Fearless and Competitive Doer – Biometric “Decoder” Yang Fan: With Physical Evidence, There Is Hope

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Yang Fan, the Biometric Evidence Decoder: Working with Over 10,000 Cases to Solve Cold Cases and Reunite Families

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Yang Fan, the副主任 of the Biometric Evidence Room in the Criminal Science and Technology Research Management Center of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, has achieved remarkable results in his 11-year career as a police officer. He has handled over 10,000 biometric pieces of evidence, providing critical clues for over 2,000 criminal cases and directly contributing to the solution of 46 long-unsolved homicide cases.

Yang Fan’s work involves dealing with various pieces of evidence, ranging from close-fitting clothing to foul-smelling socks, or even the black tape wrapped around the handle of a hammer. He pursues perfection in dealing with these specimens, and will use different testing methods to extract key biometric information.

In the early summer of 1997, a woman’s body was found in the shrubbery by the banks of Dianshan Lake. The victim had been hit on the head with a blunt object and was found face-up with a rock placed on her face and chest. There were no clear signs of identity, social relationships, or侦查和技术手段可用. This “three-no” case became a priority for the local police station and was reviewed repeatedly during every major case review. Many retired police officers still feel regret that the case remained unsolved.

24 years later, the clothing from that case ended up on Yang Fan’s workbench. He realized that the only viable approach was to re-examine the evidence using the latest technology. Although only female biometric information was found on the clothing, Yang Fan speculated that it was likely that a man was involved in lifting the rock. He applied various new technologies to extract two male biometrics from intimate clothing pieces of the victim, which helped investigators find one of the suspects and confirm that the victim was his wife. With this information, Yang Fan’s team identified several other suspicious individuals closely related to her and traveled across the country to collect over 100 biological samples. Eventually, they were able to lock in a suspect based on the evidence.

For Yang Fan, making the silent evidence speak is always a challenging task that requires innovative thinking. He believes that human experience is more important than technology and constantly strives to extract the necessary biological information by attending to the scene, understanding the crime scenario, analyzing the contact intensity and parts between the suspect and the evidence, and targeted treatment of the evidence.

In another case that occurred 27 years ago, Yang Fan’s team combined technological breakthroughs with investigative screening, continuously colliding key clues until they could extract critical biological information from a sports shirt worn by the suspect four years after his death, matching it to a blood glove imprint left at the scene years ago. The special investigation team traveled over 6 provinces and 15 cities, covering over 30,000 kilometers in search of truth.

Since joining the force, Yang Fan has examined more than 10,000 biometric pieces of evidence, providing major clues for over 2,000 criminal cases and directly contributing to the solution of 46 long-unsolved homicide cases.

Innovation is his first driving force. Yang Fan leads his team to pursue innovation: “Only through innovation can we continuously enhance our new quality of combat effectiveness and lead our technology from ‘following’ to ‘leading’.” In January 2002, a motorcycle driver was killed in a remote area with severe head injuries, and all his belongings were looted. The police retrieved a broken rubber hammer with black tape wrapped around its wooden handle as the only piece of evidence. Due to limited testing conditions at that time, no other effective biometric evidence could be extracted from the hammer除了被害人的血迹。 Over the years, the police and technicians made several attempts but struggled to obtain complete biological information.

In 2020, this unique piece of evidence was presented to Yang Fan. He frowned as he examined it – “This hammer is difficult to extract due to water immersion and time erosion. It is irreversible.” He considered various factors such as water erosion, bacterial degradation, and protected the precious specimen while trying to devise methods to wake up this 18-year-old silent evidence. Focusing on the broken head and handle of the hammer, he replayed the crime scene in his mind and carefully designed an extraction plan using multiple methods for cross-examination…

The rubber material of the hammer also caught his attention. “To kill someone, it is common to use an iron hammer directly. The one used by the suspect should be a tool commonly used in daily life.” After careful analysis with his colleagues, Yang Fan believed that there might be biological information from the凶手留存于缠在锤柄上的黑胶布里。 He decided to innovate by using a “divide and conquer

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