freenovelworld Chapter 1085 The Autopsy Process
Chapter 1085 The Autopsy Process
As night deepened, Xiao Wang's cigarette glowed and went out in the darkness. He knew that although the investigation into the red truck had eliminated one suspect, the real killer was still shrouded in mystery, and the severed limb lying on the autopsy table was waiting for someone to call out its name. The searchlights in the material yard continued to spin, as if searching for something, but only illuminated the silent sand and gravel on the ground.
The operating lights in the autopsy room illuminated the severed limb with meticulous detail. Zhang Lin, his fingers clad in double-layered latex gloves, gently touched the skin at the stumps, the tissue showing a slight indentation and rebound under pressure. "The stump is a male's right upper limb, severed from the mid-scapula," his voice, metallic and cold, came through his gas mask. "The skin shows grade 2 leatherization, the muscle tissue at the stumps is dark red, and a bleeding band is visible under the fascia, indicating antemortem amputation."
Assistant Kobayashi placed the calipers on the humerus section: "Bone diameter 3.8 cm, cortical thickness 0.6 cm, medullary cavity contains adipose tissue, consistent with characteristics of a 35-40 year old male." Her pen slid across the anatomical record sheet: "The fracture plane is oblique, the long axis forms an angle of approximately 45 degrees with the long axis of the limb, the wound edges are irregular, and traces of tearing and traction of the skin, muscles, and tendons are visible."
Zhang Lin picked up surgical forceps and separated the soft tissue at the severed ends: "Observe the direction of the muscle fibers carefully." He picked up a bundle of muscles that were twisted in a spiral shape with the forceps. "Both the biceps and triceps brachii muscles showed contractile bleeding, and a small amount of blood clots were visible in the intermuscular grooves. They were not completely liquefied, indicating that the amputation occurred between 8 and 12 hours ago." He used a sterile cotton swab to collect the exudate from the amputation surface. "Take a sample for myoglobin testing to confirm whether it was an acute traumatic amputation."
“Teacher Zhang, look here,” Xiaolin suddenly pointed to the inner side of the humerus, “There are multiple parallel scratches on the cortical bone, about 0.2 millimeters deep, as if they were repeatedly cut by a sharp instrument.” She adjusted the angle of the shadowless lamp, and the scratches showed a typical “V” shaped cross-section under the light, “but the bone damage on the main fracture surface is characterized by blunt force trauma, which is contradictory.”
“It’s not contradictory,” Zhang Lin said, picking up a magnifying glass. The bone texture was clearly visible under the lens. “First, a blunt object strikes to disrupt the continuity of the broken bone, then a sharp object cuts through the soft tissue to complete the severance. This kind of mixed injury is very common in violent crimes.” He measured the spacing between the scratches. “An average of 1.7 millimeters, consistent with the blade characteristics of a utility knife or a thin-bladed hacksaw.” The tissue sample vials in the dissection tray were arranged in order, and the formalin liquid was covered with fine foam.
When the scalpel cut open the brachial artery, dark brown fluid gushed from the vessel lumen. "The severed vessel ends are constricted, and a white thrombus is visible under the intima," Zhang Lin probed the lumen with a probe. "The thrombus is 1.2 cm long, with a grade 1 organization, indicating that its survival time after transection was no more than 2 hours—which is consistent with the myoglobin test results." He paused abruptly, picking up a small grayish-white particle with forceps. "There's a foreign object in the intermuscular space; let's do infrared spectroscopy analysis."
Xiaolin immediately placed the sample into the testing instrument, and the spectrum quickly appeared on the screen: "The main components are silicates and iron oxide, with a 98% match with the quartz sand composition of the sand and gravel plant." She looked up at Zhang Lin, "This indicates that the severed limb had been in contact with sand and gravel, which is consistent with the results of the on-site investigation."
When Zhang Lin turned to the soft tissue examination, he cut open the skin with his scalpel, revealing subcutaneous fat that was pale yellow and 1.2 centimeters thick. “The saponification of the adipose tissue is slight,” he said, measuring the diameter of the subcutaneous hemorrhages. “They average 0.3 millimeters and are densely distributed, consistent with the histological characteristics of acute asphyxiation.” His assistant noted, “The skin appendages are intact, and no mud or sand was found blocking the hair follicles, ruling out the possibility of drowning before death.”
While examining the ulnar and median nerves, Zhang Lin discovered an abnormality. "There was a tear in the perineal membrane," he observed under a microscope, "but the continuity of the axons was still present, suggesting that the nerves were not completely severed at the time of transection." This explained the slight flexion of the fingertips of the stump—a posture caused by the reflexive contraction of the nerves at the moment of transection.
“Determining the time of death requires combining multiple indicators,” Zhang Lin said, taking the silver watch off the severed limb. The crown had stopped, and the hands pointed to 3:17. “Rigidity had formed in the wrist joint, grade 2; corneal opacity grade 1, and the pupil was still discernible; combined with the ambient temperature of 25°C and relative humidity of 60%, the time of death was estimated to be between 16 and 20 hours ago.”
Xiaolin suddenly pointed to the nail bed: "There is a dark red substance inside the nail bed, not blood." She scraped a sample with a toothpick and smeared it on a glass slide. "Under the microscope, you can see spindle-shaped fibers. After staining, it turns blue. It is a component of cotton fabric." Zhang Lin leaned closer to observe: "The fiber diameter is 15 micrometers, with a double-strand twisted structure. Compare it with the dark blue fibers found in the material yard."
When the test results showed that the fiber composition was completely consistent, Zhang Lin's brows relaxed slightly: "The limb had been in contact with this type of fabric after being severed, which may have been a package or the perpetrator's clothing." He picked up a muscle sample from the severed area, "The engine oil component detected in the sarcoplasm has been analyzed by gas chromatography. It is Shell 20W-50, which is significantly different from the 15W-40 used in the red truck, with a retention time difference of 0.8 minutes."
Three hours into the autopsy, Zhang Lin removed the humeral head for sectioning: "Hemosiderin deposition was visible in the intertrabecular spaces of the cancellous bone," he said, adjusting the focus under the microscope. "This is characteristic of old injuries, suggesting that the individual had a history of fracture in the left upper limb, with a healing time of approximately 5-8 years." This discovery was immediately entered into the national missing persons database and associated with the search keyword "left upper limb fracture."
During the final examination of the skin appendages, Xiaolin discovered an abnormality at the hair follicle roots in the armpit: "Teacher Zhang, there are stages of pigment loss in the hair shafts," she measured the length of the missing segment, "about 0.7 cm, suggesting a history of malnutrition or chronic disease in the 6-8 months prior to death." Zhang Lin added, "We will take hair follicle epithelial cells for DNA extraction, compare it with the database, and also test the trace element content to see if there are any heavy metal contaminations."
When Zhang Lin removed his gloves, the sample bottles next to the operating table had reached the 27th position. Looking at the preliminary diagnosis of the cause of death on the autopsy report—"mechanical asphyxiation complicated by acute hemorrhagic shock"—his brow remained furrowed. "Amputation was the primary cause of death, but the signs of asphyxiation suggest that he was strangled or had his mouth and nose smothered before death," he told Xiao Lin. "This severed limb is just the tip of the iceberg; we must find the torso to reconstruct the complete death process."
As the sterilizing lights in the autopsy room came on, the severed limbs had been carefully preserved. Zhang Lin gazed at the gradually brightening sky outside the window, knowing that behind these cold numbers and technical terms lay a name waiting to be found, and a life severed by violence. And those grains of sand hidden in muscle fibers, fibers under fingernails, scratches on bones—they would eventually be pieced together in test tubes in the laboratory, pointing to the true culprit.