Forensic Traversing Notes

Chapter 95: Red-headed blowfly

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When Feng Huan came out, the emperor didn't make things difficult. He only said that the time would be postponed, so naturally he couldn't change it easily. However, this case is no longer a simple murder case, and the degree of attention it has received is unmatched by similar cases. It's just that in order to prevent people with ulterior motives from knowing the truth of the experiment, they will try to obstruct it and make it more difficult to solve the case, so the experiment has not been made public. The officials in charge of the case will also be punished accordingly for failing to solve the case on time, but only those in the know know that this is just a show. The solemn punishment was suspension, which was also to allow him to concentrate on the case.

The case could not be solved, and the prince's party was also implicated. Especially not long after, the Yin family actually caught the murderer. The murderer was a habitual thief. He had been arrested for theft before and had just been released from prison. He had inquired a long time ago that the neighbors in this area did not meet each other, and the people who could live here had some wealth. There are only two women in Zhao Wuniang's household, and few people enter it on weekdays. So he sneaked into the house in the middle of the night, but was discovered by Zhao Wuniang's master and servant, and wanted to shout for help, so he killed them both in a moment of desperation. For fear of being discovered by others, they chopped up the corpses and discarded them everywhere to avoid punishment.

The reason why he was caught by the Yin family was that in order to prove Yin Xiangyang's innocence, the Yin family investigated all the thieves in the capital before finding out. Although the habitual thief has a strict mouth, he tends to talk too much when he is drunk. He didn't say that he killed himself, but when the world was discussing the corpse dismemberment case, he inadvertently mentioned that the woman was still very beautiful, which is a pity. Just such an inconspicuous remark made the Yin family attach great importance to it, and thus solved the case.

The murderer confessed to his crime. Although everyone didn't understand why he was so cruel, the whole case was well-founded. The murderer also led the yamen servants to find the knife he used to commit the murder. Therefore, the dismemberment case that made people panic and made a lot of noise— The world also called the "Devil's Meat Case" officially solved.

As for the solemnity, he had heard about it, but he did not stop his own experiments, not to mention his sixth sense that the murderer was someone else, as long as there was still a little bit of mystery in the case, he would do his best to investigate it to the end. Moreover, the emperor attached so much importance to this case, so he sought out the people who were the best at solving cases in the Dayou Dynasty to investigate. When investigating the case, they almost dug three feet into the ground, but found nothing. They had also used the Yin family's investigation method before, but they didn't find anything. How did they know that the Yin family did. Although there may be talented people in the Yin family, and the news also has an element of luck, it is still suspicious. Especially after finding out, the counterattack against the prince's party, before and after contacting the matter, seemed to have been known for a long time, and they deliberately waited until this time to maximize their benefits.

All these make Zhuang Zhong feel that Yin Xiangyang is suspicious, and he is determined to find out the truth.

Zhuang Zhong was very fortunate that he brought a survey box with him when he crossed, and he had a magnifying glass and other instruments, which helped him a lot.

"My lord, these are the maggots you want." A yamen servant put a plate in front of Zhuang Zhong.

"But they all came from different places in the corpse?"

The yamen servant nodded, "It has been marked before, so there will be no mistakes."

Sun Chaoyang couldn't bear it anymore and asked, "What do you mean by using flies to calculate the time of death?"

"Master Sun, let's take a look at the maggots first. These are all taken from corpses. They are the larvae of flies, to be exact, larvae of the blowfly. You also know that flies have a very sensitive sense of smell to blood or corpses. They can Smell the smell of corpses from a mile away, and then quickly fly over to find food, and reproduce on the spot." Zhuang Zhong pointed to the maggot specimens.

Sun Chaoyang was no stranger to this, and nodded, "So what?"

This world doesn't have a deep study of these small insects, and there are not as many types of flies as Zhuang Zhuang. He only occasionally understands their habits but does not have a deep understanding. After all, these things are not beneficial to humans, and it is enough to know their habits so that humans can eliminate them.

Zhuang Zhong patiently explained: "The growth of these small things is regular, just like human beings are like rice silkworms, etc., especially their lifespan is short, and the time deviation of growth is small for human beings. Come and see, these The larvae of the red-headed blowfly on the corpse have all developed to the third stage of larvae, which means that the development of these flies is regular. As long as we know its law, we can infer from when the fly lays eggs on the corpse When did the deceased die?"

Sun Zhaoyang just felt a little dizzy in his head. If modern people would know, this is a feeling that the door to a new world has been opened, and there is such a way! He really lived and learned. He used to think that he still has some skills. This autopsy technique can't be said to be the pinnacle, and it is beyond the reach of ordinary people. But since getting acquainted with Zhuang Zhong, he realized how narrow his vision was, and how many useful things were ignored by him.

Sun Zhaoyang suppressed the excitement in his heart, his mind was not confused by the shock, he swallowed and asked, "How do you see that the red-headed blowfly maggot has developed to the third stage of larvae?"

Zhuang Zhuang had studied forensic entomology in his previous life. Although this subject developed slowly until later generations, he still had a good understanding of these basic common insects on corpses. It's just that with the change of time, space and geography, he cannot 100% directly apply what he has learned here. Moreover, the development of these small things itself does not have an absolute value, and they have different performances in different spaces and climates. What he has learned is only able to infer an approximate time. Although the error is not large, the deceased The time of death must be determined on the same day, so it is impossible to know without specific experiments.

What's more, the knowledge he possesses is unknown to this world, and he can't just talk about what he says. For other cases, it might not be a problem with his reputation, but this case has to be done to the extreme if you want everyone to be convinced. Besides, Zhuang Zhong doesn't want himself to overwhelm his growth in this era. There is only one theory, other than myths about himself, so that he will not be aware of his mistakes in the future, and others will not be able to supervise him, and there is not much benefit. It is still necessary to let the world know the principle and truly grasp the mystery in order to promote the development of forensic science.

Zhuang Zhong took a notebook, painted a few patterns on it with a charcoal pen, then pointed to the images on it and said to the people around him: "Look at these pictures, these are the eggs and larvae of the red-headed blowfly, This is the first stage, this is the second and third stage, can you see the difference?"

It is not the first time that Zhuang Zhong taught directly, so everyone is not surprised, and they will not ignore him because he is young, but observe very seriously. Although these skills are not a full-time job for the officials present, if you want to settle the case and make contributions, you must learn more and have real skills to achieve it.

One person looked at it for a while and said: "The second and third stage larvae have more holes in the second half than the first stage."

Zhuang nodded, "Yes, the holes in the front are called front valves, and the ones in the back are called rear valves. In the first stage, there are only rear valves, while in the second and third stages, there are front and rear valves. Look at this picture, it is a cracked valve. In the big picture, there are only two valve cracks in the second stage, but there are three in the third stage, which is an important sign to distinguish their stages."

Zhuang Zhong's teaching at this time is also convenient for later experiments. He has to do a lot of experiments to ensure the accuracy of the data. In this way, he needs assistants to be observers, and he may not be able to do it alone.

Hearing this, Sun Zhaoyang hurriedly checked the maggot specimens with instruments, and they all looked like the third stage. Zhuang Zhuang's instruments have already been passed by Feng Huan, who bought them from foreign merchants. Now it is a treasure, even the emperor once used it to observe it, and even lamented the strangeness of this world. Sun Zhaoyang has a good relationship with Zhuang Zhong, and he is naturally the one who has the most exposure to these things, so he is also very proficient, as can be seen at a glance.

After hearing this, everyone rushed forward to check it out. There are not many such opportunities! Who doesn't know that this is Zhuang Tixing's treasure, the only one in the world, and it's hard to see it on weekdays.

"Sure enough, it's the third stage! This also means that if we raise this maggot, when it grows like this, it will be the number of days before Zhao Wuniang's death!" Someone exclaimed.

Zhuang nodded, "In order to ensure the accuracy of the data, those who raise these insects must be as close as possible to the environment where Zhao Wuniang died and the body was thrown away. Moreover, these flies lay eggs at different times. I am not strong enough alone. What will happen in the future That’s it for everyone.”

Solemn's actions like this are also intended to bring the relationship closer to each other, and it is difficult to do it alone, especially in the imperial court. Those who can come here to discuss matters are all credible people. When he does so, he really produces results, and everyone will have credit. The people present were all sensible people, so they naturally knew what Zhuang Zhong meant by doing this. After all, this kind of thing is not difficult, it's just a matter of giving hands, where they need to do it, Zhuang Zhong only needs a few stable and reliable cronies to get the job done, and the credit is taken by one person.

Saying thank you is too much, just understand in your heart and know how to act in the future, the few people didn't say much, they just started to experiment. For the accuracy of the data, they were divided into two groups, one group stayed in Zhao Wuniang's house to conduct experiments with livestock, and the other group stayed at the place where the corpse was found. And I'm not afraid to take the trouble to transport the larvae from the house every time period, so as to avoid the difference in data caused by the time of throwing the corpse.

Half a month later, with the efforts of everyone, the test results came out. A large amount of data proves that Zhao Wuniang died fourteen days before the body was found, that is, on August 9th, when Yin Xiangyang appeared at Zhao Wuniang's home. Moreover, the time when he was killed was during the day, and the time when Yin Xiangyang left was at night.

The author has something to say: The "devil's meat case" happened in England in 1935, when entomologist Alexander Moens also confirmed that the husband of the deceased was a murderer based on the developmental laws of flies. According to the book (this book is a children's book ORZ), these meritorious maggots are now collected in the British Museum together with other precious animal and plant specimens.

In addition, since I touched the microscope magnifying glass ten or even twenty years ago, I really don’t know what the magnification of the two is, so the thing used to observe the maggots in it is directly taken with the instrument ==.

PS: I bought two books for this case, one of which is "Forensic Entomology", which is very expensive. It only costs 50 or 60 yuan for one page... There is also a children's book, 23333 is cheaper. From the forensic medicine forum, it seems that this subject seems to be developing in general, and there are quite few books, unlike other versions.