Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 310: Alarmed the Higher-Ups

The Qinzhou case confessed by Wang Huidong has already been specifically investigated by Zhang Hui.

Unlike the quick discovery after Zhou Yang’s drowning, the body in Qinzhou was found much later.

After the victim drowned, the body was stuck in a bridge hole, discovered only after it had decomposed, making it impossible to find any traces left by Wang Huidong on the body.

Moreover, the case was directly classified as an accidental drowning, an accidental death case, and no homicide investigation process was initiated at all.

Besides the Qinzhou case, Wang Huidong also confessed to the Binzhou case.

"That guy had money, withdrew about a hundred thousand yuan from the bank."

"He took a taxi and I followed; turns out he was a gambling addict, lost half of it that very night."

"I acted at night, followed him to his residential area, and threw him off the roof of his home."

"Weren’t you afraid of being seen?"

"It was late at night, who would see, besides him jumping after losing money seems normal, doesn’t it?"

"When someone reported it, I was still at the scene, when the police asked, I said I saw him about to jump."

"No one looks closely at night, he just jumped."

Wang Huidong’s murders were all about being bold and meticulous.

He dared to knock people down on the street with his ether spray.

"And no one stopped you?"

"They were all adults, I targeted men, who’s to say anything?"

"Human life, it’s much cheaper than you think."

"Alright, that’s enough for today, I’m sleepy and need some rest."

Wang Huidong stretched lazily, showing no fear towards the impending prison sentence or even death.

Most of the phones found in Wang Huidong’s car have been traced back to their owners.

Because these phones were simply turned off due to low battery, the SIM cards and everything were intact.

Zhou Yang’s phone was shockingly among them.

Six thirty in the evening.

"Everything’s been clarified, here’s the list of phone owners."

A total of nine people, three of the twelve phones were empty, new phones with no information.

"Two phones are based in Haizhou City, one of which belongs to Zhou Yang, and another to a woman named Sun Qian."

"Sun Qian?"

"Yes, Sun Qian, she jumped from her home a month ago, initially classified as suicide."

"Who handled the case?"

"The High-tech Zone Criminal Investigation Team, there was a suicide note at the scene. I just checked the electronic records, the team investigated Sun Qian’s social network at the time and found no suspicious points; the case was thus closed."

"Did Wang Huidong confess to this case?"

"No, he confessed to three cases today, and this wasn’t among them."

"What about the other seven people?"

"There’s from Qinzhou, Binzhou, and several southern provinces, the case... is huge."

Nine people over more than two years, mostly dying in accidents.

But in reality, they were all murdered by Wang Huidong.

No wonder he didn’t hide anything during interrogation, even confessing to crimes the police weren’t aware of.

The key was in these phones.

Each phone represented one deceased person.

"I’ll report to the bureau first, keep an eye on things here, we need to interrogate Wang Huidong urgently, aim to get a confession soon!"

City Public Security Bureau, Song Jiangguo’s office.

"Confirmed to be nine people?"

Nine people could make this a nationwide sensational case.

"Three cases have now been verified, the suspect has confessed, this includes the drowning case from Bailan River a couple of days ago."

"And this Sun Qian, also from our Haizhou, we found her phone in Wang Huidong’s car, but her death was initially deemed a suicide by jumping."

"But now it seems, it was also Wang Huidong’s doing."

"However, the other cases, in Qinzhou and Binzhou, as well as those in the south, we haven’t verified yet, probably need bureau or provincial office coordination."

"Involving multiple provinces, report to the provincial office."

The next morning, Li Donglin from the second division of the provincial criminal investigation department personally arrived in Haizhou City.

Criminal Investigation Team, Li Donglin held a meeting first thing.

Ren Qiang, involved in the entire case investigation, started reporting the situation.

"Four days ago, a drowning body was found under the Bailan River Bridge, we conducted a crime scene investigation..."

Ren Qiang started with Zhou Yang’s murder.

"Yesterday at noon, we confirmed the suspect’s identity from saliva on a cigarette butt left behind, and apprehended him at Qingjiang Amusement Park."

"The current interrogation is progressing well, the suspect has confessed to three cases..."

Li Donglin listened attentively, he had already reviewed the relevant materials on the way.

Honestly, with the case solved to this extent, there’s not much difficulty left in handling it.

Even if the provincial office hadn’t intervened and Li Donglin hadn’t come, the case could proceed smoothly.

However, because it involves out-of-province cases, it will definitely take more time.

Additionally, by current accounts, Wang Huidong murdered mostly through staged accidents, like falls or drowning.

This means that the rest of the cases may not even have been filed as criminal cases locally.

The longest time span is up to two years.

After such a long time, to go back and tell people that what seemed like an accidental death back then, was actually murder.

This...

Thinking from a different perspective, if Li Donglin encountered such a case, he’d have the urge to jump off a building himself.

Having a case isn’t scary, at worst it becomes a cold case.

But when it’s clearly a homicide, yet undiscovered, that’s an entirely different matter.

Was it negligence by the officers handling the case then?

Or was their capability just lacking?

Otherwise, why would it be discovered in Haizhou’s Criminal Investigation Team but not elsewhere?

Not to mention, if the case is indeed confirmed as a homicide, the detectives involved in the initial assessment should at least receive a public reprimand, right?

Even if not, would there be any future if the leadership scrutinized him?

Thus, if Haizhou’s Criminal Investigation Team tries to hand over the case, challenges are expected.

"Where’s the suspect, let’s make a handover, the provincial office is highly focused on this, they tasked us with contacting provincial departments to form a joint task force to follow up on this case."

This was Li Donglin’s purpose for coming today, to take over Wang Huidong, with the case being managed by the provincial office.

"No problem with the handover, but..." Qin Yong had no objection to this.

If the provincial office wants him, he cannot refuse.

However, there’s protocol in how the handover is done. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Of course, Li Donglin understood what this was about.

The provincial office, in terms of function, is mainly responsible for supervision and management.

They do not directly handle cases; even significant cases introduced to the task force mainly involve appointing technical experts and then pooling key players from city bureaus.

So, once the case is cracked, who gets the credit is a question.

The provincial office could keep it or give it to subordinate units.

"Rest assured, your contribution won’t be overlooked, and your people will be included in the joint task force."

"Haha, Director Li, we’ve been waiting for you to say that!"