flstandardbreds Chapter 1230 Rotting Corpses in the Farmland
Chapter 1230 Rotting Corpses in the Farmland
He covered his face with his hands and wailed, "Dianquan, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have killed you for 5 yuan... I was wrong..." His cries were particularly jarring on the noisy street, and passersby stopped to watch, but no one knew the entanglement behind this tragedy.
The officers helped Liu Baijun up; he was still sobbing, tears and snot falling onto his prison uniform. Xiao Zhou turned off his body camera and, watching the scene before him, knew that this identification not only revealed the complete truth of the case but also irrefutably cemented Liu Baijun's crimes—from waiting and fighting to disposing of the body and destroying the car, every detail corroborated the evidence, forming an undeniable chain of proof.
As the police car drove away from Jiefang West Road, the sun was already shining brightly on the street. Xiao Zhou sat in the passenger seat, looking at the identification record in his hand. Every detail was marked "matches the evidence." He took out his phone and sent a message to Li Ming: "Liu Baijun's on-site identification is complete. The details of his confession are completely consistent with the investigation and autopsy results. The chain of evidence is closed, and the case can be formally transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution."
A few minutes later, Li Ming replied: "Thank you for your hard work. Justice will prevail. Give Zhang Dianquan's family an explanation."
The carriage was silent, save for Liu Baijun's suppressed sobs. Xiao Zhou watched Jiefang West Road recede into the distance outside the window, recalling the devastation Zhang Dianquan's family had gone through when his identity was confirmed, and the cold body on the autopsy table. A sigh of relief finally came—this tragedy, stemming from a 5 yuan economic dispute, had finally brought justice to the deceased with the most complete chain of evidence. And Liu Baijun would ultimately pay the price for his impulsiveness and cruelty under the severe punishment of the law.
Seven days after the Liu Baijun case was closed, the administrative branch received another report that a farmer had found a decomposing body in his field while tilling the land.
On a crisp early summer morning, as the sun had just climbed over the eastern hills, the sound of hoes turning the soil echoed through the fields of Lijia Village. Li Erhu, hoe in hand, was weeding between the rows of his cornfield when, for the third time, the tip of the hoe struck something hard. He bent down and parted the damp earth—a clump of blackened cloth wrapped around a blurry human figure. A stench of decay instantly assaulted his nostrils, startling him so much that he dropped the hoe and staggered out of the cornfield. Trembling, he dialed the police from the edge of the field.
Forty minutes later, Li Ming's police car arrived along the country road, the wheels crunching over gravel, the sound particularly jarring in the quiet fields. "Immediately cordon off the scene, put up a cordon, and prevent villagers from approaching!" Li Ming opened the car door, his black leather shoes stepping on the soft mud, and gave instructions to his team members behind him, "Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun are in charge of the initial on-site investigation, focusing on checking footprints, tool marks, and items left behind around the body; Xiao Wang, come with me to question the person who reported the case; the rest of you patrol the area to prevent unauthorized personnel from disturbing the scene."
Xiao Yang and Xiao Sun, carrying their investigation bags, hurried into the cornfield. The body lay in a furrow in the center of the field, covered by half a foot of soil, with only a corner of a black coat visible. "Don't rush to clear the soil around the body. Shine the investigation light on the surface first." Xiao Yang squatted two meters away from the body. The beam of the powerful investigation light pierced through the morning mist and landed on the surface of the soil—the soil on both sides of the furrow showed obvious signs of being turned over, with uneven edges, as if it had been roughly buried with a hoe or shovel; about one meter to the east of the body, there was a set of size 43 men's leather shoe prints, with fresh soil on the edges of the prints, a stride length of 85 centimeters, a stride width of 20 centimeters, and a stride angle of 5 degrees outward, estimating a height of 180-185 centimeters.
Xiao Sun then began searching the perimeter of the cornfield. His footprint light swept across the field ridges, and near the path, he found a half-finished tire track from a tricycle. "The tire track is about 30 centimeters wide, a common size for a farm tricycle," he measured with a ruler close to the ground. "The edges of the track are slightly worn, and the soil on it matches the composition of the soil in the cornfield, indicating it was left recently, possibly related to the suspect transporting a body." In the grass next to the tire track, he also found a flattened plastic bottle with the words "mineral water" printed on it. The bottle opening had a small amount of soil on it, and there was no obvious label, so it was impossible to determine when it was discarded.
In the middle of the cornfield, Xiao Yang carefully used a small shovel to clear the soil around the body, gradually revealing the black coat—it was made of cotton, with multiple tears on the cuffs and hem, and a tear in the left breast pocket, as if it had been pulled by external force; the coat pockets were empty, containing no items that could identify the body. "The body is heavily decomposed, and the clothing is stuck to the skin, making it impossible to discern physical characteristics," Xiao Yang reported into the walkie-talkie. "No tool marks were found in the soil, suggesting that the tools used to bury the body were taken by the suspect; several long black hairs, about 15 centimeters long, were found in the soil beneath the body, possibly left by the deceased or the suspect."
Xiao Sun walked to the west side of the body and found something unusual on the leaves of the corn plant: "This corn leaf has been crushed, and there are brown stains on the edge of the leaf, which look like rotten liquid or soil." He carefully removed the leaf with tweezers and put it into the evidence bag. "Judging from the freshness of the leaf, it should have been crushed within 24-48 hours. It may have been broken when the suspect was moving the body."
On the other side, Xiao Wang led Li Erhu to the edge of the field outside the cordon and handed him a cup of warm water: "Brother, take your time, don't be nervous. Tell me in detail how you found the body." Li Erhu held the cup in both hands, his fingertips still covered in dirt, his voice filled with lingering fear: "I came to the field to weed around 5 a.m. This plot of land had been abandoned for almost half a month. Today I wanted to clear the weeds and plant some beans. The first stroke of the hoe hit something hard. I thought it was a rock. After digging a couple of times, I saw a black cloth. When I lifted it up, the smell... Oh my god, I was so scared I almost lost my mind. I quickly ran out and called the police."
"When you dug up the soil, did you see what the body looked like? For example, what was it wearing, or were there any obvious features?" Xiao Wang took out his notebook, his pen gliding quickly across the paper. Li Erhu frowned as he recalled, "I saw a human shape, wrapped in a black coat. The face and hands were so badly rotten that I couldn't make out what it was. I was too scared to look any longer. I just remember that the coat seemed to have a tear, on the left side of the chest." He pointed to his chest. "Also, when I was digging, the soil felt looser than other places, like it had just been buried. There seemed to be something hard underneath, but I don't know what it was."
Xiao Wang pressed further: "When you came to the field in the last few days, did you see any suspicious people or vehicles?"