On the day of the trial, Li Shiping admitted without hesitation to the charges, including the repair of ACA electric ovens. The Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled that Li Shiping had despicable motives for his crimes and caused serious consequences, warranting severe punishment. However, since he truthfully confessed to the police about the murder facts that were not yet known during the period when compulsory measures were taken against him for embezzlement, this constituted self-surrender, and thus, according to law, a lighter sentence was also appropriate.
Report by our staff (reporter Guo Yuhong, intern reporter Li Bingjie): Over a million yuan of public funds were privately stored by the cashier for seven years without anyone asking questions. Fifty thousand yuan of public funds flowed into the stock market for four years without anyone noticing. When the successor cashier pursued over 70,000 yuan in debts, she was brutally murdered. A month later, her body was discovered but the case remained unsolved. It wasn't until half a year later, due to someone reporting it, that the former cashier suspected of embezzling public funds was finally arrested. Under intense psychological pressure from investigators, he confessed to all his crimes, including misappropriating public funds for stock trading, as well as the murder and disposal of the body. On June 18, the Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Li Shiping, an educational affairs officer at a university in Lanzhou, to death with a two-year reprieve for the crimes of embezzlement and intentional homicide, and ordered him to compensate the victim's family with over 260,000 yuan in economic losses. After the verdict was announced, Li Shiping appeared calm and stated that he would not appeal.
The 48-year-old Li Shiping is an educational affairs officer at the Tourism College of a university in Lanzhou. Since 2001, Li Shiping has been solely responsible for handling the tuition fees and textbook deposits of the college’s self-study candidates, depositing all public funds under his personal name in the bank. Because he served as both accountant and cashier, Li Shiping found it very convenient to withdraw money without having to follow relevant procedures. In 2003, after investing in the stock market, he treated public funds as if they were his own, transferring a total of 500,000 yuan multiple times for personal stock trading. Although he gradually repaid some of the money, there was still a shortfall of over 100,000 yuan by the time the case broke out.
After the incident, Feng Ping's family reported her disappearance and posted notices everywhere looking for her. It wasn’t until September 22, 2008, that a villager in Shichuan Town discovered a female corpse on the surface of the Xia Reservoir and immediately reported it to the police. The police in Gaolan quickly launched an investigation, confirming that the deceased was the missing Feng Ping. By reviewing the financial accounts, Li Shiping was identified as a major suspect. However, due to the inability to extract effective direct evidence, the case dragged on unresolved. During the investigation process, the An Ding District procuratorate received a tip-off letter accusing Li Shiping of suspected economic crimes. In May 2009, while being detained on suspicion of embezzling public funds, Li Shiping finally confessed to the crime of killing Feng Ping during a polygraph test.
In mid-May 2008, upon arrangement by the school, Li Shiping's female colleague Feng Ping (a pseudonym) took over the financial work. Soon, Feng Ping discovered that the accounts handled by Li Shiping were unclear and chaotic, with a shortage of over 100,000 yuan. However, due to workplace etiquette, Feng Ping did not report it to the leadership. Not until August 22 of the same year, at around 11:00 am, after a unit meeting arranged the next day's tuition collection, did Feng Ping go to Li Shiping's office to again demand repayment of the debt. Unable to repay, Li Shiping harbored evil intentions and decided to kill her to silence her. Taking advantage of Feng Ping making a phone call, he took out two black garbage bags, placed them over Feng Ping's head, and strangled her with his hands around her neck and a rope, causing her to suffocate to death. Subsequently, Li Shiping moved Feng Ping's body to a warehouse downstairs. To cover up his crime, he drove the body to the area near Qingbaishi in Chengguan District that night at 10 pm and threw it into the Yellow River.
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