Chapter 981 - 917: Visiting
Shen Yaowei searched along both banks of the Tai River for over a week, not even returning home over the weekend, and took samples upstream along the Tai River for nearly 20 kilometers.
This distance was already quite substantial. In the past, within the Ningtai County Bureau, this would essentially be considered the limit; to continue searching along the river would be too burdensome for the laboratory.
However, after such a lengthy search, still no matching diatoms were found, indicating either poor luck in sampling, or that the victim’s entry point into the water was not within the 20-kilometer range upstream.
This conclusion made Shen Yaowei’s mood tense.
Monday morning.
Shen Yaowei inquired about the lab results just in time for work and, confirming that there was still no match, went disheartenedly to report to Jiang Yuan.
It had been some time since the Ningtai County Bureau had such a complex case of its own. Of course, this wasn’t traditionally a case for Ningtai County alone, but rather for the entire Tai River Basin, which previously would probably have been coordinated and arranged by Qinghe City Bureau. Alternatively, if the body had drifted to another city, it would be out of Qinghe’s jurisdiction altogether.
Well aware of the complexity of floating body cases, Shen Yaowei reported somewhat helplessly: "We started sampling every 300 meters and later changed to sampling every 150 meters, but there were no matches. The body couldn’t have drifted down from Pingzhou, could it?"
Once a body crosses the provincial border, the difficulty of investigating the case skyrockets. Not only is communication troublesome, but the key issue is that the financial expenditure is likely to increase significantly, which for most county bureaus is a fatal drawback.
However, this was not an issue for Jiang Yuan’s Accumulated Case Team. Ningtai County’s infrastructural development speed and level were maxed out, and even the small benefits that trickled down to the courts and procuratorates made the funding for case solving relatively ample.