Zhang Qiang's body has been found, logically Zhou Fan should be happy.

However, Zhao Donglai obviously felt a heavy tone in his voice; puzzled, he immediately led everyone to the scene.

Zhang Qiang was retrieved about two kilometers downstream.

The area is right on the edge of the city, surrounded by no buildings, and no people; both sides of the riverbank are deserted land.

At this moment, lying on the wasteland by the river, is a corpse, precisely Zhang Qiang who was just retrieved.

He has been in the water for less than 24 hours, aside from the body being slightly swollen from the water, there hasn't been much change.

Upon arriving, Zhao Tian promptly brought personnel from the technical team forward, preparing to conduct a simple autopsy on him.

At this moment, Zhao Donglai noticed the dark river surface was illuminated by two lights.

Under the faint light, two salvage boats could be seen.

"Zhang Qiang has been found, let them hurry and finish up. Go back to rest."

Hearing this, Zhou Fan shook his head with a bitter smile, "Captain Zhao, I'm afraid they can't finish yet."

"Why?"

"You'd better take a look at these things first."

As he spoke, Zhou Fan led him forward a few steps and pointed at the wet backpack lying on the ground with a flashlight.

At this moment, the backpack zipper was open, but initially, Zhao Donglai didn't see clearly what's inside, only a white spherical object, surrounded by something resembling sticks.

He looked carefully again and finally realized what was inside.

"Quickly, give me a pair of gloves!"

He shouted at Zhao Tian beside him, who hurriedly took a pair from the toolbox and threw it to him.

After quickly putting on the gloves, Zhao Donglai directly reached forward, fully opening the backpack, revealing exactly what he suspected—a complete human skull appeared before him.

Beside the skull were several neatly cut human arm and hand bones.

Everyone present, including Zhao Donglai, was startled.

"Why is there another set of remains? Zhou Fan, where were these things found?"

"Just on the riverbed, brought up together with Zhang Qiang when retrieved."

As Zhou Fan spoke, he explained the salvage situation at the time.

Originally, they dragged dredging hooks down from upstream without picking up anything, only until the boat reached this spot did the hook finally react.

Unexpectedly, with Zhang Qiang being pulled up, there also came this backpack.

The corpse's foot happened to be stuck in the bag's strap, and the shoulder strap was strapped to a large stone with a body helping to hold it.

Having been a criminal detective for over ten years, Zhou Fan immediately sensed something was off out of professional habit.

Who would throw a backpack into the river with a rock strapped to it?

Out of curiosity, he immediately opened the backpack for a glance and discovered the human bones inside.

He immediately realized this might be another murder case.

Thus, while notifying Zhao Donglai, he also instructed the salvage team to continue with more detailed dredging of nearby waters.

"Captain Zhao, I just checked, there are only a head and two arm bones inside this backpack. I suspect the rest might still be in the water."

"Your speculation is very reasonable."

Zhao Donglai nodded, glanced at the boats working on the river surface, his expression heavy.

Judging by the degree of corrosion of the bones in the backpack, it would take at least a year for them to form like this.

In other words, it's highly possible this is a case from over a year ago.

Investigating such cases is not only time-consuming and mentally exhausting, but the key point is that they might not get resolved, ultimately becoming a cold case...

Just then, Zhao Tian came over.

"Captain Zhao, we found his ID in the deceased's shirt pocket, confirming the deceased is indeed Zhang Qiang himself."

"After the initial autopsy, the cadaveric lividity was slow and not obvious; mud and silt are found in the mouth and nose, consistent with common asphyxiation death, colloquially known as drowning."

"Additionally, according to the rigor mortis on the deceased and the swelling level, the death time was around early morning, aligning with Zhang Qiang's final disappearance time."

"Good, I understand. Have them take his body back, remember to extract his DNA and compare it with the blood traces in Lin Qi's fingernails. If confirmed it's the same person, this case can be closed."

After Zhao Donglai finished speaking, he added, "Zhao Tian, also take a look at this."

Earlier, Zhao Tian was beside them, also hearing some of their conversations.

Without surprise, she immediately called a colleague, the two squatted down and quickly conducted a simple examination on the bones in the backpack.

"The skeleton is thoroughly decomposed, no visible muscle tissue remains. According to the decomposition chart for corpses in water, the death time is at least over two years."

"The cut at the breaks is very even; professional cutting tools or bone chopping knives were likely used, confirming this as a classic dismemberment evidence-dumping case."

"The frontal bone of the skull is relatively steep; brow ridges are subtle, cheekbones are thin; it can be seen this is likely a female skull. Judging by the erosion of the teeth, the deceased was likely a young woman between twenty to thirty years old."

After analyzing the bone conditions, Zhao Tian carefully placed the bones into a bag which was laid out on the ground, and conducted a meticulous search of the backpack.

Unfortunately, no items verifying the person's identity were found within the bag.

At this moment, a shout suddenly came from the river's edge, "Found something else!"

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