Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Chapter 722: Relationship Network Investigation

Next comes Lu Chuan’s specialty.The scene was extremely chaotic, and the murderer left many clues behind.

However, whether these clues can help lock down the suspect will require further analysis and verification.

"Zhaokai, collaborate with the Second Squad to organize a door-to-door investigation of the victim’s neighbors."

"Also, inspect the property surveillance, especially the footage of the deceased’s vehicle entering and exiting, to see if anyone used it to access the district."

"Yes, I’ll arrange it now."

"Furthermore, have the Third Squad conduct a thorough investigation of the victim’s interpersonal relationships."

"The more detailed, the better. We need all details including call records, bank transactions, tax information, etc."

"If there are any issues, let me know, and I’ll request support from the higher-level technical department."

"Understood!"

This is the advantage of having a parachuted leader.

Lu Chuan has been with the Criminal Investigation Team for two years, building a strong network. He knows many people at the municipal bureau.

Invisibly, this provides the Criminal Investigation Team with significant convenience in handling cases.

Previously, many technical support requests had to go through reports and queues, but now one call from Lu Chuan might resolve them directly.

For instance, like the DNA identification of the victim.

In the past, it’s hard to say when the High-tech Zone’s Criminal Investigation Team would get their turn.

But Lu Chuan just made a phone call, and that night, the technical center arranged overtime to perform the DNA analysis.

The results came out the next morning.

Don’t underestimate this overtime.

It gained at least 1-2 days for the Criminal Investigation Team in this case.

There’s a saying about solving homicide cases within the golden 72 hours.

When the deceased was discovered, they had already been dead for over 36 hours.

The longer the delay, the less favorable it is for the Criminal Investigation Team’s investigation.

Although challenging and fraught with difficulties, Wang Zhaokai felt everything was proceeding logically.

When the three Criminal Investigation Squads began their work, Lu Chuan personally led Gao Wenxiang to conduct the crime scene examination.

Following the procedures, the first step is Crime Scene Investigation photography.

Lu Chuan personally handled it this time, without handing it over to Gao Wenxiang.

The latter might be capable with fingerprint comparison but less so with other crime scene tasks.

Rather than letting someone else take care of it, it’s better for Lu Chuan to handle it.

Next, they collected fingerprints at the scene.

Besides the kitchen where the murderer dismembered the body, both the living room and the upstairs bedroom showed signs of disturbance.

Lu Chuan’s first task was to collect all fingerprints from these areas.

The workload for this crime scene examination was enormous, especially given the villa’s large size.

Finishing it might take more than half a day.

Outside the villa, the Criminal Investigation Team had set up a police line.

After passing on Lu Chuan’s task allocations to the Second and Third Squads,

the three Criminal Investigation Squad leaders, each with their team members, began their respective assignments.

Next door in the villa’s living room.

"We didn’t hear any unusual noises."

"Our house has pretty good soundproofing, so we usually don’t hear any noise from next door."

The retired elderly couple hadn’t noticed anything strange recently.

"Just the day before yesterday afternoon, there was a buzzing sound, like a meat grinder making dumpling fillings."

"But it was brief, and we usually go for a walk in the afternoon, so we didn’t think much of it."

"Has there been anything unusual next door recently?"

Wang Zhaokai personally asked the two elders: "Like any strangers visiting?"

"Or anything else out of the ordinary?"

"The girl next door is quite nice."

"She was already here when we moved in."

"But I haven’t seen her husband or any children; she seems unmarried."

Chen Shufen thought for a moment and replied.

"Someone visited before the New Year, a man I saw once in the yard."

"I think he’s Chen Weiwei’s boyfriend, and I’ve seen him before."

Not much useful information was gathered from these two neighbors by Wang Zhaokai.

Even though they’ve lived here for three or four years, there wasn’t much interaction with the victim next door.

Just an occasional greeting when meeting outside.

However, some useful information was still gleaned from them by Wang Chaokai.

First, Chen Weiwei doesn’t work.

They’ve never seen Chen Weixi going out for work.

But she seems financially well-off, driving a BMW and wearing nice clothes.

Sometimes, a man would stay with her at the villa for a few days, but they rarely saw him in the yard.

Although the elderly couple didn’t explicitly say so, they implied that Chen Weiwei might be kept by someone.

Second, Chen Weiwei is very beautiful.

There are many pretty girls in the neighborhood, but Chen Weiwei is definitely among the most beautiful ones.

A beautiful, wealthy single woman living in Haizhou City’s Taohua Villa District, a nice area.

She doesn’t work but seems to have endless money, enjoying excellent financial conditions.

Wang Zhaokai didn’t need an investigation to deduce that Chen Weiwei was likely being kept.

Investigations from Sun Biao’s team in the Third Squad seemed to corroborate Wang Zhaokai’s judgment.

Chen Weiwei had two bank cards under her name.

One was a payroll card from Changsheng Group’s headquarters.

She received a salary of 100,000 RMB every month.

Then, Chen Weiwei would withdraw all the money, transferring it to another card, after which she would remit one to three thousand to someone named Chen Abing. The remaining was mostly small expenses.

Regarding call records, Chen Weiwei’s call logs were sparse.

Sometimes, there would be no calls for several days.

The interpersonal relationships investigation revealed that based on her call records, Chen Weiwei appeared to have few friends.

At the scene.

Lu Chuan had his brows furrowed.

He found numerous fingerprints at the crime scene, but from the fingerprint analysis, Lu Chuan was certain that the majority were repeat prints.

The murderer likely wore gloves during the crime.

Footprints, however, provided Lu Chuan with many findings.

The tracks left by the perpetrator at the crime scene could be described as densely packed.

The primary scene of the murder was the upstairs bedroom.

The ceiling was covered in copious amounts of spatter bloodstains.

This would likely have resulted from the rupture of the carotid artery, causing a large spray of blood.

Additionally, Lu Chuan discovered the victim’s torn clothing.

Both outer garments and underwear were found.

"Signs of assault."

Gao Wenxiang glanced at the messy bedding and made a judgment.

"Let’s first collect the physical evidence."

Lu Chuan sighed.

The murderer likely assaulted Chen Weiwei upstairs, then used a wallpaper knife from the nightstand to slit her throat, thereafter dragging the body down the stairs.

The dismemberment happened in the kitchen.

The sequence of events can be easily deduced from the surrounding traces.

The tools used in the crime were also left in the kitchen.

Now, it’s about catching the perpetrator.