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

Chapter 935 Abnormal Information from Surveillance Cameras

The forensic expert Zhang Lin's assessment was quite accurate.

"Interpersonal Relationship Investigation Team, tell us your findings." Qin Chuan looked at another group of police officers.

Officer Xiao Wang stood up: "We visited Wang Xiaoyu's company, relatives, and neighbors. She is usually mild-mannered, hardworking, and has no enemies. Regarding her love life, her ex-boyfriend lives far away and has no recent record of visiting Dongchuan. Her current boyfriend, Zhou Ran, has been ruled out as a suspect. However, during our investigation, we discovered that Wang Xiaoyu enjoys online shopping, and the number of her delivery slips in the past three months is unusually high, with many of them being anonymous. We currently have no further leads on the mysterious recipient mentioned by courier Qin Baosheng."

A brief silence fell over the meeting room. Qin Chuan wrote down keywords such as "anonymous package," "mysterious man," and "murder weapon" on the whiteboard, connecting them with red lines. "Based on the information we have so far, this is a premeditated crime. The murderer obtained Wang Xiaoyu's address through an anonymous package, drugged her with sleeping pills, assaulted her, and then murdered her to cover it up," Qin Chuan analyzed. "We need to focus on three areas: First, continue tracing the source of the anonymous package to find the true identities of the sender and recipient; second, expand the scope of our investigation of knife shops, focusing on people who have recently purchased similar weapons; third, re-examine the fiber and shoe print information extracted from the scene, and investigate sales records of clothing and shoes with similar characteristics."

"It's also important to monitor all the surveillance cameras in the community where the incident occurred, and all the surrounding surveillance cameras. We can't let any of them slip by. We need to check all the surveillance footage from the 15 days before the incident and all the personnel involved. We need to confirm with the property management one by one. Don't be afraid of the hard work. This case requires us to start from the details and check every little clue we can find."

"Captain Qin, the picture frame at the scene is a key clue," Li Ming suddenly said. "The courier said the picture frame was an urgent same-city delivery, but the sender's information was all fake. We can start with the courier company's same-city delivery business and retrieve all similar orders from that day; maybe we can find a breakthrough."

Qin Chuan nodded: "Get it done immediately. Also, print out all of Wang Xiaoyu's online shopping records, including deleted orders, and analyze them one by one. The murderer in this case is very cunning, and we can't overlook any detail."

Based on the current investigation, the scope of the suspects is uncertain.

However, one thing is rather strange: when Qin Baosheng delivered the package, the person who picked up the photo album was not Wang Xiaoyu's boyfriend, which Zhou Ran found odd.

Furthermore, according to Qin Baosheng, when he delivered the package, the photo frame didn't have any outer packaging; otherwise, Qin Baosheng's fingerprints wouldn't have been left. Qin Maosheng handed the photo frame to the man. Strangely, no fingerprints of the man were found on the photo frame afterwards. This is odd. Did the man deliberately erase his fingerprints? Was he intentionally leaving clues for the police to lead to Qin Maosheng? Is this man a suspect? If not, what is his relationship with Wang Xiaoyu? Zhou Ran didn't even know this man existed. Therefore, based on the current clues from the police, this stranger who took the photo frame on Wang Xiaoyu's behalf is very likely the suspect.

Following Qin Chuan's instructions, Li Ming divided the criminal investigation team into three groups, each heading in a different direction to conduct an investigation. The first group was responsible for tracing the anonymous express delivery, the second group investigated knife sales records, and the third group focused on the characteristics of the fibers and shoe prints found at the scene.

Zhang and Zhou, from the first team, arrived at the courier company headquarters, searching for clues among the mountains of delivery slips. They pulled up information on all same-city express deliveries from March 28th, checking the sender and recipient addresses one by one. "This slip doesn't have a sender's phone number, and the address is just filled in randomly," Zhang said, pulling out a delivery slip with illegible handwriting, clearly intentional. Zhou, staring at the computer screen, his eyes bloodshot, said, "We've checked over 3 orders already, all invalid information." They then approached the deliverymen one by one, but none of them remembered the mysterious sender, only that business was busy during that period and many anonymous packages were randomly accepted and sent.

The second team members dispersed to various knife shops throughout Dongchuan City. "Boss, has anyone recently bought a dagger with a blade width of about 0.3cm?" Team member Xiao Li asked a hardware store owner, holding a diagram of the murder weapon. The owner scratched his head: "Quite a few people buy these small daggers, how could I remember clearly?" Another team member carefully checked the sales records at the knife counter in a shopping mall, asking at over a dozen shops and recording dozens of purchase records. However, after investigation, none of these buyers were related to the case. Some were chefs buying knives, others were young people buying fruit knives—none of them showed any suspicious activity.

In the laboratory, the third team of technicians analyzed the dark blue fibers extracted from the site. "This fiber is too common; most denim fabrics on the market have it," technician Xiao Zhao said, shaking his head helplessly as he stared at the microscope. He and his colleagues compared the fiber samples with the city's textile factory material database, identifying hundreds of similar materials. They then contacted manufacturers and retailers one by one to investigate the distribution channels. Regarding the shoe print, they visited various shoe stores with photos: "Have you ever sold this diamond-patterned, size 44 leather shoes?" The shop assistants either shook their heads or said they couldn't remember. Despite checking dozens of shoe stores and asking hundreds of salespeople, they still couldn't find a style that perfectly matched the shoe print found at the site.

Time ticked by, and all three investigations reached a stalemate. The anonymous package from the courier company still couldn't be traced back to its source, the investigation of the knife shop was like searching for a needle in a haystack, and the clues from the fiber and shoe prints had also gone cold. Li Ming looked at the investigation reports from each group, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper. In the Criminal Investigation Division's office, the team members sat together, the atmosphere heavy. "Could we be going in the wrong direction?" one team member couldn't help but ask. Li Ming rubbed his temples: "Impossible. These clues all came from the scene; we're bound to find a breakthrough. Everyone, think carefully again, are there any omissions?"

On the fourth day after the incident, some clues finally emerged.

In front of the blue light screen of the Technical Section of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of Dongchuan City, technician Xiao Liu's fingers flew across the keyboard as he stared intently at the surveillance camera. He was responsible for checking 237 surveillance cameras in Beizhou Community and within a 5-kilometer radius. 72 consecutive hours of intense work had left his eyes bloodshot, but when a familiar figure appeared on the screen, he sat bolt upright.