Tian Chunda, head of the criminal investigation detachment of the Nanshan City Public Security Bureau, returned to the criminal investigation detachment a few months after carrying out a case of cross-border pursuit of the murderer. Deputy Director Lu, who is in charge of criminal investigation work, talked to him about a recent case that occurred in the city. After briefly introducing the facts of the case, Deputy Director Lu handed over the investigation file of the case to Tian Chunda, saying that the case was currently controversial and asked Tian Chunda to carefully study it and express his opinion as an expert.

In the evening, Tian Chunda carefully looked through the case file in his office, and the situation of the case was roughly as follows: There is a river in the west of the Red Leaf Valley Scenic Tourist Area to which Nanshan City belongs, with a width of about 25 meters, and the water is quite turbulent, and the protruding rocks everywhere in the water continue to splash white droplets. The surrounding area is quite deep and mountainous, and the scenery is very beautiful. Every spring to late autumn, the area is crowded with tourists. There is only one street here, and this road is the road that used to transport wood to Nanshan City. The further you go up the valley, the denser the mountains and forests become.

In the early morning of March 25 last year, people nearby found the body of a young woman floating in the water about twenty or thirty meters from the southern end of the suspension bridge on the river. It was not in the middle of the river, but near the bank, and the body was hooked by rocks protruding from the water. There is a huge reef outcropping, where the water flow is blocked and a dead beach.

The body of the woman floating on the dead beach, aged about twenty-two or three, was wearing a red sweater and skirt. The surrounding area is covered with green forests, and the banks of the river are not very deep cliffs. The topography of this place is as follows: the old streets pass through the north bank, where the markets are gathered, and the opposite south bank is undeveloped and only a large area of mountain forest. As a result, visitors naturally walk across the suspension bridge to the wild South Bank. At the other end of the suspension bridge is the riverside village, and the fork in the road up is where the mountain temple is located.

The police arrived and scooped up the body. The deceased's handbag was not found near the scene, whether it was swept away by the river or stolen. The corpse had some abrasion marks on its hands and feet. The deceased was well-nourished and had fair skin, a slightly blessed body, and a very beautiful face. According to the medical examiner's post-mortem, the elapsed time after death was about 145 hours. Based on this calculation, the time of death should have been between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. the day before. There were no stab wounds on the deceased's body, and there were no strangulation marks on the neck, and the medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was drowning.

The body was taken to the Nanshan City Public Security Hospital because it needed to be autopsied, but it was not possible to confirm the identity of the woman because she was missing the handbag that the woman was supposed to be carrying. The clothing on the body does not provide any clue in this regard. She wasn't a local, so she knew at first glance that she was a tourist from a big city that day.

For the purpose of tourists' visits, March 24 seems too early. However, it was a Saturday, so the number of passengers getting off the bus at the Momijidani bus stop was much higher than usual. According to the station clerk, he remembers that one of the 20 passengers who got off the bus yesterday on the 6 p.m. bus did pass through the ticket gate. At that time, whether she had a male companion or not, the station staff did not know very well.

The woman's autopsy showed that her stomach was filled with water, which was evident as drowning. In addition, it was found that there were body fluids of a man with blood type AB left in her vaginal tract. Some parts are incomplete due to the time spent in the water for too long, but it is not wrong to have sexual intercourse before death. Semen stains were also found on the underwear. It is not clear whether it was rape or not. When I was raped, I often saw trauma around the genus and thighs, but I didn't see it. However, this does not mean that the deceased was not raped. This is because abrasions on the hands and feet may be caused by resistance.

One thing anyone would have imagined was that this woman could not have been here alone, she must have had a male companion. If the station clerk's memory of arriving by bus at 6 p.m. on the 24th was correct, she probably didn't come here for sightseeing, because it was already twilight. It's just that the station clerk didn't know, and her companion was among the 20 passengers who got off the train at the same time, so it's very likely. More than half of the 20 people who walked through the ticket gate were men and none of them locals, including seven or eight young people.

There are several hotels along the nearby riverside that can be used for these tourists and couples. The detectives scrutinized the hotels, restaurants and shops in the area, but found no clues. However, as a general rule, it is unlikely that a woman would come to such a place in the evening, so she should have a male companion. When the weather warms up, it's not uncommon for couples to skip their hotels and go to a deep bush by the river to have fun.

There was a strong eyewitness. There is a charcoal wholesale shop on the north side of the suspension bridge, and the owner's daughter was about to close the back door before 7 pm on the 24th when she saw a woman in red and a man walking over the suspension bridge. Judging by the location of this charcoal shop, the suspension bridge is diagonally ahead.

The witness knew it was before 7 o'clock because the TV had just started broadcasting the news before the advertisement. She said she was listening to the TV announcement while the door was closed, so the time was not wrong. However, the girl only saw the appearance of the woman, and the man who walked on the side did not even see the clothes clearly because it was dark and just covered by the woman. And these two people had already crossed the bridge at that time, so she only had an impression of the red clothes. There shouldn't be any tourists at this time, but it's not like people going to the village in front of you. Could it be that a couple who are anxious can't wait for the weather to warm up, and want to go to the woods to talk to me? The girl at the charcoal shop said that she thought it was so, and forgot about the closure for a moment, and stared at the shadows of the two men for a moment.

The woman got off the train at the station at 6:10 p.m. and had 45 minutes between being seen. How did she spend this time? While this has not been confirmed, the only explanation is that she was hanging around the station and waiting for the man who was walking with her later to arrive on the next bus. The shopping street near the station is quite developed and is the central point of the market, and it is even more crowded with pedestrians during this time. A woman who waits for someone in such an environment certainly does not attract special attention.

Thanks to the testimony of an eyewitness such as the charcoal owner's daughter, it is an unshakable fact that the young woman walked across the drawbridge with a man before 7 o'clock. The distance between the scene where her body floated in the water and the southern end of the suspension bridge was about twenty or thirty meters. The police immediately searched the nearby dense forest and found that the grass near the upstream, about 50 meters away, had been trampled, indicating that someone had been lying on it. Although this cannot be concluded as a wild meeting place for drowning women and men, it is undoubtedly a powerful reference. However, the weeds are deep and dense, so no footprints have been taken.