Chapter 2 The Naked Body Mystery

Located at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, Tampa, Florida is a seaport city on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, bordering Tampa Bay and connecting to the Gulf of Mexico.It is not only famous for its beautiful scenery, but also for its frequent thunderstorms. On the morning of October 20th, a thunderstorm had just passed in Tampa. I was leaning on a chair in the office and flipping through a magazine.You know, for a forensic doctor, such leisurely moments are not always available.Just two days ago, I just got out of a murder case and finished my intense and busy work. Although the weather wasn't hot, I was still a little sleepy, so I put the magazine aside and was about to sneak a nap.Just then, Inspector Robert Kerry knocked on my office door.

"Eddie, you have work again." Robert's usual serious and deep voice drove my drowsiness away.Sighing, I stood up and walked over to my suitcase in the closet while putting on my coat. On the way to the scene, I was in the same car as Robert, and although my job at the crime scene was only to collect evidence, I didn't mind listening to the case. At about 10 o'clock, the driver of a fast food restaurant was driving to deliver pizza as usual. When he passed a grass field near Clearwater Town, Tampa, he accidentally glanced out the car window.But with just such a casual glance, he was so frightened that he almost overturned the car-a naked woman lay quietly on the lawn.The driver bravely got out of the car and took a closer look, and finally confirmed that it was a corpse, so he dialed the police without hesitation.

Clearwater is not far from Tampa, and we arrived at the scene about an hour later.Everyone got out of the car and searched slowly along the direction pointed by the driver. Not long after, they saw a naked female corpse. She was lying on a piece of grass, her right hand was at a 90-degree angle to her body, and the forearm of her left hand was in line with her body. keep the head parallel. I looked around and found that not far from here is Qingshui Beach, where there is a magnificent sea, and there are endless streams of tourists every day.Some of them were walking, holding hands with each other, some were sunbathing, and some were lying on chairs under parasols, looking leisurely.But at this time they did not know that a homicide had occurred in their neighborhood.

"Eddie, you stay here for the autopsy, let's look around." Robert explained to me at the scene.It is imperative for us to conduct a careful search of the neighborhood. Robert and his colleagues spread out and surveyed the site and surrounding areas. They walked slowly along roads, river ditches and bushes.I squatted down and began to conduct a preliminary inspection of the body, although my work was not so smooth at first, because it is not surprising that a thunderstorm in the morning may have washed away some evidence. I concentrated my energy and carefully observed the appearance of the naked body and the shape, size and location of the wounds.There was a choke mark on the deceased's neck and other injuries on her body, suggesting that she had been beaten and abused prior to her death, but I found no indication that she had been sexually assaulted.According to my analysis, she may have been "dumped" here after she was killed elsewhere.

On the neck of the deceased, I found obvious bleeding points. Obviously, the cause of the death of the deceased was strangulation. The murderer pressed the victim's neck with one or both hands to suffocate her to death.Some forensic scholars have pointed out that a pressure of about 2 kg can hinder the blood return of the human carotid artery, a pressure of 3.5 kg is enough to block the common carotid artery, and a pressure of 16.6 kg can block the vertebral artery.Therefore, a pressure of more than 16.6 kilograms is enough to occlude all the blood vessels in the human neck and completely stop the blood circulation in the brain—causing an obstacle to the blood circulation in the brain.In that case, what kind of hands were it that strangled the dead?It must have a strength of more than 16.6 kg.

I took the fingerprints and palm prints of the ten fingers of the female corpse, including her blood, urine, and some secretions from her intestines and stomach for examination.The deceased did not wear any clothes or carry any items. Robert and his colleagues are still searching for the packaging and transportation tools used by the murderer to move the body.After some consideration, they expanded the search site to about 40 kilometers west of the urban area, where there is the famous "Clearwater Beach" in the United States, and the town of Clearwater is not far from the beach. "Any other discoveries?" My work was drawing to a close, and I happened to see Robert and a few colleagues walking towards us exhaustedly, so I went up and asked.

"About 7 feet from where the body was found, that is, at a distance of 2.1 meters, there is a car tire mark. I think this should be related to the case." Robert said out of breath. It seems that the search just now made him tired. broken. The muddy ground after the heavy rain still recorded the tracks of the tires. In this survey, we used the central camera method to take pictures of the tire tracks.This is considered in accordance with the actual situation of the murder scene. Using this method to obtain evidence is mainly to find out the characteristics, conditions, and the relationship between traces and objects of important objects.Generally speaking, there are four methods of photographic evidence collection for crime scene investigation, including azimuth photography, overview photography, central photography and detailed photography.The advantage of using the central photography method is that when the photo is developed, the scale and sensitivity of the evidence being enlarged can completely restore the situation on the spot.

The tire pattern looked very clear, suggesting it was a newer tire with a small rock embedded in it.The number, shape, and gauge of the rut tracks tell you it's a truck. Usually, when the vehicle is running, due to the effect of air flow, the dust or fine sand on the side of the tire will often form a fan shape, and the fan-shaped unfolded surface is the rear of the car, so it can be judged that the car is driving from the city. from.We also found spots of oil and water dripping from the car, which looked like they had a sharp point, and the direction of the point could also indicate the direction of travel of the vehicle.

On the way back to the police station, the identity of the deceased has been investigated.After Robert answered the phone, he grumbled angrily. "Hell, this dead woman was another drug addict." So far, I have a preliminary understanding of the whole case and the physical characteristics of the corpse. As for the physiological and pathological characteristics of the corpse, further observation and analysis are needed.The deceased was named Wendy Evans, Caucasian, 42 years old, a cocaine addict with brain defects.Cocaine is a new type of drug that has appeared in the United States since the 1980s. Because of its low price and fast pleasure, it is especially popular with low-income groups.Later, high-purity cocaine became popular rapidly, which not only brought physical and mental side effects to users, but also brought a heavy burden to the entire society and the U.S. government.

In fact, when I first came into contact with Wendy's body, I had some conjectures of my own, and the investigation of the case later only confirmed that my inferences were completely correct.Tampa is a tourist city, and the sex industry is as hot as tourism in this place.Every night, there are many beautifully dressed women standing on the road to solicit business.Tampa at night is as beautiful as an illusion. The neon lights on both sides of the road are constantly shining every night, reflecting the continuous flow of traffic. Wendy has been engaged in the porn industry, usually rely on cocaine to anesthetize herself, and has a history of mental illness.The last time she was seen, she was hitchhiking in a red-light district fresh out of a mental institution.The red light district is the center of striptease, sex shops, pornographic books, movies and videos.Although the government has many regulations on the red-light district, such as: teenagers under the age of 17 are not allowed to watch sex performances, but who can judge the age of those young audiences has become a problem.We can see everywhere, many young boys are greeted by dancers in bikinis standing at the door of nightclubs.

It seems that Wendy has completely forgotten the harm cocaine brought to her.There is a chemical in the human brain called dopamine. When a person is stimulated or performs some exercise, the cells of the nervous system release dopamine, which crosses a gap between nerve cells called a synapse. , and then combine with a receptor on an adjacent nerve cell called a neuron, and transmit a signal to the nerve cell, that is pleasure.Under normal circumstances, after dopamine releases this signal, it is reabsorbed by the dopamine-producing nerve cells.But cocaine can block this cycle. It attaches to the nerve cells that produce dopamine, hinders the process of normal reabsorption of dopamine by cells, makes dopamine accumulate in synaptic sites, and continues to stimulate receptors, allowing cocaine users to produce long-term pleasure or spiritual pleasure.Of course, in this way, it will also cause potential toxic side effects to the human body. The cocaine entering the US market comes from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.Drugs are smuggled into the United States in powder form across the Mexican border, where they are refined in-between by U.S. wholesalers and retailers.In the United States, various gangs control most of the retail market. Cocaine is a powdered drug made from the coca leaf, which is grown mainly in South America, and cocaine has actually been around for centuries.The Indians of South America chewed coca leaves for strength and energy. Cocaine was first isolated from coca leaves in the mid-19th century, when people put cocaine in some drinks at that time to have a refreshing effect.In the late 19th century, cocaine was used as an anesthetic in medicine, mainly to prevent patients from bleeding excessively during surgical operations.After that, people became more and more aware that cocaine was an addictive narcotic. Finally, in 1914, the United States passed the "Harrison Narcotics Tax Act", which made the non-medical use of cocaine illegal. These are some digressions, but Wendy has a history of cocaine use, which is good for our direction of detection.I had hoped to find some clues in Wendy's clothes, but it turned out to be a naked body.In this regard, I was not discouraged, but used all equipment, first observed with a microscope, and then used light energy, trying to brighten those materials that cannot be seen under the microscope. You know, the use of light source is very important to solve the case. In the crime laboratory of the police station, I began to examine Wendy's naked body with a luma lamp.This kind of light has extremely strong energy, even if it is outdoors during the day, it can search the entire scene, and in a dark room, the high light it emits is stronger than the sun's light, which can make all the subtle objects glow or change. Bright, including rayon. As I expected, I found several tiny pink fibers on the naked body of Wendy Evans by using the luma lamp.The physical evidence was taken to the laboratory for further analysis, and it was confirmed that it was a polyester fiber of nylon, which could be used to make cloth bags or felt blankets and socks for people to wear.Usually, fiber generally refers to a thin and long material, which has the characteristics of large elastic modulus, small plastic deformation, high strength, etc., and has high crystallization ability, and is divided into two types: natural fiber and chemical fiber.Natural fibers exist in nature and can be obtained directly. According to their sources, they are divided into three categories: plant fibers, animal fibers and mineral fibers.Chemical fibers are fibers made by chemical treatment, which can be divided into two types: man-made fibers and synthetic fibers.The nylon polyester fibers on Wendy's body belonged to the latter. I made another, more significant discovery—there were a few tufts of dog hair on the naked body.So, where did the dog hair come from, and how did it end up on the woman's body?Moreover, whether it is fiber or dog hair, they are attached to the body of the deceased in a very fine way. Obviously, this criminal does not have much professional anti-reconnaissance ability, at least he does not know how to eliminate these fine substances that may cause him trouble , or did not think of these problems at all.This also became a clue for us to solve the case. Of course we can't be too happy.Many tourists who come to Tampa bring cats, dogs or other pets, and there are also many local dogs.Here, beachgoers let their pets let their hair loose while enjoying the beauty of nature.Tourists or locals take their dogs for a walk, hold the dog into the bedroom, etc., which may cause people to be contaminated with dog hair. The difficulty in solving Wendy's naked body case lies in the fact that Tampa has an extremely large floating population. If you want to investigate tourists who come here, it is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.The urban area of ​​Tampa is 218 square kilometers. It was built in 1823 and established as a city in 1855. In 1990, Tampa's population reached 280,000.The name Tampa comes from the dialect of the local Calusa people, which means "sparkling".About a quarter of them are black. Thirty years later, with the arrival of the South Florida Railroad, the port here was improved, and the rise of cigar manufacturing and tourism made the city develop rapidly.There is also a Disney-style playground in the urban area, which is also a dream place for tourists. The entire city of Tampa is divided into two parts, the old and the new. The old city still retains the Latin style of the early days of the city, and there is an advanced international airport in the west of Tampa. The artificial island built in Tampa Bay in the 1920s is named Davis Island, where there are hotels, villas and various recreational facilities.Ybor City is the Latin Quarter, known for its Spanish restaurants and shops. What's more, we can generally understand the psychology of people in this kind of resort at this time. They don't want to be involved in Wendy's murder and accept police investigation.Tourists standing on the beach hope that they can show their true side with the help of the atmosphere of nature in the depths of their hearts, and they come to relax.But, incongruously, the naked body of a white woman was found not far from them. Of course, such an investigation will be handed over to Robert, and I will continue to conduct further analysis on Wendy's body and some physical evidence in the laboratory.I cast the tire marks with dental plaster to get a clear cast to work on later investigations.Dental plaster, a material popular with forensics in crime labs, hardens quickly after being poured into an object, forming a living mold. Unfortunately, these did not bring any help to the detection work. A month passed, and the Wendy Evans naked body case made no progress, which made Inspector Robert sad all day long.