SFTD -Chapter 53 The Tragedy of an Entire Family (Part 6)

Zhou Hai nodded.

“The crime scene was far too complicated. It’s difficult to explain clearly with words alone, so I drew a floor plan. That makes it easier to understand.”

The door opened again as Director Pang entered together with Liu Da and Chu Menghan.

“Dr. Zhou, you’ve worked hard! We’re holding the case conference on the fourth floor. Come upstairs with us.”

Zhou Hai glanced at the glass whiteboard. It suddenly occurred to him that he probably should have written all of this in the conference room last night. Moving the entire thing upstairs would be quite a project.

Xu Biao waved his hand.

“You guys go ahead! The rest of us will carry it up.”

Fengzi and Xiao Liang hurried over to help. It was indeed heavy. Xu Biao was already struggling with one side by himself. Just as Zhou Hai was about to step forward, Chu Menghan reached out and pressed down on the whiteboard’s support frame.

“I just wanted to remind you—there are caster wheels underneath. You can just push it.”

The air in the room instantly froze.

Xu Biao stared at Chu Menghan with a deeply aggrieved expression.

Xiao Liang crouched down to inspect it carefully. Sure enough, after pressing a button near the square opening at the base, the wheel locks released. The glass whiteboard rolled forward effortlessly.

No one spoke.

They silently pushed the whiteboard toward the elevator.

Only after arriving on the fourth floor did they realize how many people were attending the special case meeting.

The group quickly searched for empty seats. Just as Zhou Hai was about to move toward the back, Liu Da called out to him.

“Dr. Zhou, why don’t you first brief everyone on the crime scene investigation and autopsy findings?”

Zhou Hai walked to the whiteboard and glanced around the room.

“This is the scene layout for the 8.25 family massacre case.

Today, I won’t discuss the nature of the crime yet.

Because the case is extremely complicated, I combined the forensic examination with the autopsy findings and created a movement-path diagram. Let’s go through it together.

Based on the distribution of bloody footprints containing mixed blood, I mapped out two routes:
the red route represents Path A,
and the green route represents Path B.

Let’s start with the red Path A.

Near the entryway, there were multiple dense bloody footprints, all surrounding the pool of blood beneath Zhang Junya’s body. The DNA extracted from these footprints belonged solely to Zhang Junya.

The footprints then moved toward the staircase, but before reaching it, they turned toward the kitchen. From that point on, the footprints contained mixed blood from both Zhang Junya and Tong Xinwei.

Afterward, the footprints carrying the mixed blood of Zhang Junya and Tong Xinwei went upstairs directly toward the second bedroom opposite the staircase. Blood footprints discovered on the bedsheets there also contained the mixed blood of those two individuals.

Now let’s look at the green Path B.

At the entryway, only intermittent one-foot bloody prints were left behind, indicating that only one foot had stepped into Zhang Junya’s blood.

These intermittent bloody footprints then moved directly into the living room, where they subsequently picked up mixed blood from Zhang Heping and Lü Xiangya.

The three-person mixed-blood footprints bypassed Tong Xinwei and rushed toward the staircase in long strides. Here, there was a continuous smear-like bloodstain.

At Zhang Junming’s location, the fourth victim’s blood was added to the trail.

The footprints then went straight upstairs to the master bedroom, stopping at every location containing drawers.

Additionally, bloody handprints were found on the bedside cabinet and desk drawers. The DNA in those handprints belonged only to Zhang Junming, Zhang Heping, and Lü Xiangya.

Judging from the empty spaces inside the drawers, each location was missing an object approximately the size of a Xinhua Dictionary.

After that, Paths B and A converged. Without stopping, they quickly left the scene.

The distribution of mixed blood handprints at the scene, as well as the mixed blood traces collected from the edges of the victims’ wounds, are consistent with the routes I just described.

During the autopsies, I also discovered something else.

Tong Xinwei and Zhang Junming were not killed by the same weapon.

Here are the differences I reconstructed between the blades.

Look here: the weapon used to kill Tong Xinwei had a semi-circular blade edge with a large curvature. Each chopping wound measured only 6.5 centimeters, deepest in the middle and shallower on both sides.

The killer possessed tremendous strength. Every strike cut into bone, causing slight chipping along the blade edge, though the damage was concentrated near the center of the blade.

As for Zhang Junming’s stab wound—the blade pierced directly into the heart.

When the killer lifted and twisted the knife while pulling it out, it simultaneously sliced the lungs, liver, and spleen, creating a massive rotational laceration. At the same time, scrape marks were left along the inner edge of the ribs on the chest.

This wound indicates the knife was extremely long. The blade itself had some curvature, but the spine of the knife was straight. The chipped section was near the tip, where the blade edge struck the ribs.

Taking all these factors into account, my conclusions are as follows:

There were two killers.

Both were right-handed.

This was committed by acquaintances.

The murders occurred between 1:00 and 2:00 AM on August 25th.

The killers harbored hatred toward the Zhang family and Zhang Junya specifically.

Killer A held deeper resentment toward Tong Xinwei.

Killer B possessed knowledge of human anatomy or related expertise.

Furthermore—they knew the locations of the Zhang family’s valuables, their plan was highly detailed, and after leaving the primary crime scene, they immediately removed their shoe covers and disguises.

The two individuals differed greatly in height, weight, strength, and shoe size.

The gloves and shoe covers were merely intended to confuse police judgment.

I recommend continuing the investigation through Zhang Junya’s social connections.”

After finishing the analysis in one breath, Zhou Hai felt slightly dizzy.

But throughout the entire conference room, prolonged applause erupted.

A family-of-six massacre with absolutely no leads—and within twenty-four hours, such a detailed analysis had been produced.

The amount of work behind it spoke for itself.

Chu Menghan raised her eyes and quietly examined the thin, exhausted Zhou Hai.

What kind of person was he, exactly?

Earlier, he had mercilessly exposed her unauthorized actions and abandoned her by the roadside.

And now, for the sake of the case, he had worked nonstop for more than twenty hours without sleep.

Which one was the real him?

Liu Da stood up and gestured for Zhou Hai to sit beside him. At the same time, he raised his phone and photographed the contents of the glass whiteboard.

“Dr. Zhou’s analytical summary is extremely thorough.

These movement paths are critically important. They practically outline the killers’ objectives.

For now, let’s treat the two routes as representing two separate killers.

Next—

Chu Menghan, report on your team’s progress yesterday.”

Caught off guard when her name was suddenly called, Chu Menghan quickly stood up with her notebook.

“Our side divided into three groups. The first group investigated Zhang Junya’s social relationships and discovered that during her time working at First Affiliated Hospital, she had dated no fewer than twenty men. Before marriage, she was simultaneously involved with several boyfriends.”

“Simultaneously?”

Director Song looked puzzled as Chu Menghan nodded.

“That’s right. Her private life was rather complicated. According to her coworkers, Zhang Junya was dating at least three boyfriends at the same time.

Among them were two doctors from the same hospital who had successively dated her.

They were Fang Qing from the psychiatry department at First Affiliated Hospital and Zhu Xupeng from the cardiovascular department.”

The moment Zhou Hai heard the name Fang Qing, he immediately looked up.

That man had been his middle school classmate—someone he’d once been quite close to. Fang Qing’s father had also been a coworker of Zhou Hai’s mother.

Ever since returning home, Zhou Hai had been too busy. Meanwhile, Fang Qing had gone to Beijing for a three-month training program, so the two had only spoken over the phone and never managed to meet.

He never expected Fang Qing to become entangled in this case.

Had Fang Qing already returned to Dongnan?

Chu Menghan continued:

“…As for the others, we’ve compiled all of them into a list. They come from all walks of life.

At present, six individuals have been designated as priority persons of interest.

Later, we’ll cross-check them according to the time frame established by Dr. Zhou.

Our second group investigated all of the Zhang family’s social relationships.

The older couple, Zhang Heping and his wife, as well as Zhang Junming, all had fairly simple social circles.

The eldest son-in-law is named Liu Handong, age thirty-five.

He’s a first mate at Dongnan Shipping Company, specializing in international cargo routes. We’ve already confirmed this with his company.

Early yesterday morning, his ship was unloading cargo at Yunlian Port and is scheduled to return to Dongnan tomorrow.”

Liu Da suddenly raised his hand.

“Wait. Did you say Yunlian Port?”