The crackdown on organized crime began with the arrest of the mother-in-law.

Chapter 995 Identification of the Female Deceased Confirmed

As he was inspecting the site, an elderly woman pushing a tricycle passed by outside. Xiao Wang quickly got up and chased after her, saying, "Auntie, excuse me, I'd like to ask you something."

The old woman stopped and looked at him warily: "What is it? I didn't steal anything!"

"No, ma'am, I'm a police officer. I wanted to ask if you noticed anything unusual at the construction site last winter?"

The old lady thought for a long time, then suddenly slapped her thigh: "That's right! I remember one night, around nine or ten o'clock, I finished work and went home, and I saw a car parked on the small road next to the construction site. The car lights were not on, and it didn't drive away until quite a while later."

"What kind of car is it? Did you see the license plate clearly?"

"It was pitch black, I couldn't see the license plate clearly. The car looked pretty big, like an SUV, and the color... I think it was black."

Xiao Wang's heart skipped a beat. Wasn't this exactly the vehicle description the scavenger had given? "Auntie, could you think about it again? Are there any other details? For example, how many people were in the car, and what did the driver look like?"

The old lady squinted as she recalled, "It seemed like there was only one person, but I couldn't see what he looked like through the car window. I only remember that he was wearing a gray coat."

After seeing the old lady off, Xiao Wang stood in the sunlight, his thoughts racing. These newly gathered, scattered pieces of information, while not yet able to piece together a complete picture, at least pointed him in a new direction.

Meanwhile, Xiao Zhou was also busy.

Inside the Criminal Investigation Division's computer room, the air conditioner hummed softly. Xiao Zhou stared at the computer screen, the blue light making her face appear pale. Her assistant, Xiao Chen, stood beside her, a stack of documents in hand, fine beads of sweat on his forehead. "Sister Zhang, the latest batch of missing persons data has been imported into the system. Let's start comparing it," Xiao Chen said, his voice tinged with exhaustion. This was their third consecutive day and night of continuous work.

Xiao Zhou nodded slightly, her slender fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard, retrieving key information from the skeletal remains identification report. "Start with the female remains, 25-30 years old, suffering from endemic fluorosis, approximately 162 cm tall, skull showing signs of a fall and suffocation." She entered this data item by item into the missing persons system's search bar. "Xiao Chen, you're responsible for verifying the dental characteristics. The deceased had two cavities in her upper jaw, and her right molar had undergone root canal treatment."

Xiao Chen quickly sat down at another computer and opened the dental records database. "Sister Zhang, fluorosis is prevalent in high-fluoride areas in the north. Should we narrow down our search and prioritize checking missing persons in provinces like Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Henan?"

“Yes, but don’t limit yourself to this. With such high population mobility, the deceased might have contracted the disease elsewhere.” Xiao Zhou’s eyes were fixed on the screen, her heart racing as the search progress bar slowly advanced. However, when the progress bar reached 100% and the screen displayed “No match found,” her shoulders visibly slumped.

“Don’t worry, there are also male remains.” Xiao Chen tried to comfort her. “35-40 years old, with a long history of drinking, 178 cm tall, the skull was hit multiple times by a round blunt object, and there are traces of new and old fractures healing in the ribs.”

A new round of searches began. Xiao Zhou bit her lip, her eyes glued to the screen. The server room was so quiet that only the clatter of keyboards and their heavy breathing could be heard. "Sister Zhang, look!" Xiao Chen suddenly pointed at the screen, "There's a missing person whose height and age match, and they also went missing with a head injury!"

Xiao Zhou leaned over quickly to examine the information on the screen. But soon, she shook her head in disappointment: "No, this missing person went missing because of a head injury caused by a car accident, which is completely different from the blunt force trauma marks on our deceased. Moreover, he has no history of drinking or rib fractures."

Time ticked by, and they kept adjusting their search criteria and trying different combinations. Sometimes, just as a glimmer of hope appeared, it was cruelly extinguished by reality. "Sister Zhang, what if the deceased never even reported being missing?" Xiao Chen said dejectedly. "Or maybe they were from out of town and weren't even registered in our system."

Xiao Zhou rubbed his throbbing temples and said, "It's possible. But we can't give up. We need to expand the scope further and pull up all the missing persons records from the past five years across the country, comparing them manually one by one."

For the rest of the time, the only sounds in the computer room were the rustling of documents and the tapping of keyboards. Xiao Zhou and Xiao Chen's eyes were bloodshot, but they dared not slacken their efforts. Every time they saw a similar piece of information, they had to repeatedly check the skeletal features, the time of disappearance, and the location of the disappearance. But time and again, hope turned to despair.

As morning light streamed through the blinds of the server room, Xiao Zhou finally collapsed, falling asleep at her desk. Xiao Chen, watching her weary figure, gently draped a coat over her shoulders before returning to his computer, continuing the seemingly endless comparison work. On the screen, the missing persons information continued to scroll, while the two silent skeletons awaited the truth that would belong to them.

At this stage, while the forensic team has some valuable clues and assessments, it's insufficient to definitively identify the deceased. Xiao Wang's investigation at the crime scene yielded virtually no valuable leads, and the time of death was quite some time ago. Therefore, the information currently available for investigation is only superficial. Information from many years ago is practically impossible to access.

Meanwhile, Zhang Hui's work on identifying the deceased had not made much progress in comparing them with missing persons. Therefore, in accordance with Li Ming's previous plan and arrangements, on the third day after the incident, Xiao Wang and Zhang Hui began to investigate and visit hospitals in Dongchuan City.

The investigation will focus on patients with fluorosis.

Dongchuan City is not a high-incidence area for retrograde disease, so there should be relatively few people with retrograde disease in the area. If the other party has medical records at the hospital, then it should be relatively easy to investigate.

The incandescent bulbs emitted a soft hum in the hospital archives. Xiao Wang adjusted his magnifying glass for the seventeenth time; the edges of the yellowed medical records beneath the lens were already curled and frayed. Xiao Zhou, hunched over, rapidly typed on the keyboard in front of the electronic medical record system, the fluorescent light making the dark circles under his eyes appear even more pronounced.

"Xiao Wang, the medical records from the Third People's Hospital for the past ten years are out!" Xiao Zhou suddenly raised his voice, scrolling the mouse wheel frantically. "Between 2019 and 2022, there were 12 confirmed cases of fluorosis, but the ages don't match... Wait!" His fingers slammed down on the screen. "In November 2021, a 27-year-old woman came to the emergency room complaining of severe leg pain. The medical record described it as 'fibular osteophyte formation with pathological fracture,' and these symptoms highly matched the bone examination report!"