The Forensic Doctor Better Than a Detective

Although the bleeding area seems small on the surface, its deep location precisely presses on the critical region of the cervical cord.

If placed under a microscope, the seepage and damage between the tissues would undoubtedly be more startling, and the nerve and vascular damage caused would be even more severe.

At this moment, all that is visible to the naked eye is a layer of dark red covering the surface of the spinal cord, but what about the inside of the cervical spine?

Is there also diffuse bleeding on the cross-section?

These questions can only be answered through pathological slices—as if a cucumber were evenly sliced open, piece by piece under the light, every detail of texture and every damage would be laid bare.

The dissection room is utterly silent, with only the low hum of the ventilation system reverberating in the air, mingled with the strong acrid smell of formaldehyde.

Everyone stood around quietly, not speaking, but exchanging glances—you look at me, I look at you, the atmosphere heavy as iron.

Even though no one dared to break through the last layer of paper, a certain disturbing consensus had quietly spread in the silence.

After a long pause, Director Hou finally broke the oppressive silence, his voice not loud, but each word clear:

"Could there really be a problem with this case?"

The words fell like a bolt of unexpected lightning, suddenly striking the room.

Mr. Qin and Professor Zhang’s expressions changed slightly, and the last glimmer of hope shattered completely.

At this moment, Jiang An nodded slowly and picked up the conversation: "Indeed, there is a problem, and it could be quite serious."

His tone was calm, "Initially, the cause of death was assumed to be a sudden illness, but now it seems the bleeding location is precisely at the respiratory circulatory center of the neck—this is the body’s life hub."

"The presence of damage here indicates that the deceased’s neck was subjected to clear external force before death."

"And this kind of death from external force is often extremely rapid, even faster than a typical sudden cardiac death."

"Therefore, the body will show typical signs of acute death: such as cyanosis of the extremities, non-coagulation of internal organ blood... All these point to one conclusion: death did not occur naturally."

Jiang An’s tone was stable but the content made everyone’s heart sink sharply.

No more words were needed, everyone understood—this was not just a questionable case, more importantly, the corpse itself was the biggest issue.

Mr. Qin silently lowered his head, shaking it heavily.

He initially thought the case was just routine, not expecting such a twist right at the critical point of his promotion to deputy chief.

How should it conclude afterward? The case reported to the Deputy Chief and Chief, if any oversight in the investigation is detected, his future...

He dared not think further, subconsciously raising his hand to wipe his forehead—unaware of when, a thin layer of cold sweat had appeared there.

At this moment, it’s not the appropriate time to pursue Professor Zhang’s work responsibility. Beyond clarifying past matters, the more urgent issue is how to properly deal with the impact brought by the current situation and remedy it quickly.

He subtly turned, casting his gaze toward Director Hou and Mr. Jiang beside him, "Director Hou, based on the current information, this should preliminarily be categorized as a homicide, shouldn’t it?"

When the words fell, he deliberately emphasized the words "homicide," making them especially clear and heavy.

Jiang An heard the words and gently nodded.

Director Hou did not immediately respond.

His expression was calm like a deep pool, his gaze lowered, seemingly weighing each known detail in the silence.

In his mind, although the current evidence chain pointed to a certain possibility, it had not yet formed a complete closed loop, insufficient to definitively categorize the case as a homicide.

All conjectures still require more solid, more sufficient support.

After a brief silence, Jiang An continued, "However, the problem lies in—how exactly did the deceased’s neck suffer such special damage on such a clear cause of death basis?"

"The relationship between this damage and the cause of death will be key to clarifying the nature of the case."

"As I briefly mentioned earlier," Jiang An continued, his tone shifting to analytical calm, "there are typically two formation mechanisms for such neck damage in forensic medicine."

"First, there’s the so-called ’whiplash injury,’ often caused by the head undergoing severe acceleration or deceleration in a very short time, leading to excessive flexion and extension of the cervical spine—this kind of situation is common in collision moments of high-speed traffic accidents."

"But the scene of this case completely lacks the objective conditions for such accidents."

"Not only was the road calm, without any brake marks or collision traces, but no abnormal vehicle movement or intrusion was captured by nearby surveillance coverage."

"Therefore, this possibility can almost be entirely ruled out in the current situation."

His tone grew more solemn as he continued to analyze, "Then, another scenario that could lead to such cervical spine and spinal cord injuries is what I mentioned earlier—a technique used by those with special training."

"But the deceased was merely an ordinary construction worker, with relatively simple social relationships, making it difficult under the absence of sufficient motive and evidence to link them to professional killers or special operations."

Here, Jiang An paused slightly, a hint of deep contemplation appearing in his gaze: "Since neither of the above scenarios fits, I believe there’s still a third possibility, only—"

His words were unfinished when Director Hou raised his eyelids, quickly responding, "Go ahead."

Beside him, Mr. Qin also leaned forward slightly, echoing gravely: "Yes, Jiang An, please speak."

Professor Zhang’s gaze locked onto Jiang An like a searchlight.

At this moment, he faintly felt that Jiang An’s upcoming viewpoint might form a crucial supplement or amendment to his previous analysis.

Despite having already determined that the fatal neck bleeding was the direct cause of death, the environment and conditions of the crime scene continued to misalign with the type of injury—there was no collision mark from a traffic accident, the possibility of someone else’s armed assassination was ruled out, nor the result of high-altitude falls.

Then, under what circumstances did the deceased’s neck suffer such precise and violent trauma?

This question, like an invisible thorn, was stuck in Professor Zhang’s reasoning logic, preventing him from advancing.

After a moment of reflection, Jiang An seemed to redraw the distribution of bloodstains and the posture of the body in his mind before slowly speaking: "I’ve vaguely thought of a possibility... Maybe we could consider the direction of ’neck traction.’

He paused slightly, seemingly organizing his thoughts while speaking, "Well, traction... If subjected to extreme localized traction, it is entirely possible to cause structural damage to the cervical spine."

"But I’m not referring to pulling in the conventional sense, rather some explosive, almost tearing external force."

Instantly, everyone’s eyes focused on Jiang An.

Facing the gaze of the crowd, Jiang An continued to explain: "Specifically, I speculate that the deceased’s neck may have been subjected to some form of external forced traction during the dying stage."

"Considering the deceased’s rather burly physique and substantial weight, under conditions of significant traction force on the neck, the cervical spine and related vascular tissues could have suffered fatal damage."

His tone steadied, finally presenting a clear conclusion: "I believe this is very likely a variant of ’hanging death.’

"Hanging death?"

Professor Zhang Kai immediately challenged, furrowing his brow, "But if it was strangulation, why is there no strangulation mark at all on the deceased’s neck?"

"Not even skin abrasions or ligature marks?"

The others present also showed signs of confusion.

They had handled numerous strangulation cases and were very familiar with the typical traits—whether it’s rope, cloth strips, or other banded items, there would always be compression marks of varying depths on the neck skin.

However, apart from internal bleeding, the neck of this corpse seemed almost unblemished.

How was this achieved?

Once again, all eyes focused on Jiang An.

The one who initially connected "hanging death" with "markless".

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