Chapter 17 Lost Pendant

One day in December, someone called the police that the mail of their neighbors Gertrude Thompson and Edward Kovacs had piled up outside the house, and the postman who delivered the mail had no idea how to deliver it. Under the leadership of Inspector Elliott, we arrived at the scene quickly and found that the room had been turned upside down, and two old people were lying on the floor, dead for several days.Based on the evidence found on both victims, we suspect that there may be two killers.So we launched an investigation into the case. Neighbors said they had not seen the elderly couple for several days.Gertrude, 69, and Edward, 72, have lived in the house for the last few years.The lowest temperature in winter in Toledo can sometimes reach minus 26°C.As the elderly, their first thing is to do a good job of heating and keeping warm in winter. They cover the windows tightly with plastic, cardboard and aluminum foil, so that no one can see the situation inside the house.Looking at the house from the outside, it looks even more lonely.The neighbors live far away from the house, but standing at the door, you can see the half-circle arched door of Gertrude's house, and there is a mailbox under the door. A child's schoolbag is installed at the lower end of the door.In other words, the postman can put the letter inside as long as he bends slightly.

Neighbors said it was a cold winter, and they noticed that Gertrude's fireplace seemed to have gone days without smoke.I saw that there was indeed a chimney on the roof, and there was a lot of snow on the roof, and standing outside, I couldn't see inside at all.Faced with this situation, the neighbors were basically helpless, so they called the police. They did not want any accidents for the two elderly people in this house. All kinds of personal belongings in the house were turned into a mess, and many of the bags used by the two old people to hold things had also been opened.It appears that the owner of the house is about to move.The scene at the scene told me that the murderer must be looking for something.The preliminary identification of the bodies of the two elderly people allowed me to conclude that this was not an ordinary murder.They died horribly, with bludgeon marks, cuts and stab wounds.This is the most brutal scene I have ever seen, I can see that the murderer used a variety of tools at the crime scene.

Our on-site investigation mainly has three aspects of action.We want to investigate the bloodstains on the scene, which includes the investigation of the victim's bloodstains and the investigation of the suspects' bloodstains.It is also necessary to investigate the traces and items left at the scene, such as fingerprints, footprints, scars, clothing, and the items, gloves and crime tools of the suspect left at the scene.At the same time, when I inspected the corpse, I included two parts: the inspection of the corpse table and the anatomical inspection. We took the bodies of Gertrude and Edward back to the police station, and I performed a detailed autopsy on them overnight.When the dawn sun shone into the laboratory, I tiredly dropped the scalpel and sat on a chair to rest.I was filled with an unspeakable anger, which made me look bad at the case discussion meeting.

"Diane, are you feeling well?" Elliott looked at me with some concern. "It's nothing, it's just a little tired from working all night." I replied.Then I described the autopsy results to my colleagues in detail. "Gertrude and Edward died from blunt force blows to the head. On their bodies, I also noticed minor injuries. They were some stab wounds. I can think that the murderer may be using this form of physical torture. To force the two victims to say where the things he wanted. Maybe the old man refused to tell, so the murderer used this method to treat them who were unarmed. Compared with sharp weapons, if you want to enter or injure the human body, You must use more force when you use it, and such things are called blunt objects. Blunt objects refer to blunt objects without edges or points, such as hammers, boards, etc. Mechanical injuries caused by blunt objects are blunt object injuries. Common blunt objects include sticks, ax backs, wrenches, masonry, fists, and other objects that are neither sharp nor sharp.Blunt objects can also be formed when the body hits the ground or wall, or traffic accidents caused by cars, trams, and trains Injuries, which are divided into abrasions, contusions, and contusions, etc. The deaths of the two elderly people at the scene belong to one of the common crimes of intentional homicide, that is, intentional homicide with blunt instruments. kill."

"That's brutal, God, let me get this guy." "This is the most vicious murderer I have ever seen in my career!" My words obviously aroused the anger of my colleagues, and they began to vent their emotions. "Be quiet, guys. If you want to solve the case as soon as possible, it's useless to just swear like this." Inspector Elliot solemnly stopped everyone's noise.After a pause, he said again: "Then let's start the investigation now. We need to find out the background of these two old people as soon as possible. Diane, try your best to analyze the evidence at the scene. That's it. Get to work, guys."

In the days that followed, Edward and Gertrude were identified.They have been engaged in business transactions, not only living together, but also business partners.They have several properties that they rent out to low-income residents and college students.When the tenant moves out, they keep what the tenant left behind and never throw it away.It can be seen from this that they are very shrewd and know how to save and accumulate wealth. In this respect, they are much better than others. The people the two old men knew and had contact with were people who had business dealings with them. Among these people, there may be a murderer hidden, and it is very likely that the murderer knew the two victims.There are also some circumstances that tell us that these two victims let the murderer in. At the scene that day, I noticed that there was no sign of forced entry in the room, and there were no signs of prying or smashing of the doors and windows.

The old man's room was turned into a mess, and the state made people feel that the murderer must have been in a state of extreme rage at that time.Perhaps, the murderers didn't find what they were looking for, or the murderers would irrationally grab any object in the room and use it as a weapon for them to attack each other.It seems that the murderer did not want to get any information from the victim.So, they started, picked up blunt objects and beat the two old people to death. It was difficult for us to find out what was missing in the room. Money hidden in books and wallets was found at the scene one after another.If the murderer wanted it, the money would be long gone.Perhaps, the murderer didn't have that much time to search everything in the room, so he could only rummage around while threatening the two old people.The murderer is in a state of panic during the crime process. They have always been very stingy with time and will not delay when committing crimes.So, they did it when they didn't get what they wanted, and they put the old man to death.We were thinking like this while we were investigating. Could it be that the two old people had enemies before their lives?

However, relatives of the two elderly people provided a clue.A pendant that Gertrude Thompson used to wear around his neck was missing.This is a gold elephant charm, a gift from Gertrude's father when she was a child, which is said to bring good luck. The city of Toledo is still following the tradition, and they apply gold and silver inlays to modern accessories such as earrings, brooches, bracelets, etc., including of course the pendants worn by the victims. We think this lead is important, and if we track down the stolen pendant, we can find whoever took it from Gertrude Thompson. So we posted photos of the pendant in the local paper, but no one responded, and none of the second-hand jewelers in town had seen it.In this era of extremely developed media, who would pay attention to such things as newspapers?Let alone save.We publish the news in the newspapers as if there was no such thing at all.This kind of situation made us very anxious. We sent someone to stand by the phone every day. As soon as the phone rang, the person on duty would immediately pick up the phone.

"Hello? What? I'm sorry..." This is the answer every time.Then, the duty officer shrugged helplessly and put down the phone. We just tasted the taste of failure again and again. When collecting information about the two elderly people, Edward's daughter Dennis Kovacs said that she thought Gertrude was a very powerful businesswoman.So, is Gertrude's prowess related to this case?We analyzed Gertrude's background information. She grew up in a merchant family, and the unique atmosphere of the family gave Gertrude the talent to be a businessman since she was a child.Although she had two failed marriages, that doesn't mean she was also a loser in business.On the contrary, she has been accumulating wealth through years of business dealings.And in her later years, she found a better wife in her opinion.So, they stayed together, not to mention loving each other, but it was passable.It can be seen from the group photo of the two of them that they are very happy.So Gertrude is not as unreasonable as Edward's daughter Dennis Kovacs said.

However, Dennis always felt that Gertrude was a bossy person, and she told us that Gertrude was likely to have a dispute with her tenant, her father Edward. The relatives of the two elderly people suspected that the motive of the murderer was not robbery, but a dispute over business between them.Relatives said that even at home, Gertrude and Edward were usually at odds because the money they did business was never kept together, but kept separately.They trade in earrings, brooches, bracelets, etc., and sell these accessories to the tourists who come here. This place called Toledo, even in winter, many foreign tourists will come here especially.The two old men sold those things to tourists and asked them to take them back as souvenirs and remember Toledo forever.Neighbors said they saw old people peddling their wares and said, "We are in the state of Ohio—Toledo, also known as the Buckeye State, is located between the Ohio River and Lake Erie, and it got its name from the Ohio River. Come and see, as you wear this ornament, you will feel in your heart that Columbus, the capital of Ohio, is close to you."

The two old men also simply wrote the history of Ohio on a piece of paper and put it in front of a simple table. State.They use such means to sell their own products. You can't say that this is deceiving tourists. On the contrary, they let foreign tourists understand the customs of Toledo by loudly selling those decorations.So when they're selling those items, they're not even a little bit disturbed by the way they're selling, they're proud, they're comfortable, and life just goes on and on. Ohio is geographically located in the northeastern United States.On the US Postal Service, it is customary to abbreviate it as OH, and earlier it was abbreviated as O.The Iroquois are one of the two major Indian groups in the Americas. In their language, the word "Ohio" stands for great water, that is, the Ohio River, which encircles the southern border of Ohio. Gertrude once told people that the elephant pendant she was wearing was as important as the Ohio River.As long as she wears this pendant to do business every day, the business will go smoothly. As for Edward, he has his business.The meaning of Gertrude's words is obvious, that is to say, there are still differences between the two people in terms of relatively independent life attitudes, but these differences did not hinder the relationship between the two old people. I always suspected that there should be at least two murderers at the scene, because the bodies of the two victims were next to each other.According to investigations, they were not killed by guns, but were killed by some kind of equipment.We noticed no signs of forced entry in the room as neither doors nor windows had been pried and smashed.This shows that the murderer did not break in, and this case happened among acquaintances.In this way, the scope of the investigation was basically determined, and we decided to conduct an investigation among the acquaintances of the two elderly people in order to obtain some new information.