Requiem Chapter 39 Mysterious Death
Ouyang Xue frowned, responded with a few words, and quickly walked out of the house. Strangely, as soon as she left there, the uneasy feeling she had just felt disappeared immediately.
Although the lighting in the corridor is not very good, standing here is much better than in that bathroom.
At this moment, the police guarding the scene brought a thin man. From his nimble and slender fingers, it can be seen that these are hands that often dissect corpses. He introduced himself: "My name is Song Dian. I heard that this case is a bit strange, so I volunteered to come."
"Hello, my name is Ouyang Xue, and I'm an inspector at the Xiangjiang City Public Security Department."
"A heroic woman, I've heard of your name for a long time, haha!" Song Dian smiled and shook hands with Ouyang Xue, then took out his notebook and asked while writing: "So, I want to get a preliminary understanding of the situation. How did the reporter describe it? When did he report the case?"
Ouyang Xue pondered for a moment and said, "It was about five in the morning when 110 transferred this strange call for help. It said that someone was trapped in the bathroom and there was a fire. People outside the room could only see smoke coming out of the door. The patrolman arrived at the scene five minutes later. At this time, someone had already forced open the bathroom door, and the scene had become like that. After that, the patrolman described the situation at the scene, and at about five forty, they transferred the case to me."
"Is the person who reported the case the deceased's wife?" It seems that Song Dian had already learned some information about the situation before coming in.
"It wasn't her. It was a colleague of the deceased." After saying that, Ouyang Xue adjusted her police hat and appearance. "The deceased's wife had fainted at the time. No one heard her cry for help. At first, we didn't know there was someone in the bathroom. It wasn't until his wife called the deceased's name and fainted that we realized the deceased was still in the bathroom."
"So what did you see when you arrived at the scene?"
"It is almost like this now. Only the unburned palm is left on the side of the toilet, about four centimeters away from the ashes. The cross section is the cross section formed after burning, and there are burn symptoms on the surface. The body of the deceased has been completely reduced to ashes."
"Have you investigated the yellow oily substance nearby?"
"Hmm! That's melted fat tissue."
"Is there any useful information left at the scene?" Song Dian asked carefully .
"No. The comrade in charge of fire in the accident department told me after inspecting the scene that, apart from the complete combustion of the deceased, no other objects were burned at the scene. However, the sink and walls were heated up, and the door handles were also very hot. Also, no traces of burning of any combustible materials, such as gasoline, were found at the scene." Ouyang Xue answered as she recalled.
"Have you investigated what clothes the deceased was wearing at the time?"
"The top was a cotton shirt, but the pants were unclear. The deceased's lover didn't remember."
"Did the deceased drink alcohol last night or in the early hours of the morning?"
"No."
"Did the deceased have a habit of smoking?"
"Yes." Ouyang Xue answered straightforwardly. Song Dian wrote down some key points in his notebook and stopped asking: "That's about all the questions I have. I'll go to the forensic laboratory to study the ashes and residues later. At present, the conclusion of spontaneous combustion is not very accurate. He definitely didn't burn on his own."
"You mean, someone set the fire?" Ouyang Xue raised her eyebrows, and a fierce look flashed in her eyes.
"It should be. It's just that it's rare for it to burn so thoroughly in such a short time."
"Well! That's exactly what I'm wondering about. The human body is 80% water. It's incredible that it can burn so thoroughly in such a short time, and without any combustible materials. But your statement that someone set the fire doesn't seem likely." Ouyang Xue said slowly shaking her head.
"That's right. If someone set the fire, the criminal police should be able to find some clues. But the person who set the fire here should be himself." Song Dian said affirmatively.
Ouyang Xue opened her mouth wide: "He burned himself to death? Committed suicide?"
"That's my initial guess."
"What evidence?"
"There is no direct evidence at present. However, since the human body cannot burn on its own, no one went in to set the fire, and the deceased had a habit of smoking, I infer that the deceased died in an accident."
"There is some truth to that. But isn't such an accident too bizarre? A cigarette butt burned a living person and left only a palm?" Ouyang Xue shook her head again.
"Have you heard of the 'wick effect'?" Song Dian asked.
"No. Does it have anything to do with this?"
"It has a lot to do with it. Regarding the phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion, the most widely accepted explanation in the academic community is the 'wick effect', also known as the 'candle effect'. The human body does not burn on its own, but is ignited by a fire source similar to a candle flame. Generally, the clothes worn by a drunk or sleeping person are ignited by fire , the skin is burned and peeled off, the subcutaneous fat melts and flows out, and the clothes are soaked in liquefied fat and become a 'wick'. The fat in the body is like 'wax', which continuously provides fuel for combustion. Therefore, the body burns slowly like a candle until all the fat tissue is burned out."
Ouyang Xue raised her head in surprise and asked, "What about the remaining palm?"
Song Dian continued, "The body parts not covered by clothes will not be burned, because the melted fat needs clothes as a 'wick' to burn fully, but when the liquefied fat flows to this part of the body, it will burn the skin there, and the remaining palm skin of the deceased did have symptoms of burns. In addition, fat will produce thick smoke when it burns, which can explain why the ceiling of the bathroom is blackened. Some melted fat will flow out of the body and onto the floor. Since there are no clothes as wicks, they will not burn and remain."
Ouyang Xue nodded slowly: "That makes sense."
But Song Dian said thoughtfully: "We can explain why he burned so thoroughly, but we can't explain why he didn't ask for help after he caught fire - there was a sink and shower nearby, and it was easy to put out the fire. Currently, the victims of spontaneous combustion are all drunk or asleep, and the deceased should not be in that mental state at the time. The accident happened, but he died silently..."
Ouyang Xue had heard of such incidents, so she could more or less understand Song Dian's wild inference. After talking for a few words, Song Dian was still thinking hard and looking for fingerprint clues. Ouyang Xue leaned on the windowsill alone with a silent expression, as if she was waiting, or thinking about something silently.
"What were you doing just now, kid? Why didn't you come out when everyone else did?" Outside the corridor, Tang Yan was questioning Yin Hun.
The autumn weather was crisp and clear. A flock of wild geese flew southward, stirring up an autumn wind that blew the leaves off the ground everywhere. It was as if someone was directing the leaves, and they all blew the toilet next to them.
Looks a bit weird.
However, Yin Hun just thought that he was overthinking.
He smiled bitterly: "Nothing! The policeman just asked some questions."
"Don't fool me!" Tang Yan glared at Yin Hun in dissatisfaction, and then walked to the front with her hands in her pockets. The foreign woman in the video a few days ago, plus the beautiful police officer now, each of them has a huge breast, and they all look very intimate with Yin Hun, which makes her somewhat unhappy.
