Picking over the bones

Posted on Sat Apr 4, 2015 @ 4:19am by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,471 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: https://ds5.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: FMS Precinct
Timeline: !

OOC - CAUTION: The following post contains graphic descriptions of a sadistic and ritualistic murder.

Reader discretion advised!


[ON]

[FMS Precinct - Conference room]

Steiner had heard of the discovery of the body attached to a navigational beacon shortly after his meeting with security the day before.

He had dispatched Axsdahl off on a prisoner escort mission and then waited for Tevlet and Tu-Selock to return with the body and the maintenance team who had discovered it.

He had then met the FMSS Van Buren Hendrixs when it returned to the station.

"Damn what a mess" He said after taking a brief look at the mutilated corpse. "You're right, pretty sure it is, or was, a Ferengi" he said to Tevlet "Poor bastard"

He'd had a gut feeling when he'd seen the body, he wondered if he'd come across this Ferengi a couple of days ago in The Box of delights Time would tell.

"Okay, you escort the body to Medical and get them to conduct an autopsy. Then process the cross and chains for forensics"

He helped the Andorian deputy load the body-bag onto a lifter and then turned to Tu-Selok. "We'll take Petty Officer's Kolowski and Murray back to the Precinct and get their statements"

An house and half later they were done and he released both of the Engineers, sent a brief report to their supervisors and notified the Counselors Office for follow up trauma sessions, particularly for Kolowski who had taken the incident particularly badly.

Tevlet had returned with the cross and chains and disappeared into his technical work bay to run forensic scans of the physical evidence.

He was still in there two hours later when Steiner called it a night after Tu-Selok had submitted her draft report and he'd sent her off duty.

"How's it going?" He asked on his way out "You can finish this tomorrow you know"

"I know, but there's so little here I don't want anything to degrade" Tevlett replied "I'm nearly done, I'll have a report for you tomorrow"

Now Steiner was sat at the conference table reading through the preliminary report from the pathologist and waiting for his Deputies to join him.

A few moments later Tu-Selok and Tevlet came in and he waved the to chairs.

He laid the PaDD down and activated the panel on the table in front of him and the screen on the wall "Alright, our first homicide and we got a pretty nasty one to run with."

He pointed to the screen, "Let's meet our victim, went by the name of Duredk, Ferengi male, aged forty three." There was a picture aHe has quite the past....." he tapped his panel and the screen brought up an FMS File, complete with a list of aliases and criminal offenses going back more than twenty years.

"Our Duredk was low level organized crime, smuggling mostly, drugs, booze, prostitutes, people and weapons. And I met him when he was still walking and talking!"

As he had wondered Duredk was the Ferengi from The Box of Delights who had been with the group who had attacked Steiner and then betrayed the leader, Klatec.

Steiner described the incident to the other two "So no prizes for guessing who our prime suspect is! More on him later"

Steiner went on to the autopsy report, it was grim reading, even the dispassionate medical terminology could not detract from the awfulness of Duredk's death.

The Ferengi had been literally crucified on a make-shift St-Andrew's cross. He had been stripped, then four inch stem bolts had been driven through his ankles and wrists into the tubing to secure him to the cross. Chain had then been welded around his waist to further secure him.

A blood clotting agent had been applied to the bolt puncture wounds to stem the bleeding.

A length of plastic tube had been inserted into his nostril to maintain an airway. The victim was then emasculated, again a blood clotting agent had been applied to the wound

"They didnt want him bleeding or choking to death until they'd finished with him" Steiner commented.

Duredk's severed genitalia had been forced into his mouth, which was then stapled shut. His ears had been sealed with a fast acting adhesive compound and then a chemical drain cleaner had been injected into both eyeballs.

Toxicology tests indicated the presence of a number of stimulants in the victim's tissues, the conclusion being he had been given drugs to keep him from passing out.

The Ferengi had then been flayed alive, the skin had been peeled from his head from the neck up. The report noted that it had been done with a high level of skill and precision. Most likely using standard medical equipment, such as a dermal-laser scalpel, an item normally used in cosmetic surgery.

Duredk had then been eviscerated, a latitudinal incision had been made across his stomach, again with a medical type scalpel. All internal organs and then gastrointestinal tract below the diaphragm had been removed.

Neither the diaphragm, heart or lungs had been touched, again ensuring the victim had been alive during the disemboweling.

The body cavity had then been filled with a flammable gel, tests indicated it was a mixture of machine oil and sulphur. This had then been set alight, resulting in the burns to that part of the body

The report stated the typical causes of death due to flaying are shock, critical loss of blood or other body fluids, hypothermia, or infections, which could have taken many hours of even days to cause death

The evisceration and burning would have decreased the time left to perhaps an hour, but still long enough for the Ferengi to have endured the most terrible agony as he was tortured

The pathologist's best guess was that the entire procedure had lasted between two to three hours before death had occurred. Artificially prolonged due to the airway tube, clotting agent, stimulants and the precision of the torture.

The final cause of death was determined to have been not the awful torture but a single stab wound penetrating up through the center of the jaw into the brain.

This had been made by a double-bladed weapon, of approximately twenty-five centimeters in length. The wound also indicated that the knife had an unusual diamond-shaped cross section.

The report also detailed the treatment of the body post-mortem. It had been thoroughly washed in some kind of industrial cleaning agent, most likely some form of mechanical de-greaser.

It had then been irradiated, using a some form of low-band microwaves and finally exposed to the freezing vacuum of space.

This had rendered the exterior devoid of all genetic material, fibers, particles or traces not related to Duredk himself, flammable gel, the steel tubing or chain.

"Basically we have nothing on the body from any other person" Steiner summed up. "They were able to identify him via fingerprints and internal DNA sampling."

He finished the report and looked over at the other two. "Right let's review this. It has all the hallmarks of an organized criminal organization punishment killing.

There was too much involved from the murder to the position of the body on a navigational beacon for a single person to have done this alone, so I think we can rule out the lone-psychopath."

"The removal of his genitals, placing them in his mouth, then making him deaf, dumb and blind. Would this be for betraying Klatec and his gang?" Tu-Selok suggested

"I'm thinking so" Steiner agreed "It was also gruesomely well managed, they knew how to keep him alive for some time, so they've done this before, I'm guessing.

They also did a damn good job at cleaning off evidence, again pointing to experienced criminals. One of whom has had medical training or specializes in these types of execution.

This poor bugger suffered horribly and scummy little hoodlum that he was , he'd didn't deserve this! So I want the bastards that did this. How do we catch them? Anything on the cross Tev?"

The Andorian shook his head "It's a multiple function tubing, commonly used throughout the Federation, for everything from ducting to electrical conduits. There should have been serial batch numbers stamped on every meter but these had been ground off. I have microscopic images of the grinding wheel marks so we could match that if we can find the right tool.

Likewise with the chain, that's of Bajoran manufacture but, again, has multiple uses throughout the station. And I couldn't find any batch numbers on any of the links.

Everything I found is either very common around the station or had all identifiers removed"

Steiner sat back in his chair and sighed, this case wasn't going to throw them any breaks...


To be continued...

 

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