Diary of a Criminal Investigator

Chapter 593: Case at a Standstill

The Criminal Investigation Team has already traced the usage of these two public telephones through the telecommunications department.It can be confirmed that these two public telephones have only records of calls to 12 missing persons in recent times, with no other usage records.

This means if someone deliberately touched these public phones, then the person who called the 12 missing individuals might have left some traces on the phone.

For example, fingerprints or saliva.

Lu Chuan has already collected some fingerprints on the phone receiver, wiped the surface to see if any saliva residue could be found, and planned to investigate it later for any potential discoveries.

"Surveillance has been checked."

Zhang Hui sighed: "But nothing special was found."

"Among the 12 people who disappeared, some left by taxi, some on foot, some by bus, and others by subway."

The missing persons left their homes or workplaces through various means, but tracking through surveillance had ultimately yielded nothing.

"Do they have a common destination?"

What Lu Chuan could think of, Zhang Hui naturally could as well, but unfortunately, their destinations were diverse, with no discernible pattern.

No pattern...

Public phone contacting missing persons...

Lu Chuan believed there must be some intrinsic connection among these 12 individuals.

It’s just that the Criminal Investigation Team hasn’t discovered it yet.

On the surface, the biggest common characteristics of these 12 people are gender and age.

All 12 missing persons are male, aged between 30 and 40.

Additionally, they are all in industries known for high personnel turnover.

Gender, age, profession...

What are these three characteristics meant for?

Just now, news came from Group One that several legitimate international labor agencies in the city have basically been investigated.

No clues were found.

Moreover, the most important thing is that their families know nothing about it.

If indeed these people were tricked by illegal agencies, it’s impossible for their families to know absolutely nothing.

After inquiries, the families of these 12 missing persons all reported nothing peculiar recently; they just vanished suddenly.

This effectively killed the clues related to illegal agency scams.

Two reasons contributed to this:

First, if it were truly illegal agencies, there’s no way all 12 individuals said nothing to their families.

Second, such agencies wouldn’t take such a big risk to abduct 12 people in a short time, as it would expose themselves.

Thus, the probability of this clue... currently seems very small.

The next morning.

In the meeting room, Qin Yong held the second case analysis meeting.

"Everyone, talk about what you’ve discovered."

The members glanced at each other... In fact, nothing significant had been discovered.

Among the group leaders present, Sun Jun was the most senior, so he had to report first.

"We focused on investigating the families of the 12 missing persons and can basically confirm there’s no real connection between them."

"Call records, bank transfer information, etc., show no obvious connections."

"We’ve also investigated the six labor agencies in Haizhou City, and there’s no record of them having contact with these people."

Qin Yong looked at Zhang Hui: "Any findings from Group Two?"

Zhang Hui also shook his head: "Our situation is similar to Group Leader Sun’s; we haven’t found any special clues."

"The only thing we can confirm now is that the same person or group likely targeted the 12 missing persons."

"Although we still don’t know why they kidnapped or killed these 12 people simultaneously, they contacted all 12 through public phone booths."

"This indicates that this disappearance case was premeditated and planned."

This clue...

When this clue was discovered yesterday, Zhang Hui immediately reported it to Qin Yong.

From the practical standpoint of solving the case, this clue does not directly point to the suspect yet.

However, this clue established the nature of the case.

It’s clear that 12 people disappearing successively within a week was not a random occurrence.

There is definitely a group or individual orchestrating these 12 disappearances behind the scenes.

The key question at the time was.

Why?

Motive!

What is the motive?

The economic conditions of these 12 people are relatively average, and their industries hold no secrets.

For money?

The 12 individuals combined don’t have savings exceeding 100,000 yuan, so the possibility of it being for money isn’t particularly high.

For revenge?

The 12 people don’t know each other, with no intersections in work or life, and the possibility of private enmity is also low.

Another possibility is the previously considered illegal agencies—whether they could have kidnapped or tricked these people for their value.

Qin Yong and his team have encountered such cases before.

In Haizhou City, such cases are extremely rare.

There has been only one case in the past few years.

And it was an attempted case at that.

The individual was lured by an online illegal agency, dreaming of earning big money abroad.

The individual had already left Haizhou, heading to the border province.

However, just before crossing the border, the individual had second thoughts.

The situation then could be described as having one foot almost over the line.

Nevertheless, ultimately, the individual stayed inside the country.

With the second thoughts, the illegal agency didn’t waste time and sent the person back immediately.

Yes, sent back, not released.

According to this returning survivor, although the dark agencies are indeed shady, they only truly act when overseas; within the country, they only use deceit, not force.

Not out of conscience but for fear of repercussions.

Therefore, if this disappearance isn’t due to illegal agencies, then what exactly caused the disappearance of 12 people?

Qin Yong pondered for an entire night but couldn’t figure it out.

There was a vague suspicion, but...

Could it be?

Is there really someone that bold?

"Lu Chuan, any findings from the Crime Scene Investigation side?"

"We collected some fingerprints from the public phone booths."

"However, after comparison, the fingerprints from the two public phone booths don’t match, and the individuals identified have been investigated."

"These three people were tourists visiting Haizhou the day before yesterday and the day before that, who touched the phone while taking photos."

"We checked the travel times of these three and found they do not coincide with the disappearance times of the missing persons."

"And the only fingerprints on the public telephone receivers belong to these three people, indicating that the person who called the 12 missing individuals wiped the fingerprints off the phone receivers."

When Lu Chuan returned yesterday, he began analyzing the fingerprints collected from the receivers.

And soon, there were results.

Truth be told, everyone was very excited at that time.

Perhaps this fingerprint could lead to solving the case!

But contrary to their wishes, it proved the culprit is far more cautious than expected.