Chapter 18: The Habitual Thief

In other words, when she was placed into the bathtub and the cement slurry was poured in, she was still barely alive—not truly dead. It was only after being submerged in the cement slurry that she was suffocated and died from the cement obstructing her breathing.

The time of death for the two victims was very close, almost negligible. Considering the bodies were sealed in cement, although cracks allowed some air in, causing decomposition, the cement largely slowed the decay process. The forensic experts estimated that the two victims had died more than twenty days prior to the present.

Moreover, after meticulously cleaning the bodies’ surfaces, they discovered a distinct scar on the male victim’s back, about the size of a palm, located near the shoulder blade.

This provided a concrete feature that could be used to identify the victim.

As for DNA sampling to confirm the identities and blood relation of the two victims, although the samples had been collected, it would take some time to yield results. Moreover, the DNA could mainly only confirm their kinship.

It seemed that this mother and son had no other immediate blood relatives still alive.

“How much cement would it take to fill that bathtub and seal two average-sized adults inside? It must be quite a few bags, right?” Ning Shuyi had no experience in this matter and could only speculate based on common sense.

Huo Yan thought for a moment and roughly estimated, “I’m not very skilled at this either, so I can’t be certain, but one bag of cement definitely isn’t enough. To fill that tub, minus the volume of two bodies, I’d guess at least a dozen to twenty bags would be needed.”

A dozen to twenty bags of cement could hardly be carried home in one trip. Given the weight, if this were a spur-of-the-moment act—killing someone and then running out to buy cement to hide the bodies—without a vehicle, transporting it from the hardware store would be a huge challenge. Making multiple trips would surely attract attention, not to mention the immense physical exhaustion involved.

And even if one were to source it locally, who keeps twenty bags of cement lying around at home just waiting to be used to conceal a corpse?

By around seven in the evening, Ning Shuyi called the owner of the house again. The landlord hadn’t gone to work yet and was at home, so his tone was somewhat furtive. It seemed he hadn’t told his wife about the murder in the house, as he hesitated and quickly ended the call.

About five minutes later, he called back. This time his tone was more normal, though there was a faint background noise.

“Hello, Officer Ning, sorry about that earlier! I was at home. I didn’t dare tell my wife yesterday, and I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle the news if she overheard, so I hung up earlier. I just stepped out to buy some fried dough sticks to avoid her.”

“So, what’s the matter you called about?”

“Well, I wanted to ask if you knew whether the apartment rented to Chang Junchao and his family had any renovation plans before theI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.