flstandardbreds Chapter 1455 The Clues End, Zhou Qiang Is Not the Murderer
Chapter 1455 The Clues End, Zhou Qiang Is Not the Murderer
"I told you I was innocent! Officers, do you believe me now? I really didn't kill anyone!" Li Ming walked into the interrogation room, looked at Zhou Qiang, and said in a deep voice, "Zhou Qiang, I'm sorry, the wrong clues caused you trouble. We have verified your alibi, and you are indeed not a suspect. You can leave now."
At 9 PM, Zhou Qiang was released from coercive measures and left the Criminal Investigation Detachment. Watching Zhou Qiang's departing figure, all the investigators felt incredibly heavy-hearted. They had thought they had found a major breakthrough, but it turned out to be nothing, and the investigation had once again reached a dead end. Li Ming immediately convened an emergency meeting to summarize all the information and re-examine the case leads.
“The situation is now very clear: Zhou Qiang is not the suspect in this case. The reason the previous clues pointed to him was because the white van driven by the murderer was highly similar in appearance to Zhou Qiang's car. Both had deformed left rear bumpers, and the last three digits of their license plates were '376'. This is no coincidence; it is very likely that the murderer deliberately used a fake license plate or intentionally imitated Zhou Qiang's vehicle characteristics to confuse us and divert the investigation.” Li Ming's tone was grave. “This shows that the murderer's counter-investigation awareness was stronger than we imagined. He not only knew how to dismember the body and scatter the remains, but also knew how to use a fake license plate to mislead us.”
Xiao Wang's face was full of self-reproach: "Captain Li, it's my responsibility. During the investigation, I didn't carefully verify the vehicle's specific information. I only saw that the rear bumper was deformed and the last three digits of the license plate matched, so I rashly concluded that Zhou Qiang was a suspect, which led the investigation astray." Li Ming shook his head: "This isn't your fault. The murderer's disguise was too realistic. Anyone in his position might have been misled. Now is not the time to assign blame. We must adjust the direction of the investigation as soon as possible, re-examine all the clues, and find the real murderer."
“Let’s review the clues of the entire case.” Xiao Yang turned on the projector and projected relevant case information onto the screen. “The deceased, Zhang Tao, male, 41 years old, was a pork stall owner at the Heping Road vegetable market. He was murdered between 10 pm on October 25th and 2 am on October 26th. The cause of death was multiple blows to the head with a blunt object, resulting in a skull fracture and intracranial hemorrhage. After killing Zhang Tao, the murderer dismembered his body and then drove a white van with a deformed left rear bumper and the last three digits of the license plate being '376', dumping the body along Heping Road.”
“Key physical evidence collected at the scene includes: a bloodstained kitchen knife, fragments of a black backpack, a small amount of acrylic fiber samples, and stainless steel metal residue on the deceased's right ring finger. In addition, two witnesses provided clues: Ms. Zhao, the convenience store owner, saw the murderer drive a white van and park in front of the convenience store around 11 p.m. on October 25; Mr. Liu, a stall owner at the vegetable market, saw Zhang Tao arguing with a slightly overweight man wearing a black coat in an alley behind the vegetable market around 9 p.m. on October 25,” Xiao Sun added.
“Now, we need to re-analyze these clues.” Li Ming’s gaze swept over everyone present. “First, regarding the white van. The white van driven by the murderer is highly similar to Zhou Qiang’s car, which indicates that the murderer likely knew Zhou Qiang or was very familiar with Zhou Qiang’s vehicle. Otherwise, he couldn’t have so accurately imitated the characteristics of Zhou Qiang’s vehicle, or even used the same last three digits of the license plate. Therefore, one of the key focuses of the investigation is to investigate people who have had contact with Zhou Qiang to see if there are any people who match the murderer’s characteristics.”
"Secondly, regarding Zhang Tao's social relationships. Zhang Tao is honest and upright, rarely getting into arguments, but recently he has been depressed and even borrowed money from his wife, saying he needed to repay an 'urgent sum,' mentioning that if he didn't repay, she would treat him badly. This indicates that Zhang Tao does indeed have debt disputes, and the man in black who argued with him is very likely his creditor. We previously mistakenly thought the man in black was Zhou Qiang, but now that we've ruled out Zhou Qiang, we need to re-examine Zhang Tao's debt relationships to find the real creditor."
"Third, regarding the physical evidence collected at the scene. The bloodstained kitchen knife was the murder weapon, but the fingerprints on it were blurred and could not be compared; the fragments of the black backpack are suspected to be the victim's personal belongings, but the brand information is unclear and cannot be traced; the acrylic fiber sample and stainless steel metal residue are important clues, but so far no matching person or item has been found. Next, the technical department will increase the intensity of the examination of these physical evidences in order to find more valuable information."
"Fourth, regarding the surveillance investigation. Previously, we focused on Zhou Qiang's vehicle. Now, we need to expand the scope of the surveillance investigation, focusing on all white vans in and around Heping Road between 8 pm on October 25 and 2 am on October 26. This includes not only vehicles with deformed left rear bumpers and license plates ending in '376', but also all white vans with abnormal driving patterns and those that stopped near the body disposal site. At the same time, we need to investigate the driving pattern of Zhou Qiang's white van during the time of the incident to see if there were any signs of someone using a cloned license plate."
"Fifth, regarding the investigation. Previous investigations mainly focused on Zhang Tao and Zhou Qiang, but now we need to expand the scope of the investigation. On the one hand, we will continue to visit merchants at the Heping Road vegetable market, Zhang Tao's neighbors and relatives to find out if Zhang Tao has recently been in contact with other overweight men wearing black coats, and the specific details of his debt disputes; on the other hand, we will visit Zhou Qiang's relatives, neighbors and former colleagues to find out if Zhou Qiang has any enemies, or if anyone might imitate his vehicle characteristics to commit crimes."
After the meeting, each group immediately resumed its investigation as directed by Li Ming. Xiao Wang's group was responsible for investigating individuals who had interacted with Zhou Qiang and for re-examining Zhang Tao's debt relationships; Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun were responsible for reviewing all physical evidence from the crime scene and assisting the technical department in its examination; the surveillance investigation group expanded its monitoring scope, focusing on tracking the white van; and the interview group split into two teams to conduct more in-depth interviews with Zhang Tao and Zhou Qiang respectively.
However, the new investigation did not go smoothly. When Xiao Wang's team investigated people who had contact with Zhou Qiang, they discovered that Zhou Qiang had multiple criminal records, a complicated social network, and knew all sorts of people, including former gambling buddies, accomplices in thefts, and business partners.