The officer making the rounds had only asked offhandedly. He casually lifted the concrete cover, glanced down, and froze.
At the bottom of the well, floating headfirst, was a corpse.
The case had now escalated into a homicide.
Liu Jie, then the captain of the Songling District Criminal Investigation Division, responded to the scene with his team and took over the case.
The body in the water was identified as Han Xiaolong.
His skin had begun to wrinkle, and his body showed slight bloating from decomposition.
However, based on when he was reported missing, the time of death was estimated to be the evening of the 11th.
On the evening of the 11th, around 6:00 p.m., villagers had still seen Han Xiaolong.
Luo Limei herself said that she had seen Han Xiaolong before going to work on the 11th.
She was 52 years old at the time and worked at a clothing factory in town. Her job had rotating shifts, and for that particular two-week period, she was on the night shift.
