Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 293: The Disappeared Videos

Evidence Room. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Lu Chuan once again got hold of Sun Hao’s mobile phone.

"Is there any problem with the phone?"

Liu Guodong filled out the evidence retrieval form, looking somewhat puzzled.

Sun Hao’s phone was not damaged in the car accident. After confirming the nature of the case, the Crime Scene Investigation office checked the phone.

The photos, videos, and other content inside didn’t pose any issues.

Since Lu Chuan took out the phone again, could it be that there’s been a discovery?

"His Moments."

Sun Hao’s phone had been unlocked with his fingerprint, and after being stored as evidence, a new password was set to facilitate police review.

Lu Chuan opened Sun Hao’s WeChat: "Master, look at Sun Hao’s Moments, starting from three years ago, Sun Hao posted on his Moments every day."

"But starting three days ago, his Moments ceased to update."

Liu Guodong took over the phone and scrolled through the screen; it was indeed the case.

"Are you suggesting that Sun Hao was controlled three days ago?"

"It shouldn’t be. Ren Qiang contacted people who lived with Sun Hao continuously; he was still at home yesterday..."

As Liu Guodong spoke, he suddenly paused.

He also realized why Lu Chuan wanted to take Sun Hao’s phone.

Sun Hao had the car accident this morning.

However, he was still at home yesterday, which means that in terms of time, Sun Hao’s body was tampered with by the murderer after he left home and before the accident.

"Are you saying that before Sun Hao disappeared, he posted for two days on Moments, but they’re missing now?"

"Yes," Lu Chuan nodded: "Sun Hao couldn’t have deleted the content from his Moments himself. Who deleted it, and why?"

"Moreover, there is somewhat of a correspondence between the photos and videos on Sun Hao’s phone with those posted on his Moments."

"Yet, the photos and videos from the past three days are missing."

"I suspect that the murderer deliberately deleted these things."

"As for the motive... either Sun Hao posted something that might have revealed the murderer’s identity, or what Sun Hao posted was the reason for his death!"

"In any case, Master, we need to find someone to recover the potentially deleted content from the phone!"

Liu Guodong found Lu Chuan’s suspicion very plausible.

He just checked Sun Hao’s phone and found that Sun Hao had been posting content every day recently on his Moments.

It’s normal that Sun Hao didn’t get to post on his Moments today due to the car accident, but his absence yesterday and the day before is puzzling.

Thus, it can be confirmed that his Moments were intentionally deleted by someone.

"Alright, I’ll contact the Technical Appraisal Center immediately."

Recovering videos or photos from a phone is much like recovering data from a typical hard drive.

You need professional personnel for the task.

However, at this time, it’s already midnight, and the Technical Appraisal Center only has personnel on duty.

"We’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning. The Technical Appraisal Center may need to recruit someone from phone repair for data recovery."

"Should we report this to Captain Qin?"

Liu Guodong pondered for a moment, looked at the time, and said, "No, it’s too late to get results now. We’ll wait until tomorrow. After we recover the video, then we’ll report to him."

Lu Chuan nodded. The possibility of deleted videos from Sun Hao’s phone is still just a suspicion.

But whether it is true or not will only be known tomorrow.

The next morning, Lu Chuan and Liu Guodong headed straight to the Technical Appraisal Center.

"We don’t have experts in this area, but some cases also require recovering data from computers or phones, specifically economic investigations that have greater needs for this."

The head of the Technical Appraisal Center was an old friend of Liu Guodong.

"Our center allocates outsourcing costs for this every year. It’s Haizhou City’s top phone repair service with confidentiality agreements. Let’s go directly to them."

The three left the Technical Appraisal Center and headed straight for the computer city on Red Flag Road in Haizhou City.

Certainly, this situation is rare in criminal investigations.

After all, it’s usually about murder rather than involving high tech.

Lu Chuan had seen similar skills in the system before, but due to their infrequent usage, he had never opted for them.

"How long will it take?"

The repair technician was a young man with glasses, surrounded by a wall of phones.

"The phone isn’t damaged; this is relatively simple. Just give me ten minutes."

The young man merely glanced at the phone before connecting it to a data cable and starting the operation.

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, the young man handed the phone back to Liu Guodong.

"Recovered two video clips and a few photos. You can check them out."

After saying this, the young man went back to tinkering with a dismantled phone on the table.

Liu Guodong, being a tech person himself, was not surprised by the young man’s demeanor.

On the phone, indeed, two additional videos and five photos appeared in the album.

"Thanks, Old Chen. The team is still busy; I’ll head back first."

In the car, Liu Guodong started playing the video.

The angle of the video wasn’t great, and the lighting was ordinary.

It seemed like it was secretly filmed, but the facial features of the two people in the video were still recognizable.

"Did you bring the stuff?"

"Five million, all in the trunk. How did things go?"

"I’ve already made arrangements with the inspection team; there’s no need to worry about project acceptance. As long as the money is there, there’s nothing Zhao Tianbiao can’t accomplish!"

This was the first video clip.

The second video showcased the same two people moving boxes from one car trunk to another.

The videos were short, each less than a minute in length.

The other photos were all screenshots from the videos.

After the playback ended, Lu Chuan exhaled a breath of air: "Murder to silence?"

"It should be!"

"Old Yang, step on it, we might just be able to crack this case!"

"Haha, will do!"

Yang Sen was equally excited; this was an unexpected surprise.

"Lu, you’re something else. Just by chatting with Forensic Doctor Shen, you managed to break the case."

"Just lucky, just lucky."

Last night, Lu Chuan indeed had a sudden insight.

Not bad, they really found the key evidence.

Sun Hao’s death was likely related to his secretly recorded video.

Now, they only need to find Zhao Tianbiao, and the case should be solvable.

Qin Yong’s office.

"Well done!"

After watching the video, Qin Yong was so excited he almost jumped up.

Early today, several teams came to report on the investigation progress.

However, each team’s progress was quite unsatisfactory.

Considerable advancements were made in investigating Sun Hao’s social relations, and some individuals with conflicts with Sun Hao were identified.

But, those people all had alibis.

Now, it’s better; Lu Chuan and his team found the most crucial evidence.

In fact, this was an overlook on the opposing side’s part. Intending for the police to believe Sun Hao indeed died in the car accident, the killer naturally wouldn’t want Sun Hao’s mobile phone to disappear.

So, they merely deleted the videos inside.

They didn’t anticipate that, with today’s technological means, recovering such videos is rather simple.

"Next, let’s focus all efforts on locating this Zhao Tianbiao!"