Just when everyone was a little frustrated, Zhang Hui's surveillance and investigation team finally made new discoveries. At a remote intersection two kilometers away from the crime scene, there is a traffic surveillance camera. Although the picture quality is not high, a thin back with a black backpack was captured in the video recording on the night of the fire. Judging from the time and body characteristics, this person is most likely the suspect they are looking for.
The team members were very excited and immediately analyzed the back. Through technical means, they enlarge and clear the outline of the back in the picture, trying to find more detailed features. However, due to surveillance angle and light issues, there is no way to obtain more valuable information other than being able to identify the suspect wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans.
Zhang Hui was not discouraged. He led the team members to focus on this intersection and continue to expand the scope of monitoring and investigation. They visited all the surrounding shops and residents and asked if anyone had seen the suspicious person that night. However, most people said they didn't notice it. Only one convenience store owner recalled that there seemed to be a person with a similar figure staying at the door of the store for a while that night, but did not enter the store and left quickly.
In order to further determine the suspect's whereabouts, Zhang Hui decided to start with the suspect's action route. He organized team members to conduct on-site surveys of surrounding roads and analyze the possible direction of escape of the suspect. According to the traffic surveillance video, the suspect appeared at that remote intersection and walked towards the eastern suburbs of the city. The eastern suburbs are an old residential area with narrow roads, dense houses and sparse monitoring equipment, which brings great difficulties to the tracking work.
After learning the news, Wang Shuai also led the on-site investigation team to support him. They and Zhang Hui's team divided into two groups, one of which continued to visit and investigate the residential areas in the eastern suburbs, asking the residents whether they had seen suspicious people; the other side monitored all entrances and exits in the eastern suburbs to prevent the suspect from escaping.
During the visit, a resident provided an important clue. He said that on the night of the fire, he heard footsteps passing by outside, and the sound was very fast, as if someone was running away. He looked through the window curiously and saw a thin man running towards the depths of the alley with his backpack on his back. According to the resident's description, the police roughly determined the scope of the suspect's activities in the eastern suburbs.
However, when they conducted a carpet-style search in the area, no trace of the suspect was found. The suspect seemed very familiar with the area and cleverly avoided the police search. The police were in trouble again and the clues were interrupted again.
At the same time, technicians conducted a more in-depth analysis of suspicious items extracted on site. They found that in addition to the scratches found before, there were some tiny paint particles remaining on the metal container that was suspected to be a gasoline barrel. After testing, these paint particles are a special anti-rust paint, which is usually used for protection of industrial equipment. This discovery provides a new direction for the case to be solved.
Lu Chuan immediately organized personnel to investigate all factories and enterprises in Haizhou that use this anti-rust paint. They visited one by one to ask if any employees had abnormal behavior on the night of the fire or if they had lost similar metal containers. However, the investigation is progressing slowly, with a large number of employees in most factories and enterprises, making the investigation difficult.
During this difficult investigation, the anti-rust paint inspection team finally found a major clue in a medium-sized machinery manufacturing factory after going through twists and turns. When Lu Chuan led his team members into the factory, the factory manager recalled that a few days before the first fire, a small metal container filled with special anti-rust paint had been lost in the factory warehouse. This information is highly consistent with the evidence obtained by the police, and everyone is excited.
Lu Chuan immediately asked to check the factory's employee files and recent attendance records. After careful screening, a temporary worker named Zhao Yu came into their sight. Zhao Yu didn't join the company for a long time. He suddenly asked for leave the day after the first fire. He never appeared again and the phone was turned off. What is even more suspicious is that when he was working in the factory, the area he was mainly responsible for had a warehouse for storing special anti-rust paint.
Lu Chuan quickly arranged for team members to investigate Zhao Yu's residence. When they arrived at Zhao Yu's rental house, the house was in a mess, and it seemed that the owner was walking in a hurry. In the room, police found a black hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans, consistent with the suspect's dress on surveillance. In addition, a shabby black backpack was found, similar to the backpack that the suspect was carrying in the neighbor's description.
However, just when everyone thought that the case was about to make a major breakthrough and pursued Zhao Yu with all their might, an emergency phone call broke the pace of the investigation. A fire broke out in an old apartment building in the southern district of Haizhou City. After the fire department tried its best to extinguish the fire, a charred body was found in the ruins. After receiving the news, Lu Chuan's face became solemn. He realized that this was probably the crime committed by the suspect who had not yet been arrested.
Lu Chuan immediately led Wang Shuai, Zhang Hui and others to the new fire scene. The scene was filled with a pungent burnt smell, and the apartment buildings that were ravaged by the fire were devastated, and many terrifying residents were gathered around. Forensic Zhang Kai quickly conducted a preliminary examination of the body and found that there was a large amount of smoke in the deceased's trachea, which was the same as in the previous two cases. The preliminary judgment was that he died of suffocation due to inhalation of thick smoke during the fire.
Wang Shuai and Yang Sen led the on-site investigation team to conduct a detailed investigation on the site. The door locks in the apartment building have obvious signs of prying, and the technique is exactly the same as before. In the corner of the room, traces of suspected gasoline were also found, and the strong smell of gasoline was filled with the air. Yang Sen squatted down, carefully checked the traces on the ground, frowned: "This method of committing the crime is too similar, it is likely that it was done by the same person. It seems that our previous investigation direction is correct, but he took advantage of another loophole."
During a visit around the scene, Zhang Hui learned that a neighbor saw a thin man wearing a hat and a mask wandering near the apartment building before the fire. This description is highly consistent with the characteristics of the suspect in previous cases. What is even more worrying is that most of the monitoring equipment in this area is aging and damaged, and only a few are still running barely, making it even more difficult to obtain a clear monitoring image. The technicians inspected the suspicious items on the scene and found some strange symbols on a blackened wall, which were crooked and crooked, as if they were carved with sharp objects. These symbols are similar to those found at the second fire scene. Lu Chuan looked at these symbols and felt a strong sense of anxiety in his heart: "These symbols must have special meanings. The suspect committed crimes one after another, leaving these symbols behind. What exactly does he want to express?" (End of this chapter)