for basic information and left.
After Hu Huihui’s disappearance, the police had already collected DNA samples from her parents, so it was in the system.
Wang Zhaokai didn’t need to recollect samples this time.
At the site, emergency lights were set up.
More than half of the skeleton had been excavated. Lu Chuan continued digging while conducting identification analysis.
Based on dental wear, it was determined the person’s age was around 22 to 25 years.
The deceased was about 1.65 meters tall, identified as a female with no childbirth history from pelvic features.
The cause of death was likely asphyxiation, with a fractured hyoid bone and no old bone injuries.
The time of death was estimated to be around 8 to 10 years ago.