Dossier concerning Zhou Zifa (周子發), a 54-year-old man from Yancheng (鹽城), whose death in Shanghai on 3 May 1945 was investigated as suicide by jumping into a well. The initial police documentation classifies the case as 投井自盡. Zhou's body was recovered from a well near his residence and taken to the Third Hospital of the Red Cross Society of China, whose certificate dated 3 May records that he was dead on arrival (到院已死).

The police investigation contains a narrative reconstruction of the discovery and recovery of the body as well as several witness interrogations concerning Zhou's family and living circumstances and the events immediately surrounding his death. Witnesses describe the body being removed from the well and the police being notified. The questioning also explicitly addresses why Zhou had taken his own life, but the surviving testimony does not establish a definite motive; witnesses repeatedly indicate that they did not know why he had jumped into the well.

The dossier subsequently passed to the prosecutorial authorities for formal medico-legal examination on 4 May 1945. The examination identifies the deceased as 周子發, aged 54 and native of 鹽城, and systematically records the external condition of the body. The final forensic conclusion states 委係溺水身死—that death resulted from drowning.