Chapter 586 - 488: On-site Investigation, Timeline

Chapter 586: Chapter 488: On-site Investigation, Timeline

As they spoke, the group arrived at the scene.

Shen Xin glanced at his watch. 10:17 AM.

Starting at 1:37 AM, multiple people had called to report a fire.

At 1:51 AM, fire trucks arrived and began to fight the blaze.

At 2:30 AM, the fire was extinguished. It was only then that the firefighters discovered the body on the bed.

At 2:51 AM, the New District Criminal Investigation Division received the alert and was immediately dispatched to the scene.

A few minutes past 5:00 AM, Doniya was located and brought back to the station for questioning.

It was already 6:22 AM when Shen Xin got the call.

He rushed back, arriving in Nanjiang City at 9:30 AM.

The victim had been burned, so the time of death had not yet been confirmed.

Only about ten hours had passed since the incident began.

One fire truck remained, its crew investigating the scene alongside the police department’s technical personnel.

This area was still under the jurisdiction of Fangquan Street.

Therefore, officers from the Fangquan Police Station were still present, maintaining order at the scene.

Shen Xin scanned the surroundings.

If he recalled correctly, the apartment building had been completed and occupied since 2010.

Zhang Hancheng wasn’t in a hurry to go inside. Instead, he followed Liu Baoqing to familiarize himself with the area.

This was originally built as a residential complex for the New District Industrial Park and was zoned for mixed commercial and residential use.

It was located northwest of the intersection of Ze’an Road and Guan Nan Road.

The complex consisted of five main buildings.

To the southeast was an open-air shopping plaza called Orange County.

To the south and east were two 14-story buildings each.

To the west was a 12-story building with duplex apartments.

To the north were two more buildings, designated as Buildings 3 and 4.

Each was a 24-story slab-tower hybrid apartment building, with four elevators servicing 32 units per floor. In other words, they were extremely crowded.

The two buildings by the shopping plaza were Buildings 1 and 2, and they were primarily for commercial use.

"We can just call that Area A," Liu Baoqing said, pointing toward the two buildings by the plaza.

That side is mostly commercial, and this side is mostly residential, so they’re separated.

But since all five buildings were zoned for mixed-use, many of the units in the three buildings of ’Area B’ were also rented out as office spaces.

Indeed, a quick scan by Shen Xin revealed a multitude of eye-catching business signs hanging in the windows.

The buildings had been completed for several years now.

A subway station had been part of the original plan, which had attracted a lot of investors.

But it later turned out the developer had been misleading people with unconfirmed plans, and the subway line was ultimately rerouted.

Fortunately, the location was still decent, so the occupancy rate remained high.

The only problem was that it was a small-time developer.

A bigger developer wouldn’t have dared to pull such a stunt.

This led to the property management being a complete mess. Combined with the mixed-use zoning and the constant flow of different people, the living environment was, frankly, not very good.

Furthermore, Shen Xin had heard this place was a well-known hub for prostitutes operating out of apartments in the New District.

The presence of prostitutes spoke volumes about the kind of environment it was.

On the other hand, you could say the area was full of life. The ground floors were lined with restaurants, and it was always bustling with people coming and going.

Zhang Hancheng asked how many entrances and exits there were.

Liu Baoqing replied, "A ton."

Area A is open-access, while Area B has two pedestrian entrances, one on the west side and one on the north.

Not counting fire access points, there were three vehicle entrances.

Area B had only one, on the north side.

Area A, meanwhile, had one on the east and one on the south, both leading to the commercial underground parking garage.

The garage had two underground levels.

And the parking garages for Area A and Area B were connected.

There was also a pedestrian entrance connecting Area A and Area B, complete with a security booth, surveillance cameras, and an automatic, facial-recognition gate.

But according to Liu Baoqing, even though property management had someone scheduled on duty there, the gate was usually left propped open for the convenience of delivery drivers.

The guards mostly just sat in their booths playing on their phones, so the security was virtually nonexistent.

Zhang Hancheng said, "So, that means the suspect could have entered the complex from any number of places."

This would undoubtedly make the investigation much more difficult.

Liu Baoqing nodded in resignation.

And with the perpetrator having intentionally stolen the surveillance recorder, the difficulty would only increase.

Zhang Hancheng fell silent and led the group toward the crime scene.

The crime scene was in Building 3, the one to the northeast.

The apartment was 1422, on the 14th floor, facing south.

Looking up from the ground, they could instantly see where the beige exterior wall had been burned pitch-black.

The fire had even spread, scorching the outer walls of the adjacent apartments on either side.

The flames had reached the 15th floor as well, and smoke had stained the building all the way up to the 17th floor.

The landscaping within the complex was shoddy. The playground equipment in the central courtyard was worn and dilapidated, and it was now surrounded by a crowd of chattering onlookers.

A security guard was on duty in the first-floor lobby at night.

The only ways up were the elevators and the fire stairs.

The door to the fire stairs was propped open; it looked like residents on the lower floors used them frequently.

A quick look around revealed surveillance cameras covering the elevator lobby and the stairwell entrance.

There were cameras inside the elevators as well.

This was likely the main reason the suspect had taken the risk of stealing the recording device.

It couldn’t be helped. With the footage, what the suspect did and who the victim had been in contact with would have been perfectly clear.

’Still, it wasn’t a total loss. There was traffic surveillance on the surrounding roads, plus some businesses had their own security cameras, not to mention the entry and exit logs for the underground garage. A thorough canvass is bound to turn something up.’

The group took the elevator up to the 14th floor.

Before the elevator doors even opened, they were hit by the heavy stench of smoke.

The hallway was flooded with water, and the ceiling was blackened by smoke and flames.

The residents of the entire floor had been evacuated, leaving only police personnel and firefighters at the scene.

The group made their way toward apartment 1422.

Looking at the ink-black hallway, Zhang Hancheng frowned. "How did it burn this badly?"

Liu Baoqing just shook his head. "Don’t get me started. Their property management is atrocious. When the firefighters got up here, they found the water pressure in the pipes was too low."

"The pressure-booster pump was malfunctioning, and they had to waste time fixing it. They had to rely entirely on the ladder truck to fight the fire from the outside. In any case, this property management company is in for some hefty fines."

Zhang Hancheng said no more and approached the apartment.