A teenage girl was raped and beaten to death in a drug rehabilitation center？ Forensic medicine uses a colander to ＂chase the murderer＂

editorial comment/note

When it comes to forensic experts, words such as "professional" and "meticulous" often appear in our minds.

Whether it is the "forensic doctor" who is often put on the screen or other "appraisers" who work hard behind the scenes, they all play an important role in judicial practice. These people use science and technology or expertise to identify and judge the specialized issues involved in litigation, and give the most objective appraisal opinions to bring fairness and justice to the people.

The Institute of Forensic Science and Technology of the Ministry of Justice is the "aircraft carrier" in the field of forensic expertise in China, where the most well-known and authoritative forensic and expert teams gather. In recent years, they have conducted judicial expertise on a large number of major, difficult, complex, sensitive and foreign-related cases, timely safeguarded national interests and citizens’ legitimate rights and interests, corrected a number of unjust, false and misjudged cases, and played an important role in resolving disputes and conflicts, maintaining social stability and ensuring judicial justice. On November 19th, the Ministry of Justice announced that the Institute of Forensic Science was officially renamed as the Institute of Forensic Science, and at the same time, the button of upgrading the whole forensic industry was pressed.

The reporter of "Legal Daily" used half a year to walk into the Institute of Forensic Medicine, face to face with the forensic doctors and experts here, and unveiled the mystery of this profession in the form of news documentary. Starting today, the Ministry of Justice’s WeChat WeChat official account launched the column of "Appraiser’s Narration" and published this series of reports.

Case review

In September 2009, a young woman in Hohhot was sent by the police to a women’s drug rehabilitation center for compulsory isolation and detoxification because of taking methamphetamine, and died 47 days later because of the rescue of ectopic pregnancy. According to the relevant biochemical indicators during the visit, it is inferred that under normal circumstances, the pregnancy time is about 30 days ago, that is, she is pregnant in the women’s drug rehabilitation center.

Drug rehabilitation centers, police, young women, pregnancy, sudden death … At that time, all kinds of speculations poured out, and family members suspected that she was raped and pregnant to death in drug rehabilitation centers, and the reeducation through labor bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and drug rehabilitation centers were pushed to the forefront. With the consent of family members, on March 20, 2010, the relevant appraisal was entrusted to the Institute for Identification.

After careful operation during dissection, the appraiser finally found the embryo tissue with the size of soybean in the fallopian tube. After fully considering the difference between normal intrauterine pregnancy and ectopic pregnancy, it was preliminarily estimated that the embryo should be about 7 weeks, instead of 4-5 weeks calculated according to biochemical indicators. The appraiser also conducted a DNA test on the embryonic tissue, and the comparison confirmed that the biological father of the embryonic tissue was a social drug addict who had close contacts with young women.

The appraisal results restored the truth, calmed the storm of public opinion, and the reeducation-through-labor bureau and drug rehabilitation center resumed normal working order.

A leaky spoon uncovers the mystery of the death of drug-addicted girls

What the supervision and reform institutions fear most is the abnormal death of detainees. In September 2009, Xiaoyun (a pseudonym), a 19-year-old drug addict, died in a women’s drug rehabilitation center. A few days later, a post "Beautiful girl was raped and beaten to death in drug rehabilitation center" spread quickly on the Internet …

Zhang Jianhua, 41, is currently the deputy director of the Pathology Research Office of the Judicial Appraisal Institute of the Ministry of Justice, and an old forensic doctor with 17 years’ experience. When the reporter saw him, he was coming back from a business trip. Because of his rich experience and reputation, many difficult cases from all over the country will eventually find him here.

Zhang Jianhua told reporters that the biggest job feature of forensic pathologists in the Institute of Forensic Medicine is that they travel a lot, and they spend one third of their time on business trips every year; The second is the habit of "detail control". After receiving the case, they will always take pains to think and prepare all kinds of unexpected details.

Just like the "abnormal death case in drug addicts’ drug rehabilitation center", after receiving the case, the first thing Zhang Jianhua did was to buy the finest colander in the market, the colander used by ordinary people to filter soybean milk.

Why do autopsies use colander? The reporter was somewhat surprised.

"At that time, this case has formed a very serious social public opinion. Whether it is the leaders of the drug rehabilitation center and relevant competent departments, or the families of the deceased, there is an urgent need to find the truth. Our work can only succeed and not fail, so the preparations are particularly adequate." Zhang Jianhua said.

It is reported that after Xiaoyun’s death, the case-handling organ detected that her serum HCG (an indicator used to judge whether she was pregnant) index was high, which means Xiaoyun was pregnant. Then combined with other relevant evidence, the investigators preliminarily concluded that Xiaoyun’s death was caused by tubal rupture caused by ectopic pregnancy, which led to massive bleeding.

However, this preliminary conclusion makes the family even more excited: Xiaoyun is in a drug rehabilitation center and has no contact with men at all, so who made this beautiful girl pregnant? At that time, the family members pointed the finger at the only two or three male police officers in this drug rehabilitation center, and claimed 1.09 million yuan, and the public opinion was almost out of control …

"According to the numerical standard of HCG, Xiaoyun’s pregnancy is about 5 weeks, and her admission time is 47 days. According to this inference, the male policeman can’t escape suspicion. Therefore, the local political and legal organs are very anxious and want to find out the truth as soon as possible. " Zhang Jianhua said.

However, at that time, many appraisal institutions were unwilling to accept this case. Because of the great pressure of tubal rupture, the embryo is likely to be washed away. If the embryo cannot be found, it is impossible to accurately identify the length of pregnancy. In addition, the pressure of public opinion is so great that once it is not handled properly, the contradiction is likely to be transferred to the judicial expertise department.

Zhang Jianhua was well aware of the seriousness of the case, but he and two other colleagues formed an appraisal team to accept the case.

Although the cause of Xiao Yun’s death has been preliminarily inferred, what Zhang Jianhua and others need is an accurate conclusion, and they adopted the method of total dissection and exclusion.

Abdominal cavity, chest cavity, cranial cavity … Autopsy never misses a link, and after all other reasons, such as trauma, poisoning, drug abuse and disease, are excluded, the focus is locked on ectopic pregnancy.

"The’ leaky spoon’ is used in this link." Zhang Jianhua said, "At that time, we judged that the embryo was probably washed into the abdominal cavity, and there were four or five thousand milliliters of blood in the abdominal cavity, so we bought a colander to catch the embryo."

An embryo at the fifth week of pregnancy is only the size of a soybean. If it is washed to other parts of the body, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The "detail control" of pathological forensic doctors really deserves its reputation!

Fortunately, however, the embryo was found and the truth was close at hand.

Schematic diagram of embryonic development

"During this period, we also consulted and compared many literatures at home and abroad, and found that the HCG level of intrauterine pregnancy and ectopic pregnancy is very different. In the case of ectopic pregnancy, it is not accurate to use HCG level to infer gestational age, and there is also a lack of theoretical support. In order to accurately judge the gestational age and fix the time of conception, this hope is pinned on this small embryo. " Zhang Jianhua said.

According to the size and other characteristics of the embryo, the forensic doctor finally accurately judged that the actual gestational age of the embryo should be more than 7 weeks, and the pregnancy time should be before admission. At this point, the cause of death of drug addicts was found out, and the grievances of several male policemen were also cleared.

Then, who will be the man who got the drug addict pregnant before entering the hospital?

"This requires DNA identification." Zhang Jianhua said, "Many forensic doctors often put an embryo in formalin after taking it out. However, I don’t know that although formalin has antiseptic effect, it will also destroy some substances in the tissue itself and affect DNA testing. "

Fortunately, Zhang Jianhua left a hand after taking out the embryo, and processed the embryo by freezing preservation, without destroying the integrity of the embryo, and successfully extracted the DNA from the embryo.

At the suggestion of the forensic doctor, the public security organs collected blood samples from all the male friends who came into contact with the deceased before his death, started a DNA comparison investigation, and finally locked in a man …

"Acupuncture Case" in Shandong Province

There are twists and turns, and there is a case in the case. In fact, in Zhang Jianhua’s career, there are not a few cases that solve the fog and restore the truth by looking for a needle in a haystack.

At the end of the interview, Zhang Jianhua told the reporter about another similar case-the case of "acupuncture death" in Shandong. The case was similar to the case of "the death of a drug-addicted girl". At that time, the detainee of a detention center in Shandong died in a certain place, and there was no wound on his body, which was not like death. Many media voiced this and thought that Yu was killed by the detention center.

Looking for the cause of death can also be described as looking for a needle in a haystack, but Zhang Jianhua finally found a very small eye of a needle in the heart of the deceased’s body surface, and along the eye of a needle, found a small hole at the apex of the deceased’s heart, with a deep wound that reached the heart.

Zhang Jianhua’s discovery found the direction to solve the case. The investigators found out that Yu had hidden a needle while doing needlework at ordinary times, and then committed suicide by stabbing his heart.

"Behind every case, there are so many eyes staring at the truth. We can’t be careless. We can only be cautious, cautious and careful. This is not only a respect for the deceased, but also a responsibility for legal fairness and justice."

In a couple of days, Zhang Jianhua may be out of business again …

Source: Legal Daily-Legal Network