Chapter 396: Calculation
Mo Li looked at Qin Xuan with surprise. What is this kid doing, waiting for others to come up with the solution for him? Mo Li sighed. “Well, what do you think we can do?”
“Erm…” Qin Xuan was startled. He looked at Mo Li with confusion. Mo Li sighed and said, “At this moment, when the scientific way can’t work, we have to rely on data analysis. First, we will collect all the data we have on the victim and then compare them to the database we have on female long bones and pubic bones. From there, we can calculate the age, height, and weight of the victim. With the general database, we can formulate an equation to arrive at a general basis for our current victim.”
Qin Xuan nodded with confusion. This was the first time he had heard of this method. Then again, no one was able to deduce a victim’s height and weight from soft tissue alone. Therefore, it was already impressive that Mo Li could come up with this idea.
“Then we should go find the database… But where is the database?”
“Well, we have a full refrigeration room filled with corpses.” Mo Li was already forming a mathematical system in her mind. She would inspect the soft tissues on the other female corpses. From there, she would find a suitable index and coefficient. That would help them bring the mysterious victim into the equation and lead them to a conclusion.
“Qin Xuan! We now have the victim’s two breasts and navel. They form a triangle. The triangle has 3 sides, which will provide us with a coefficient. We need to find a few female corpses and then compare them to the coefficient of the victim. After we do this a few times, we should be able to get an average.”
Qin Xuan had to think after hearing that. “After we get the average, we can draw the conclusion on the victim’s height. We can use the same height to calculate the victim’s weight. We only need to change the factors from the triangle on the breast to the thickness of the fatty layer on the abdomen.”
Mo Li nodded but it meant they had a lot of things to do. They needed to cut open and resew back a few bodies. Qin Xuan was shocked by Mo Li’s thoughts. For coroners, the biggest mistake they could do was to miscalculate the properties of the victims. Even though Mo Li’s idea was based on science, it might not translate that well in practice. But then again, they had no better idea at the moment.
They immediately went into action. They found a few dead bodies who didn’t die of natural causes. They had collected around 30 of them. Using Mo Li’s formulae, they found the average. Comparing that to the victim’s coefficient, they deduced that the victim was 163.6 cm and weighed 51 kg.
“But what about age?” Mo Li and Qin Xuan were discussing when Xiao Rui walked in. “How is it going?”
Qin Xuan gave him a quick update. “But… we are lacking in age.”
“Let’s say she’s 23!” Mo Li glanced at the corpse and the swollen white nipples. “I doubt she has lactated before.”
Qin Xuan glanced at Mo Li. She is amazing!
…
10 minutes later, they came to the meeting room. They had come up with the general description of the victim. “Female, around 23 years old, around 163 cm tall, and 51 kg. There is no defining property on her chest, but there is a koi tattoo on her left breast.”
Xiao Rui nodded and told his people to screen the area with this profile. They should look into Liao Yao’s workplace. Then some would scan through the missing person reports. The salvage team would continue their work as well.
“Boss! An old couple reported that their daughter has been unreachable for the past 3 days. She is 24 and is not a mother. She is 162 cm tall and weighs 47 kg. They called their son-in-law to ask about their daughter and the man said his wife had gone out of state to work. The old couple was worried when they saw our released statement and quickly called to ask.”
Xiao Rui immediately arranged for DNA analysis. The victim was indeed the old couple’s daughter, Kang Jing.
Seeing this, Qin Xuan became more impressed by Mo Li.