preface
Skull restoration technology has been widely used in archaeology and criminal investigation today. By using computer 3D technology and relevant software based on forensic anthropology to measure soft tissue thickness, carry out 3D reconstruction and facial reconstruction, it is easy to reconstruct a digital image that is similar to the face of the victim before death… But in the early 1980s, the technology was still a “myth.” That’s why a criminal would throw a charred skull at random, because he doesn’t believe that someone can bring a victim’s face back to him with a pair of hands and mud.
June, 1982.
Taiyuan, Shanxi.
After school in the afternoon, a group of children kick a ball in the Employees’ dormitory area of taiyuan Coal Construction Company.
A fat kid kicks the ball into the narrow gap between Buildings 9 and 11, no more than half a meter wide, where residents often leave their garbage, dirty, clogged and stinking.
The children complained that the little fat man feet too smelly, let him hurriedly get the ball out, the little fat man had to side body to squeeze a few steps into the gap inside, see the foot of a round thing, with his feet three hook two hook, hard hook out…
The children looked closer and shouted, “This isn’t a football!”
The little fat man was confused at first. It was a ball tightly wrapped in several plastic bags, and there was a faint smell coming from it.
An older child reached out his hand to touch, felt very hard, thinking maybe who does not want the “baby”, then the plastic bag a layer of tear…
All at once, the screams of children rang out over the dormitory area. The voice was young and particularly frightening.
The dusk light fell on the grinning, mutilated, half-burnt skull. The famous “Taiyuan skull recovery case” in the history of Chinese criminal investigation was kicked off by a few children.
1
The police, responding to the alarm, rushed to the scene, the right muscle of the skull rotten, black attached to it; The left frontal area, the orbital area and the lower part of the nose bone had been scorched, and there were three obvious blunt iron bruises.
After subsequent macro skull identification and blood type tests, the deceased was estimated to be between 20 and 30 years old, with blood type A… In addition, no information was collected, and the gender, age and cause of death were not known.
The police knocked on the door of each house building by building, visited the residents and inquired whether there was a missing person, but nothing was found.
The case is bogged down. Faced with the charred half of the skull, taiyuan’s public security bureau was at a loss. Say also coincidentally, just at this time, a leader of the municipal bureau saw a news in the newspaper — “literary master Wu Cheng ‘en’s skull successfully restored”.
“I’ll try.” Zhang Jianjun paused and answered. “I’ll try.” Zhang Jianjun paused and answered.
The source of this news goes back to 1975. Although wu Cheng ‘en, the author of Journey to the West, has long been known to have come from Huai ‘an through historical documents such as Records of Huai ‘an Prefecture and Records of Shanyang County, the exact location of his tomb remains a mystery. However, in January 1975, archaeologists found wu Chengen’s epitaph for his father, Wu Ju Weng, and speculated that Wu Cheng ‘en might also be buried in wu’s ancestral tomb.
At that time, the Cultural Revolution was not over and the society was in chaos. When investigators came to the Wu family’s ancestral tombs, they were dismayed to find that the place had been visited by tomb robbers. However, one has been dug grave, there are three pairs of the coffin, one large coffin on the words “fu jing JiShan” – “JiShan is the Ming dynasty palace belongs to the officer,” eight is tasted, according to the historical documents research, the wu wu chengen alone since changxi solution as XianCheng next is “fu jing JiShan” — that is, the coffin in the bones will most likely be wu chengen.
Seven years later, in 1982, Huai ‘an planned to hold an international symposium on “Journey to the West” in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Wu’s death. It was planned to display the statue of Wu Cheng ‘en in the hall of his old residence. However, no one knew what the statue of Wu Cheng ‘en looked like when people lived hundreds of years ago.
It occurred to city officials that if the three skulls were sent to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, they would solve the two problems of identification and skull restoration at a stroke. Soon, an engineer at the institute named Zhang Jianjun took over the task.
After taking the three skulls from the huai ‘an staff, Zhang examined them carefully. The first skull was large and heavy, with a distinct muscular ridge, forehead leaning back, and the mandibular Angle turned out to be male, while the other two skulls were small and had small mastoids, which were confirmed to be female. Again check, sure enough, the origin of the first skull is written “Jing Fu Ji Shan” that coffin, confirm Wu Cheng ‘en no doubt.
A short time later, in the memorial hall of Wu Cheng ‘en’s former residence, the 400-year-old master was finally seen. He was of medium build, with slightly high eyes, small eyes, prominent cheekbones and a flat, broad face.
2
As a disciple of Wang Cunyi, the pioneer and founder of skull restoration in China, Zhang Jianjun has an incredible obsession with skull restoration.
In the 1980s, the world of skull restoration was a far cry from the days when professional computer software could outline it on a screen. At that time, it was necessary for the staff to install the skull on the bench, and then stick marker sticks on different parts of the skull to determine the thickness of soft tissue, and then connect and fill each marker stick with oil sludge at equal height, and then shape it one by one according to the five features analyzed and studied. There is a final step, proofread according to the percentile measurement standard.
This process is easy to say, but engineers not only need to master anthropology, human anatomy and bone science related knowledge, but also take into account the deceased’s living region, age, gender, living habits and even whether there are certain diseases, in order to fully recover the details.
To get a better picture of China’s human skulls, Zhang and his colleagues traveled to 15 provinces and municipalities, collecting more than half a million pieces of data. There was even an application to the institute, which was not approved, to go to the execution ground and measure the thickness of the soft tissue of the dead person’s face with a special penetrating measuring stick while the prisoner was still warm and his skin was as fresh as before.
“The faces of living people are not allowed to be pricked, the faces of sick and dead people are not allowed to be pricked, the family members are not allowed to go to the execution ground is not approved, how can that data get ah…” Zhang Jianjun was at his wit’s end.
So when officers from taiyuan’s public security bureau knocked on his office door, he was a little surprised — he thought his application had been approved.
But what the police brought was a package. When the package was opened, an unbearable stench filled the air.
The police said they wanted him to restore the anonymous skull so that they could find the body’s owner. Zhang moved the skull onto a table that resembled a flower frame but could be rotated. After years of experience in skull restoration, Zhang immediately made the judgment that it was the skull of a young girl aged about 20.
The skull had been cut with iron and burned, and was undoubtedly the victim of a murder.
“The murderer threw such an important evidence into the crack of the building without even burying it, which is to insist that it is impossible for our public security personnel to discover the identity of the deceased through a skull, and then follow the path to find him.” Public security personnel angrily say.
“I’ll try.” Zhang Jianjun paused and answered.
3
A few days later, a bust wrapped in a skull and covered with white plaster was completed. It was a girl of regular features, with bright eyes set in a round face, looking ahead. Considering the dress characteristics of young Shanxi girls at the time, Mr. Zhang matched her with a short, ear-length hair and a red-and-yellow chequered dress with an open collar.
“This…… The skull?” The public security personnel of Taiyuan City public security Bureau were stunned, completely surprised that the so-called recovery could be so lifelike.
After taking the statue back to Taiyuan, police placed it in an office in charge of the investigation of disappearance cases, and took them to have a look whenever anyone came to report that a relative was missing.
After a long time, still no one who reported to recognize the statue is who, the public security personnel in the heart beat drum, had to make a long distance to Zhang Jianjun, hesitated, roughly meaning to ask, you can recover the bottom whether ah. But he was too shy to speak. Zhang jianjun was not good at words. He just said over the phone: “Wait, don’t worry, wait.”
The recovered head
The public security officers were even more confused.
Who knows that in the evening, an old lady tremblingly pushed open the door of taiyuan public security Bureau, said that he lived in a village in a county, 24-year-old daughter Li Chunlian came to Taiyuan to work, before also wrote a letter of peace, the last half year but no news. She was a little worried. She took a car to the city to find her daughter as a babysitter. They said that her daughter had stopped doing it long ago and they did not know where to go after leaving.
The old lady, who was talking, caught a glimpse of the statue in her office and froze.
“How? Do you know him?” “Asked a police officer.
“This is my daughter small lotus seed!” The old lady got up and went over to the statue, looking and looking. “Why did you make a statue of her? Still here?”
Several police officers gathered around the room, but no one dared tell her that Li’s skull had been sculpted inside the plaster statue.
Soon, the public security personnel knocked on the door of the nanny Li Chunlian before he died, after a careful search, the stove in his home to extract a few other human bone has been incinerated……
The male owner of the house had to explain that Li Chunlian was raped and killed by him, for fear of exposing the crime, li Chunlian’s body will be dismembered after burning the body. Because the furnace mouth is small, how can not fit into the skull, in addition to the skull is hard, can not be cut open or broken, had to put on the stove to burn, burning half of the progress is not much, simply wrapped up and thrown away.
Before serving his sentence, he made a request to know how the police found him. The police officer in charge of Li’s case told him: “There is a tall man who has restored the skull that you burned.”
“What is recovery?” The murderer had no idea.
“To bring Li Chunlian back to life… You don’t understand!”
It was the officer, after a few days on behalf of taiyuan city public security bureau, will be a embroidered with golden characters, sent to the institute of vertebrate paleontology and paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences – “skull restoration technology, built to help solve crimes meritorious service”, and zhang concern is still the matter: “can you help me to apply for the execution ground to measure the thickness of the facial soft tissue?”
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