Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 258: Two Footprints

Lu Chuan’s father is in charge of catering logistics in the group.

The Donglaishun in Haizhou City was invested and opened by him.

Actually, there wasn’t a Donglaishun in Haizhou before.

It was because Lu Qiqiang liked it that Donglaishun came to be.

If the young owner of Donglaishun has to pay for his meals, that would be odd.

"Master, try this, Donglaishun’s traditional lamb, it’s very fresh."

Lu Chuan is very fond of this traditional lamb.

It has a balance of lean and fat, silky texture, as thin as cicada wings.

The key is it’s not expensive, much tastier than some so-called fresh-cut lamb or beef. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Dipped in their special sesame paste, the taste is authentic.

During the cold weather some time ago, Lu Chuan often brought Forensic Doctor Shen here for hotpot.

The two of them ate simply, three plates of traditional lamb, along with a plate of spinach, a mushroom platter, and that’s about it.

"Chuan, another plate of this."

Old Bai also has a taste for this.

Yang Sen seemed somewhat out of place, he didn’t seem too keen on lamb.

He focused on two plates of beef, insisting it had a good texture.

"Lu, Zhang Qi just called, there’s a case he wants you to take a look at."

Zhang Qi?

Lu Chuan picked up a piece of lamb, dipping it thoroughly in sesame sauce: "Is it the High-speed Rail New District?"

Liu Guodong nodded: "Yes, it’s the captain of the Criminal Investigation Team over there, just called, there’s a serious injury case, been going on for days, but they still haven’t found the person."

Serious injury?

"Is the person not dead?"

Old Bai’s words almost choked Liu Guodong.

What do you mean by not dead?

"The person isn’t dead, but almost a vegetative state, heard they’re still in the ICU."

"I asked him to send over the files, we can help look when we get back."

"Okay, no problem."

Lu Chuan agreed readily.

Honestly, Lu Chuan feels he doesn’t have many skills, but he can be helpful in technical identification analysis.

Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team’s lunchtime break is an hour and a half.

However, an hour and a half is definitely not enough for a hotpot meal, so when the four of them returned, it was already past three in the afternoon.

Liu Guodong opened the computer, the Criminal Investigation Team from the High-speed Rail New District had already sent over the scanned files of the case.

"Take a look at this."

Handing the printed files to Lu Chuan: "It’s not that serious a case."

Liu Guodong wasn’t wrong, compared to serious injury cases, murder cases are evidently more significant.

And for the Criminal Investigation Team, the injury cases usually weren’t sent here at all.

Lately, there have been no cases, combined with Liu Guodong and Zhang Qi being on good terms, so they lend a hand.

"Footprints?"

Liu Guodong nodded.

"When the perpetrator attacked, they put a sack over the victim’s head. The case occurred in a rural cornfield, and there aren’t any surveillance devices nearby, so they have no idea who did it."

"Moreover, the victim is still lying in the hospital, and hasn’t woken up, so there’s no way to interrogate."

"Luckily, the perpetrator left fairly clear footprints at the scene, you can take a look."

Lu Chuan nodded.

The photos of the footprints were there in the files.

In fact, the Criminal Investigation Team of the High-speed Rail New District also conducts crime scene investigations.

But in terms of capability, there’s quite a gap compared to the Criminal Investigation Team.

This is mainly caused by two reasons.

Firstly, the Criminal Investigation Team takes on major cases, but challenging ones are directly handled by the Criminal Investigation Team.

This results in many Criminal Investigation Teams lacking enough case experience in nurturing talents, particularly technical talents such as crime scene investigation and forensic analysis.

On the other hand, there’s a shortage of talent at the lower level. Most technical personnel in Criminal Investigation Teams are frontline officers who have been transferred.

Recently, they’ve started recruiting top graduates to join the grassroots level.

But here’s where a problem arises.

Veterans have experience but lack theoretical knowledge, impacting their skill enhancement.

Newcomers have theoretical knowledge but lack experience, haven’t undergone enough practical training, and can’t enhance the grassroots Criminal Investigation Team’s capabilities in a short period.

So, in recent years, grassroots Criminal Investigation Teams still rely on technical support from higher levels.

Of course, even if the technology improves, there are still the equipment issues.

Even the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team, before Qiangsheng Group donated a hundred million, had outdated equipment.

The files include the High-speed Rail New District Criminal Investigation Team’s crime scene investigation, which provides a preliminary analysis of the footprints found at the scene.

"Male, height between 1.7 to 1.8 meters."

That’s it.

This is the footprint result analyzed by the grassroots Criminal Investigation Team.

Lu Chuan thought that this conclusion might be somewhat simplistic.

"They’ve checked all the villagers that fit this height in the village, but found no perpetrator."

"Let me take a look, this footprint... is somewhat interesting."

One thing Lu Chuan thought the High-speed Rail New District Criminal Investigation Team did well was the crime scene investigation.

At least the footprint collection was relatively clear.

But footprint identification analysis isn’t something that can be done just by looking at photos.

You need a footprint model.

"Although this photo is quite clear, you still need to have them send over the footprint model, or visit the scene to get a relatively accurate analysis result."

Model...

Liu Guodong didn’t even need to ask, he knew there wasn’t one.

He’s only seen Lu Chuan do it twice; it’s likely grassroots units don’t even know how to make a model.

"Better to visit the scene."

"But since it’s been two to three days, it’s uncertain how well the scene has been preserved."

"I’ll make a call to check."

Okay.

Lu Chuan nodded: "It’s best if there’s a scene to visit, if it’s only photos, analysis is possible but there might be some inaccuracies."

While Liu Guodong was making the call, Lu Chuan started studying the set of footprints.

The photography of the footprints was relatively standardized.

Every print had a ruler next to it, allowing measurement of the footprint size.

And they used a 1:1 scale for the crime scene photos.

The size of the printed images actually matched the actual footprint size.

The footprints were broad and thick, size 40.

Comparing the depth of the arch imprints and the width of the forefoot, it was largely concluded to be a man’s footprint.

Of course, this conclusion carries a margin of probability.

Determining sex from footprints carries an error probability.

From the perspective of both forensic and crime scene investigation, foot bones cannot determine gender.

However, in terms of probability, there are notable differences between male and female footprints.

Male footprints are broader and thicker, female footprints are delicate.

Moreover, the styles of men’s and women’s shoes also differ.

But this doesn’t mean that men can’t wear high heels or women can’t wear heavy shoes.

But as for height determination...

After careful measurements, Lu Chuan had a very different opinion from the High-speed Rail New District Criminal Investigation Team on this judgment.

Additionally, there were very subtle differences in depth between the left and right foot in the series of footprints left by the perpetrator.

Edge pressure marks also varied.

1.7 to 1.8 meters...