Santos' Case Files: Roadkill Attraction (Part 2)

The inspector that would be handling the investigation finally arrived where the body was found. He also noticed the cut on the neck and came to the same conclusion as mine, it was sliced open and the victim bled out to death. There were ligature marks across the victim's body and was done antemortem suggesting that the body was bound first then the suspect sliced the victim's neck open and just left it, but it's impossible to do that here, this area could be the body dump. If this is the dumpsite then there would probably be more bodies out there.

I suggested to the inspector to have a thorough search of the whole area. The police began searching along the storm canal and found two more. The only difference in the bodies is the state they are in. The farthest and probably the first victim is completely dried to the bone, the second one became unrecognizable and started to look like a mummy. Based on these the interval of the killings is about a week or so.

The current victim's estimated time of death is exactly a week from today, meaning that the killer could have another body ready to dump here. But since the police are already patrolling the area, the killer will find another area to dump the victim's body.

The thing that bugs me is the ligature marks on the victim's body, the second body shows the exact same wound, but it was hard to tell on the first body. Since there are no other ways to tell if the bodies are of the same killings it is up to the crime lab to find the links between them.

I decided to go there as well to see the results first-hand. The crime lab is located near the last destination of our trip. But instead of going back to them I decided to stay with the crime scene investigators to solve the crime.

The bodies were moved to the medical examiner to see if there was anything they could learn from the body. The most recent victim was the first to be examined then the second, and the third, all of them were of the same age and gender as well as their height. These are the preferences of the killer, meaning the killer could be fixated on these preferences because of what happened from his or her childhood with the person bearing the same preferences of the victims.

Based on the findings of the medical examiner the wound on the neck was not made of any kind of blade, the wound is too narrow to match any of the blades. Then it hit me some killers use piano wire to asphyxiate their victims, but the wounds left by it circles around the neck. The wounds on the victims found were only at the throat there are no indications that the wire went around the neck. It suggests that the killer used another method of using piano wire to kill them, a more cruel way.

The crime scene investigators found some trace amount of tree bark under the skin on the back of their heads, the inspector thinks that this came from the weapon the killer used to subdue the victim, he thought that the victim received a blow on the back on the head from something like a branch of a tree. But there were no concussions or cracks on the skull to support his argument.the only way I could think is that the victim was bound to a tree and then the killer cuts the throat using a piano wire.

I was confident on my deduction, but something is missing, the murder weapon. The medical examiner also noted that there was a trace amount of DNA on the third victim from the first and second victim, confirming the possibility of serial killing.

The inspector's phone rang, it was from one of the police officers patrolling the crime scene. Another body was found in the area near where the third victim was found making it the fourth victim of these serial killings. We quickly went to where the body was found and it was in fact part of the serial killings, same wounds and ligature marks on the body. It also had the same preferences as the first victims.

I checked my phone and looked for a forest near the area, there were two, one at the edge of the open field earlier and the other just beyond the squatter's area. Either of these two could've been the original crime scene. Since the forests were too far from where the bodies was found then the suspect needs a mode of transportation. Maybe a car or a similar mode of transportation to dump the body here.

The police officers didn't even see the suspect dumping the body, meaning the killer could've inconspicuously passed the police officers. I told the inspector to search the two forests near here and look for blood pools near trees where the killer might have bound the victims.

After the police officers left, I checked my phon again where the map shows the locations of the forests. I noticed something on of the forests, a log cabin was placed in the middle of the forest beyond the squatter's area. I quickly notified the inspector, because this might be where the killer lives.

After several hours the inspector arrived with the suspect in custody, he was the one living in the log cabin in the middle of the forest. The murder weapon was found inside his house still soaked in blood.

The killer already kidnapped another victim and was ready to lock him up until a week has pass and then he'll be tied on a tree and on his neck was a piano wire tourniquet, the murder weapon.

The killer's weapon of choice is the wire tourniquet, as you rotate clockwise the wooden rod at the back the wire around the victim's neck will tighten and will eventually cuts through your skin.

The inspector thanked me and gave me a ride to the last stop of our field trip. He thanked me for helping with the case.

"We could use one like you in our department." the inspector said and drove off.