The C Toxin's
The Semisolid Hypothesis (B)
Seoul Police Headquarters
Meeting Room 2nd Floor
April 23, 2016
09.00 KST
A flurry of activity began to appear on the 2nd floor of the Seoul Police Headquarters that morning. The requested parties present at the meeting this morning have arrived. Some of them even bring additional people, be it assistants, technicians, or other members. Not only that, there are several new names that will be involved in the case investigation
these. Among them is Dr. Emily Klein, from the department of Toxicology***-KC. It was he who was asked by Taeyong for the continued identification of samples of a suspected toxin substance found on the bodies of victims at school in place of Eric Sohn. The British-American woman arrived at the police headquarters and took her assistant to a meeting this morning. In addition, it appears a man aged around 35 years in a semiformal suit also came to the police headquarters. It is Dr. Felix Lee, a staff of digital forensics experts, was contacted by Jeffrey to analyze the findings in the form of cell phones and laptops at the scene.
Mark was in the meeting room an hour ago. His hands seemed busy typing something on his thin laptop. There is a part of his analysis that has not been written there, because last night he was so exhausted and could not work further.
“Dean, I hope you saved our assumptions last night. This morning, we will just listen and collect the findings on TKP.” Mark again reminded the junior to be careful with their assumptions. As detectives, they cannot arbitrarily judge a finding.
“Iya, I understand. Of course I won't be rash and make rumors.”
“Good morning!” someone greeted from the direction of the entrance that was deliberately left open. The room was quite stuffy after a few days of not being used.
“Morning, welcome doctor Lee, Professor Lee!” Dean greets Taeyong and Ji Eun at once. Somehow his heart warmed to see two scientists and a married couple came together.
“Please sit down, doctor and Professor Lee.” Mark no less welcomed the two meritorious people in his case with a friendly and polite.
Not long ago, the CSI and DVD teams followed by Wendy and a team of experts had come and placed themselves in the available seats in the letter U formation as usual.
“Good, good morning! Thank you for your attendance at this morning's meeting. Previously I apologize for changing the meeting schedule because the detective division must immediately analyze and interpret the findings in TKP yesterday.”
“First, we will report the findings in TKP, and supporting agencies on yesterday, April 22, 2016 chronologically.” Mark began to explain the agenda of the meeting that morning. A few seconds later, he coded Dean to continue the explanation. As usual, Mark would just shut up and think throughout the meeting. He simply could not interrupt himself by asking others.
“First, at 09.55, the detective division received information from a NISA member that Prof. Eric
found dead in his apartment. Then, the detective team, CSI, DVD, and ME immediately headed to TKP.” Obviously Dean opened the report that morning.
“Next how is ME?” Dean then invited Wendy to speak.
“Prof. Eric Sohn was pronounced dead at 11:26 KST, with a sitting position, head looking up, eyes and mouth closed, and arms outstretched. At that time there were no injuries or external signs of violence.”
“The body has been taken to Itaewon Forensic Laboratory and handled by dr. Lee.” the Wendy Finals
signed by Dean.
“Good, how's the DVD division?”
“After Eric Sohn was pronounced dead, we searched for possible victims using illegal drugs. However, not found. Half an hour later, we found 12 sleeping pills in the room
home.” clear Yuta.
“Is there a possibility of death of the victim due to sleeping pills?”
“No, when viewed from the physical condition and position of the victim.” stressed Joy this time.
“Dr. Lee, how's the autopsy and forensic analysis?”
“First, we estimated the time of death of the victim, and concluded that the victim had died fourteen hours from the time of the autopsy. If reduced by evacuation time, and other preparations, the victim died around two in the morning.” explained Taeyong.
“Secondly, we found one wound due to a blunt object scratch on the victim's temple, which is usually caused by a blunt object. This scratch happened after the victim died.” Taeyong displayed an image of a scratch on Eric Sohn's temple skin on a projector screen. It looks very thin, but looks contrasting pink color with the tip is dark red, indicating that so many microliters of blood come out and dry from there.
“It looks like the wound was caused by a blunt object from metal”
“After that, we did an autopsy to find out the cause of death of the victim. We conducted an autopsy method based on conditions in the CTF based on the narration of detective divsi, ME, and CSI, the victim was found sitting in front of the dining table complete with food and drinks in the area. Therefore, We autopsy the digestive system first.”
“From there, we found undigested food on the upper stomach. When we asked the toxicology department to analyze the food, there was a foreign substance— that could not be detected by HPLC, or GC-MS.” Taeyong changed the image display on the projector, and revealed a yellow object with a slurry-like surface. The object was in a plastic clip complete with a label that read the sample code.
“Not only that, we autopsied the victim's nervous system, and found quite severe optic damage. In theory, damage to the eye's motor reflex will cause the victim's eyes to open, and reveal the sclera alone. However, ME found the condition of the victim's eyes closed normally. It can happen with, human help.” Taeyong emphasized his words in the sentence ‘Human help’, then showed a portrait of the example of eye damage he meant, and paired it with a closed-eye picture belonging to Eric Sohn.
Mark immediately stopped his activity that had written a report submitted on his notebook. He watched the projector screen with high focus, his hands forming a triangle on the
his face, while his frowning forehead displayed a fairly complex fold.
“We concluded that the main cause of death of the victim was CNS damage, the specifics of the optic lobe and involunteer motion control center in the spinal cord. As for the organs affected include the heart, lungs and digestive system.”
“I, Prof. Lee, and Dr. Emily performed a combined analysis to identify the similarities of the suspected toxin substance from serum and liver cells in school, the food droplet swab in the CTF, and undigested food found in the victim's stomach. There, we found all three substances that have similarities, and are suspected to be the cause of damage to the nerves of victims at school and also Prof. Eric. This is because no abnormal things are found in the victim during the autopsy other than the substance.” Taeyong ended his report, then handed over the pointer to Dr. Emily sat on his right.
“Next is an image of SEM and TEM of a suspected toxin substance on the corpse that was discovered a few days ago. We can see that the particle size of this substance is at the nanoscale, and is waterproof because the membrane is lipophilic. Although found in very small amounts in liver cells and blood serum, this substance can still show a clear image. That is, this substance is heat resistant, concentrated acid, and biological enzymes.” explains Dr. Emily while directing the red light pointer on the SEM and TEM image displayed on the projector screen. The explanation makes the atmosphere of the room full of tension because of the high concentration of people in it.
“Then, the thing that was quite surprising to me and the team was when we managed to destruct the lipophilic membrane of the substance using the enzyme catalase and HCl with very high concentration and activity.” Dr. Emily seemed to take a short breath.
“We detect the molecular substance of Botulinum toxin. The bacterial toxin is very deadly, and it attacks CNS.” he continued with a speech intonation that sounded very firm and confident.
Dr. The emily makes a quiet but noisy beetle-like sound as an unexpected expression of everyone in the room except the expert team.
Mark was not even bothered by the noise, as his entire senses were shocked and focused on the word Botulinum toxin he had just heard. The toxin is no stranger to his ears. His brain is working extra.
“What is this? Why is that toxin again?” mark said in his mind.
“Then if it is associated with the findings of food droplets in the CPI containing a substance similar to the substance in the stomach of the victim, in this case Prof. Eric, his physical characteristics are the same as those described by Dr. Emily. However, this one substance requires heat and concentration of catalase enzymes and HCl is higher to destruct the membrane. But we also found a molecular substance
botulinum compiler toxin.”
This time, the unexpected voice sounded even more rowdy.
“This is crazy!”
“Reviewed from the food aspect, obviously this substance is inserted in products that undergo heating in high temperatures, such as sterilization and UHT processes. In addition, when analyzed using an electronic nose, we identified chemical compounds that make up the flavor of poultry meat, tamarin, coconut milk, turmeric, pepper, ginseng, onions, and chili in the droplets. If we think far ahead, food products with composition, and processing technology based on the characteristics described earlier is something like ready-to-eat curry
“Professor, is the packaging of the curry in the can in the form of a blunt-tipped square?” Mark suddenly asked so Prof. Lee finished with his explanation.
“Can be.”
Mark nodded satisfied with Prof's reply. That lee.
“One more time, no chemical compounds of synthetic cherry flavor were identified in both samples. This is the main difference with the samples on the bodies of the victims at the school.” Profs. Lee ended his report.
“Is it time to draw a conclusion?”
Meanwhile, Dean seemed to write something on his notebook like Mark did. He then asked Mark for his approval to continue the meeting.
“Continue.” Mark's orders on Dean later.
“Good, next how is the CSI team?”
Brian immediately stood up and lifted the paper that He found at the Kindergarten yesterday “We found some pretty awkward objects at the Kindergarten. First, was a piece of A4 paper that was separate from his group, and had clearly been stepped on by someone. The footprints were likely male.”
“On the paper it is written a sentence in Russian which if translated, means ‘completeness of data. I hereby declare that I am willing to take part in further research at an agreed date and place. Signed, Prof. Eric Sohn, Toxicologist and Molecular Biologist’.” explained.
“What is a Research Contract?”
“Secondly, at the time we searched the scene, it looked like the main room condition was very messy, like being ruffled on purpose.” Brian displays photos of the main room, living room, dining room, balcony, to the apartment bathroom. It looks like the main room of the apartment is the most messy among others.
“Three, found droplets suspected of food in the apartment formed a series to the back door like this. This sample has been sent to SNU's Food Analysis Laboratory, and identified by Prof. Lee.” this time Jeffrey takes over Brian's explanation and displays a series of yellow droplets that Mark found yesterday.
“Fourth, Dr. Felix will present the results of the analysis of digital forensic experts related to the findings of four mobile phones
and one laptop belongs to the victim.”
Felix then stood up, and lined up four phones and one laptop in front of him “Good, of the four phones found, only two were functional and restored. Both phones are locked using retinal biometrics and fingerprints.”
“Difference in device security level!”
“These two phones use South Korean and Russian coded phone numbers. We managed to track down the last calls from both phones and found a few things.” Felix pointed at the phone he was referring to.
“From a Russian-numbered phone, which was locked with retina, the victim contacted someone with the contact name ‘Wife’. The following is a conversation between the victim and a woman with the name of the contact. Like the women who met at DIS yesterday, they also speak in Slovak.”
“What's with that language? Reina Hwang, Taehyung, and now the woman that Prof contacted. Eric?”
“Can we deduce from the conversation, this woman requests that the victim immediately ‘back’ in order to get
protection, and planning a cancellation for something we can't translate.” Felix instructs Jeffrey to display the text and audio of Eric Sohn's conversation with a woman in Slovak. The conversation between the two men sounded quite emotional, with the woman talking to him
the tone almost cried.
“This woman could be the closest person Prof. Eric.”
“Then from the second phone number South Korea locked with fingerprints, we found the victim's last call with someone with the contact name ‘Evil’.”
“Here is the conversation of the victim with a man by the name of the contact in English.”
The projector screen then displays the text and audio of the conversation in question. The conversation contained some swear words from Eric Sohn and a threat from someone with the contact name ‘Evil’ it.
On the sidelines of the audio, Mark looked at Jeffrey.
“Why does the sound familiar?”
“We can conclude, the victim's relationship with this man is not very good in a context that we cannot understand. The choice of words and sentences used felt very sarcastic.”
“Not sarcastic, obviously it's a curse. They hate each other!”
“In addition, we did not find any crime using the internet from the evidence, but it is certain that Russian numbered ponsers are only used to communicate with people in Russia, he said, even the settings of the phone also use Russian.”
“Special phone.”
“Then from the laptop, We managed to open the password. From there, we found Russian and English research papers from 2002-2015. The files are quite numerous, but only in two major topics that continue to grow. The Russian and English files were separated into two main folders on the victim's hard drive and laptop SSD.”
“Two types of research for two different interests, it could be to show where the place is affiliated, or just do publication.”
“We work with sworn translators, to translate those Russian-language files. From there, the Russian-language files were created in 2010-2015, with a research focus on—” Felix
hang up his words, and breathe deeply.
“Botulinum toxin, and hydrocolloid membrane heat resistance.” final. Again the whole room responded with the same expression and voice, but more dramatic this time.
“Astime”
“In the meantime, for the English folder, the files in it were created in 2002-2012. The topic of his research is—”
“GMO hand, and Bt. Toxin is self-destructive and heat-resistant.”
“Toxin research can be developed from the previous topic, in a language country
England.”
“Based on the history of internet browsing using a laptop, the victim is known to communicate with people, and the Russian language uses an e-mail platform. The e-mail contains the files
russian-language research described earlier, without subject and body e-mail.”
Felix seemed to end his report.
“Who is the name of the e-mail recipient?” ask Dean.
“Feodora Laubov.”
