Chapter 589
The forensic pathologist, Sheila, also arrived at the scene and just briefly examined the broken fingers and crushed flesh before saying in a confident tone, “That’s right, these should be the remains of victim number 1, Hedda Cartman.
When I gave Haida Cartman an autopsy, I found injuries on her body and fingers, but because the body was charred, I couldn’t determine the cause of the injuries.
These unburned remains are important to the autopsy.”
Luke asked, “Can you tell how the broken fingers and injuries were caused?”
Sheila picked up the clear plastic bag and took a closer look, “The cuts are uneven, which means they weren’t caused by a sharp blade.
In my experience it looks like it’s probably a laceration.”
Luke pressed, “A human bite? Or an animal bite?”
“It’s not something that could be caused by human teeth marks, it would have been a larger carnivore, give me some time and I’ll run teeth marks on the wreckage.”
Luke nodded, “Hard work.”
Blackie thought for a moment and said, “Captain, let’s go investigate at suspect Annika Carmen’s house, she has a black Rottweiler named Coco at home.
Could the hairs found in these body pits be from that dog?”
“It’s a possibility.” Luke instructed, “Marcus, why don’t you take someone to investigate the neighborhood where Annika Carmen lived and see if there’s a pet database?”
Black asked rhetorically, “You think the community keeps DNA data on pet dogs?”
Luke said, “There are a lot of dog owners, some civilized, some uncivilized, and a lot of people have encountered shit mines.
That’s why some communities will require DNA samples from their residents’ pets.
Once a dog poop mine is found in the community, the pet dog will be found through DNA testing and the dog owner will face a fine.”
Xiao Hei’s eyes lit up as he agreed, “I’ve stepped on a dog poop mine before, it’s disgusting.
This kind of regulation is good, I raise my hands in favor of it.”
Luke arranged the tasks and the team split up to investigate.
As time passed, more and more clues came together for Luke.
He had a general speculation about the arson case.
Early the next morning.
Luke arrived at the police station and rushed to the technical team first.
The results of the DNA comparison were already out, and the dog hair found in the body pit matched the DNA of Annika Carmen’s family’s Rottweiler.
Luke immediately applied for a search warrant and led the team to Annika Carmen’s house to investigate.
Wickett neighborhood.
A white Tesla sedan was parked outside the garage of Annika Carmen’s home.
The door of the villa opened and Annika Carmen walked out holding a black Rottweiler, the dog seemed to be a bit resistant, shaking its big head and walking slowly.
“Coco good boy, go to grandma’s house to stay for a few days, mom will visit you often.” Annika Carmen whispered soothingly to the Rottweiler and opened the back door of the Tesla, “Get in.”
The Rottweiler jumped in the car, plopped down in the back seat, and barked at the car, “Woof woof ……”
Annika Carmen untied the leash and took out another toy and handed it to the Rottweiler, “Coco be good and play with yourself, mommy has to drive.”
Annika Carmen closed the car door and was about to drive off in her Tesla when she noticed two cars driving up and pulling over, her pupils shrank and her face changed slightly as she recognized the two cars.
Luke stepped out of the black SUV car and greeted her with a smile, “Ms. Annika Carmen, are you going out?”
Annika Carmen forced a smile, “Yes. I’m getting ready to go to a friend’s house.”
“Before I go, I would like to talk to you.”
“I’m sorry, I already have an appointment with a friend, so it’s better to wait for another day.”
Luke said, “Don’t worry, it won’t take up too much of your time.
When we’re done talking, I can send a police car to take you there and it won’t delay your meeting with your friend.”
“I don’t know how fast your police cars are, but I don’t want to scare my friends away.” Annika Carmen clasped her hands to her chest and said somewhat helplessly.
“What exactly do you guys want with me?”
Luke scanned around, “Ms. Carmen, do you think it’s appropriate to speak here?”
Annika Carmen sighed, opened the back door of the car, and said gently, “Coco come down, we’ll leave later.”
The Rottweiler jumped out of the car and looked at Luke and the others with some caution, letting out a bark, “Woof woof ……”
“You guys wait outside for a while, Coco doesn’t like strangers.” Annika Carmen led the dog into the house, and it took another moment before she opened the door, “Come in.”
Luke then entered the villa with Blackie.
Blacky looked around curiously, “Where’s that Rottweiler? I kinda like it.”
“I sent it into the bedroom so as not to disturb our conversation.”
Blackie tried, “It looks a little mean, will it bite us?”
Annika Carmen’s voice rose and trailed off, “No, Coco won’t bite.
It may be big, but it’s very timid, instead it might be scared by strangers.
Don’t look at it as a big guy, but it’s actually only three years old.”
Blackie looked odd, “You’re worried that I’ll scare that big dog?”
Annika Carmen didn’t answer and asked instead, “I don’t have much time, what are you guys doing here with me?
As I’ve already said, I had been at home the day of the fire at Mogaro Forest Park and wasn’t aware of what was going on there.”
Luke said, “Ms. Carmen, we have found some new clues in our investigation of the arson case, and we came over today to ask for your help in identifying them.”
Annika Carmen shrugged, “Identify what?”
Luke took out a photo of Hedda Cartman, “This lady also lives near Mogaro Forest Park, she often goes to Mogaro Forest Park for running, have you seen her?”
Annika Carmen pursed her lips as she looked at the photo, “I’m not one to socialize, and besides, she looks quite a bit older than me, we’re not in the same circle.
I’m sorry to say I’m not impressed.”
Luke stared at the other man’s cheek, “Are you sure you haven’t seen her?”
“Yes, I haven’t seen her.”
Luke could see that the other man had a lying look on his face and said without a trace, “That black Rottweiler you have is named Coco?”
“Yes, what’s the problem?”
“You usually take care of Coco yourself?”
“Yes.” Annika Carmen gulped and intertwined her hands involuntarily.
“How many years have you had him?”
“Three years.”
“Has it ever bitten anyone before?”
“No, it wouldn’t do that.” Annika Carmen, a little disturbed, rubbed her right arm with her left hand and asked rhetorically, “Why are you always staring at my dog?”
“I can see that you love it.”
“The two of us eat, sleep, and walk together every day; it’s like family to me.”
“Suppose, hypothetically, it bites someone, what would you do?”
“Coco doesn’t bite.”
“I’m talking hypothetically.”
“That assumption doesn’t hold water at all.
Coco is simple-minded and kinder than most people, it just can’t talk.”
Kuro rolled his eyes, “You’re comparing dogs to people together?”
“I’ve always thought of Coco as my own daughter, what’s wrong with that?”
This statement made Blacky very disgusted because he really had a daughter, “I think your ‘daughter’ is too cute, so cute that she goes around biting people, even brutally biting them to death.”
Annika Carmen was annoyed, “I said Coco doesn’t bite. Unless you can show me proof, I will definitely file a complaint against you.”
Luke said, “The picture I just showed you is the victim of arson. She wasn’t killed by fire, but her body was incinerated after her death.
We found a large amount of dog hair around her body, which was identified as an exact match to the DNA of your family’s Rottweiler.”
“That’s impossible, you guys have got to be lying to me.” Annika Carmen’s voice trembled a little, she took a deep breath as if she had thought of something, “Aren’t you guys here to investigate arson? How else could you have found any dog hair if it was already on fire?”
Luke said, “The murderer put the body in the ground and buried it for a period of time before he set it on fire.
When the murderer dug up the body again, he left some of the physical evidence in the body pit because the body had already decomposed and for objective reasons such as darkness.
We have enough evidence to prove that your dog is related to this murder and arson case.”
Annika Carmen shook her head, “You guys are too arbitrary, I often take Coco to the park for a walk.
It’s not surprising that its fur appeared in Mogaro Forest Park, or it could have been blown by the wind.
That doesn’t mean it’s the killer.”
“You’re right, and we’re here today to rule that out.”
Luke flashed a search warrant, “Ms. Annika Carmen, we’re going to take your Rottweiler, please cooperate.”
“No No No,” Annika Carmen stood up and kept backing away, “No one is taking my dog.
Coco has never left me.
He’ll be scared in strange surroundings, you can’t do this.”
Xiao Hei stared at the other party like they were idiots, at this point in time they were still concerned about the dog, shouldn’t they be more concerned about themselves?
Dogs might bite people to death, but they would never bury a body or set a fire.
No matter how much the two men tried to persuade her, Annika Carmen disagreed, deadlocking the bedroom door.
Luke called for reinforcements, and the two policewomen pulled Annika Carmen right out of the way and brought her under control.
Porter and Jackson were in charge of grabbing the dog, they had brought their grappling tools with them, but the black Rottweiler was so strong it took half a day of tossing and turning to get into the car.
“You can’t do this, you can’t take my Coco, I’ll file a complaint against you, I will …… oooooh ……” cried Annika Carmen hysterically.
After watching the dog catching truck leave, Luke ignored Annika Carmen and instructed the others, “Search the house, don’t spare a single dog hair.”
“Okay, Captain.”
The officers split up, some searched searched the living room of the house, others searched the bedrooms, and still others searched the garage and yard.
Xiao Hei dug and dug in the yard with a shovel, and suddenly, he felt that he had dug into a hard object and shouted, “Captain, I’ve got something here.”
Blacky plowed a few times and unearthed a large bone from the ground, his eyes widened, “Are there other dead people?”
Jackson walked over to take a closer look and laughed, “This isn’t a human bone, it’s a cow bone, specially bought for dogs to sharpen their teeth.
It’s likely that the dog buried it in the ground itself, the body wouldn’t have been buried so shallowly.”
Blackie blushed with some embarrassment and glared at Jackson.
Luke had also been observing the ground, and he saw a patch of dirt that was darker in color and relatively soft, and said to Xiao Hei, “Come over here and dig.”
Xiao Hei dragged his shovel over and dug a few times at the place Luke said, feeling that the dirt was indeed relatively soft, he immediately got energized and accelerated his digging speed.
After digging about half a meter deep, the color of the dirt got deeper and deeper, and there was some ash mixed inside.
Xiao Hei dug the hole wider, put on gloves to rummage through the ashes, and found some burnt remains, one of which looked like pieces of clothing, with blood stains on it.
Another was a black triangle, much like the corner of a dog tag.
Seeing these things, Luke breathed a sigh of relief; the evidence previously found in the Mogaro Woods Park body pit only proved that the dog had attacked the deceased, Hedda Cartman, but there was still a chance that Annika Carmen could be exonerated.
With the evidence dug up in the yard was enough to convict Annika Carmen.