"Could it be a human skin patch, the murderer was influenced by that kind of horror movie, or simply as a collector's item." Rosie also began to play with his brains.

"It's hard to say." "Judging from the photos, the skin area of the victim's foot that was removed was up to 2 x 2 inches in size, and it was only on the right foot.

A piece of skin of this size, after detachment from the tissue, quickly becomes inactive and completely atrophies, making it difficult to preserve. ”

"Maybe that's why the killer keeps committing crimes." Emily seemed to think that this speculation was not very reliable, and pouted her lips and did not say any more.

Jack is considering the difficulty of finding the killer, "From the report, there doesn't seem to be any connection between the location of the murderer's kidnapping and dumping, and Red's map marker may need a large map this time."

The Los Angeles metropolitan area seems to have a total area of 5,000 square miles, and even if you count the city of Los Angeles, there are 500 square miles. ”

Red nodded in agreement, "The only thing that is certain now is that the murderer should be a local or someone who has lived here for a long time and is very familiar with the surrounding environment, because no one has witnessed him kidnapping and dumping his body, which shows that he knows the city very well." ”

That's pretty much the end of the initial discussion, Hodgner is still recovering from his injury at home, so Rossi is scheduled to work for the time being.

Red was left at the headquarters, and Jiejie brought him several large maps so that he could analyze his maps directly there.

Jiejie and Emily went to the LAPD headquarters called the Parker Center, where several metropolitan police detectives were waiting to meet with them, and later meet with the victims' families to find out what was going on.

Because each of the murderers' crimes was completed in less than 24 hours, the families of the first two deceased did not even have time to report their disappearance to the police.

In the LAPD's internal system process, less than 24 hours also means that the disappearance cannot be confirmed in time, so the LAPD is not even sure if there are more victims that have not yet been found.

Jack and Rossi went to the crime lab where the LAPD belonged, where all three bodies were sent for autopsies, and they needed to communicate face-to-face with the medical examiner in charge of the case.

——

"The cause of death of the three victims was obviously drowning, but none of their lungs had water, but 100% anhydrous methanol, which completely penetrated the skin.

They have been soaked for quite some time, so what you see is a floating corpse, not only is the moisture in the skin precipitated, but a part of the subcutaneous fat is also dissolved. ”

The middle-aged forensic doctor who was making instant noodles next to the planing table saw the two FBIs, drank the noodle soup in two sips, and then burped very unimagedly, cleaned up, put on gloves, pulled out a corpse covered with a white cloth from the upright freezer, and began to explain.

Jack was used to looking at corpses, but he couldn't do it himself, though he knew that the cleaned and sanitized stainless steel planer would probably be cleaner than the back kitchen board of any restaurant.

Rosie had long been accustomed to the methods of these forensic doctors, and asked without changing his face, "So the purpose of soaking methanol is not so much to drown the victims, but to soak them?" ”

The medical examiner hesitated for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"In fact, it was really an effective way to eliminate the evidence, at least it made it completely impossible for me to get any valid DNA information from the corpses, and the methanol dissolved everything, even the makeup on their faces."

Jack also nodded in understanding, except that the whitish and wrinkled skin looked scary, and the corpse in front of him could actually be said to be too clean.

The victim was Linda Dean, who had been killed two days earlier, and Jack had come to a conclusion after observing the wounds on the soles of her feet and comparing them with the photos of the wounds of the other two deceased people he had seen earlier, but he still wanted to be able to confirm further.

"In your opinion, what was the murderer's method when he cut off the skin on the soles of the victims' feet?"

The medical examiner also seemed to have considered this question, and replied almost without thinking, "The first two victims had uneven edges in their wounds, but the latest one, the edges are much smoother, and the murderer's skills and confidence have obviously improved." ”

Rosie knew Jack's purpose in asking this question, and then continued to ask, "In my opinion, this level of skin removal does not require any professional medical training, right?" ”

The medical examiner shook his head, "No, as long as the tool is sharp enough." ”

Rosie and Jack looked at each other, both disappointed, which meant they couldn't narrow down the suspects.

Jack looked at the wrinkled skin around the wound, and his heart suddenly moved, "Did the murderer remove the skin first and then soak in methanol, or is it the other way around?" ”

The forensic doctor was stunned for a moment, and then reacted, "I only found a trace amount of methanol in the wound, indicating that the murderer removed the skin after the victim's death, but is there any point in this?" ”

"Of course." Jack explained, "If it is a posthumous excision, then the purpose of the murderer is not torture and pain. ”

The medical examiner was thoughtful, then excitedly walked to his desk and picked up a report, "Speaking of which, I just made a new discovery. ”

He handed the report to Jack, "This is the toxicology report for the first victim, and a large amount of chloroform was found in her blood.

So I tested the blood of two other victims for chloroform, and their blood also contained high doses of chloroform.

This explains why the facial expressions of the three victims were relatively peaceful, and it is clear that they did not suffer much when they were suffocated by methanol. ”

Unlike methanol, chloroform, a chemical commonly used in kidnapping, has received basic training from the FBI.

People often see in movies and television works, pouring a little bit from a small bottle on a handkerchief and covering the victim's face to make a person unconscious.

Rosie and Jack subconsciously looked at the corpse's face together, not at the expression, but at the position of the mouth and nose, and then both showed puzzled expressions.

"If the killer used chloroform for anesthesia, shouldn't the skin near the victim's nose and mouth have red spots or blisters?"

Chloroform, the scientific name of chloroform, is the second synthetic compound used to anesthetize patients after ether, and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom used chloroform for painless delivery when she gave birth to her eighth child.

But because chloroform is toxic, it was phased out after humans discovered a better anesthetic.

And although this compound smells sweet, it is very unfriendly to sensitive skin, and when it comes into contact with the skin of the delicate areas of the mouth and nose, it can cause allergic-like redness, swelling and even blisters.

The medical examiner shrugged, "I wasn't aware of the problem at first, until I found burn marks in the victim's nose, which confirmed it." ”

After all, not everywhere forensic or forensic researchers follow a case from beginning to end like CSI, in most cases, they only provide evidence and are not responsible for solving the case, so someone can only use their own brains.

"Did the killer create a confined environment and then release a spray of chloroform in it?" Jack guessed.

"That makes sense." As if because it felt easy to communicate with smart people, the medical examiner smiled and nodded.

There is no anesthetic in this world that can make a person faint by spraying it on the nose, the human body has a conditioned reflex, and the first reaction of a normal person is to hold his breath and cover his mouth and nose.

Even if you accidentally take a sip, that dose is not enough to immediately fall into a coma.

Rather than following the kind of operation in film and television works, it may be better to directly strangle or press the carotid sinus, at least there is no need to worry about the person who wants to be kidnapped not waking up because of the excessive dose.

"So we're dealing with an expert who is well-versed in chemistry." Rosie took a deep breath and finally made a breakthrough.

Tickets, ask for a monthly pass, I'm going to fall out of the monthly ticket list, I don't want to go out!

(End of chapter)