The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 1426 Examination of Both Lungs, Detailed Discovery

“Teacher Zhang, look, there are a few pinpoint hemorrhages on the surface of both lungs,” Xiao Lin said, pointing to the dark red spots on the surface of the lung tissue. Zhang Lin leaned closer to examine them and gently pressed them with his fingers: “These are pinpoint hemorrhages on the lung surface. We need to differentiate whether they are petechial hemorrhages caused by asphyxiation or mechanical damage during post-mortem transport.” He used dissecting scissors to cut off a small piece of lung tissue and placed it in a petri dish containing physiological saline: “We will perform a lung buoyancy test to determine whether it was drowning before death. If it was drowning before death, the lung tissue will float on the surface due to the large amount of water inhaled; if it was drowning after death, the lung tissue will sink.”

After the lung tissue was placed in saline solution, it sank rapidly. "Drowning before death has been ruled out," Zhang Lin said. "Then we will examine the trachea and bronchi to check for any foreign objects blocking the airway or signs of asphyxiation." He carefully separated the tracheal tissue with dissecting forceps and cut open the tracheal wall: "The tracheal mucosa is smooth, without foreign objects, hematoma, or edema, ruling out obstructive asphyxiation among mechanical asphyxiation." He then turned his attention to the neck tissue. Although only 3 centimeters of tissue below the neck remained of the head fragment, it was still necessary to check for ligature marks or other signs of compression on the neck: "The remaining tissue on the neck has no ligature marks or strangulation marks, and the skin has no epidermal shedding or subcutaneous hematoma, temporarily ruling out the possibility of mechanical asphyxiation such as strangulation, but further judgment is needed based on other characteristics of the trunk and limbs."

The lower trunk dissection focused on examining the abdominal organs. Zhang Lin opened the abdominal cavity, exposing the liver, spleen, stomach, and kidneys: "The liver weighed 1580 grams, was dark red in color, and had no swelling or necrotic foci; the spleen weighed 120 grams, was soft in texture, and had no rupture or bleeding; both kidneys weighed 130 grams each, had smooth surfaces, and had no stones or tumors." He used dissecting scissors to cut open the stomach wall, revealing a small amount of semi-digested food residue: "The stomach contents were about 50 grams, consisting of rice, vegetables, and a small amount of meat. The digestibility was grade 2, indicating death 2-3 hours after ingestion." Zhang Lin immediately placed the stomach contents sample into a sealed test tube: "labeled as stomach-001 sample, to be subsequently tested for toxicity to check for the presence of drugs, pesticides, or other toxic substances."

"Pay close attention to the color and texture of the renal cortex," Zhang Lin reminded Xiao Lin. "If poisoning is present, the kidneys, as the main metabolic organ, may show specific lesions. For example, organophosphate poisoning can cause degeneration of renal parenchymal cells, and heavy metal poisoning can cause renal pigmentation." After careful observation, Xiao Lin replied, "The renal cortex is pale red, with a uniform texture, no abnormal pigmentation, and no degeneration or necrosis foci were found." Zhang Lin nodded and continued the autopsy: "Next, examine the limb remains, focusing on whether there are any signs of binding or resistance, as this can indicate whether the deceased fought with the perpetrator before death."

The two examined the limb remains thoroughly, irradiating all skin surfaces with a multi-band fluorescence detector. "There's a superficial scratch on the inner side of the left forearm, about 3 cm long and 0.2 cm deep, with irregular edges," Xiao Lin noticed an anomaly. "There's slight bruising around the scratch, and it shows a specific fluorescent reaction under fluorescence, suggesting it was an injury sustained before death." Zhang Lin examined it more closely: "The scratch is shallow and didn't damage blood vessels or nerves, suggesting it was an injury sustained in resistance; the deceased may have tried to resist the attacker. Besides that, there are no signs of binding or blows on other parts of the body, indicating the struggle was relatively brief, or the deceased lost the ability to resist within a short period."

After examining the limbs, Zhang Lin began to estimate the time of death. "Estimating the time of death in dismemberment cases is quite difficult because after the body is dismembered, the contact area between tissues and the environment increases, accelerating decomposition. Traditional methods of measuring post-mortem temperature have significant errors," Zhang Lin explained to Xiao Lin. "We need to combine multiple methods for comprehensive estimation, including rigor mortis, livor mortis, corneal opacity, the degree of digestion of stomach contents, and histopathological examination." He first examined the rigor mortis: "The temporomandibular joint is stiff, but can move slightly; the upper limb joints are stiff and cannot bend freely; the lower limb joints are significantly stiff and completely immobile; the trunk muscles are stiff, indicating that rigor mortis is in its development stage, taking approximately 6-12 hours to form."

Following an examination of the livor mortis: "Pale purplish-red livor mortis was observed on the lower parts of all the remains. The mortis faded upon pressure and quickly returned to its original color upon release, indicating that the livor mortis was in the deposition phase, forming approximately 4-8 hours prior." Zhang Lin gently wiped the surface of the livor mortis with a cotton swab: "The livor mortis showed no migration, further confirming that the time of death was no more than 12 hours ago. Considering the degree of digestion of the stomach contents, death occurring 2-3 hours after eating, and the time the body was discovered at 7:12 AM, the time of death can be deduced to be roughly between 10 PM last night and midnight this morning."

“Teacher Zhang, the estimated time of disposal is between midnight and 7 a.m., and the time of death is between 10 p.m. and midnight, indicating that the dismemberment took place within 2-4 hours after death,” Xiao Lin analyzed. “The entire process of dismemberment, packing, transportation, and disposal takes time, and this time difference makes sense.” Zhang Lin nodded in agreement: “Next, we will extract tissue samples for pathological sections and toxicology testing, which is crucial to ruling out pathological death and death by poisoning.” The two extracted samples from the heart, liver, kidneys, brain tissue, skeletal muscle, and other parts of the body, with each sample weighing about 10 grams. They were placed in clearly labeled pathological slide boxes, for a total of 24 samples.

During the sample collection process, Zhang Lin discovered a small number of grayish-white spots on the surface of the liver tissue: "These spots need attention, as they may be fatty degeneration or pathological changes caused by poisoning." He used a dissecting needle to pick up a small amount of grayish-white tissue, made a temporary smear, and observed it under a microscope: "Under the microscope, a small number of fat droplets can be seen in the liver cells, with no other abnormal pathological changes. The preliminary judgment is mild fatty degeneration, which is a normal physiological variation and does not affect the determination of the cause of death."

It was 11:30 p.m., and the basic autopsy work was almost complete. Zhang Lin and Xiao Lin began to tidy up the autopsy site, classifying the extracted samples and placing them in a low-temperature refrigerator: "All samples are clearly numbered and will be sent to the technical department for toxicology testing and DNA typing first thing tomorrow morning. Now let's review the current findings. The preliminary judgment is that the cause of death is not traumatic brain injury, mechanical asphyxiation, drowning, or pathological disease. The most likely cause is poisoning or other hidden injuries."

Xiao Lin frowned: "But we've examined all the organs and haven't found any obvious signs of poisoning, such as constricted pupils and muscle tremors in organophosphate poisoning, or cherry-red skin in cyanide poisoning." Zhang Lin pondered: "Some poisonings don't show obvious changes in the body surface and organ morphology, such as drug overdose and heavy metal poisoning. These can only be confirmed through toxicology testing. In addition, we need to rule out other causes of death, such as electrocution or frostbite."