Billionaire Ren from Datong City and local traffic police officer Ma were business partners. Unexpectedly, a dispute arose over profit sharing during their cooperation. After being threatened, Ren hired someone to kill Ma in self-defense. Subsequently, under his instigation, the killer attacked Ma in Fengzhen City. After Ma was killed, his body was burned. On January 28-29, the Fengzhen City police solved the case and arrested all six suspects.
A Burned Body Found in the Sand Ditch
At around 9 o'clock on January 7th, a sheep herder from Dayingzi Village of Guantunbao Township in Fengzhen City found a blackened object in a sand ditch behind the village while grazing sheep on wasteland. When he approached for a closer look, he discovered it was a charred corpse! The shepherdman called 110 out of fear. Soon, relevant leaders and officers of the Fengzhen Public Security Bureau, along with technicians, drove over 30 kilometers from the urban area to the scene.
Given the seriousness of the case, the Fengzhen Public Security Bureau quickly reported to the Ulanqab Public Security Bureau. Director Hao Guangdong immediately dispatched Political Commissar Yang Zhijun and Deputy Commissioner Chen Tai of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, along with relevant technical personnel, to support the Fengzhen police.
A Cell Phone at the Scene
Meanwhile, the on-site officers conducted an investigation and began investigating and visiting six nearby villages and two iron ore selection plants. A few hours later, the preliminary results of the on-site investigation were as follows: the corpse was male, with multiple stab wounds on his chest and back, and a knife wound on his left palm. His clothes, skin, and superficial muscles had been scorched by gasoline. There were two sets of tire tracks and several bloodstains on a dirt road south of the sand ditch where the body was located, indicating that a struggle had occurred there. Investigations into the surrounding villages and iron ore plants also yielded preliminary results: no missing persons had been reported, and villagers and workers had not seen any suspicious vehicles or strangers recently. However, one finding stood out: on the morning of January 7th, a villager had found a Nokia cell phone near the scene. Subsequently, the police recovered this phone.
After the on-site investigation and survey were completed, the police immediately held a case analysis meeting and provided further supplementary reports on the geographical conditions of the scene: the dirt road south of the sand ditch where the body was located led to Hohhot City and Yanggao County in Shanxi Province. Since winter, due to sewage discharge from nearby iron ore plants freezing, the road had become impassable. Finally, after considering the actual situation comprehensively, it was preliminarily determined that the male victim had been murdered and then burned. The cell phone found by the villager near the scene might have been lost by the murderer and should be used as a breakthrough to uncover the truth.
The Victim Was a Traffic Policeman
After querying, the police learned that the owner of the phone was Wang Junping, male, from Datong City, Shanxi Province. On the evening of January 7th, Fengzhen Public Security Bureau officers rushed to Datong City and, with the cooperation of local police, secretly investigated Wang Junping. They learned that Wang Junping was 30 years old, nicknamed "Nai Niu," had no legitimate occupation, was considered a social vagrant, and had a record of misconduct. Currently, his whereabouts were unknown. Subsequently, police officers from both regions jointly conducted a large-scale screening of Wang Junping. On January 14th, after summarizing the list of people who had frequent contact with Wang Junping before the incident, the police discovered a suspicious phone number, which was 1393476****. At noon on January 6th, Wang Junping had called this number, which was his last call record. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the owner of this number was Ma, 35 years old, a traffic policeman from the Datong Public Security Bureau, with a history of drug use. Police from both regions immediately went to Ma's home to inquire about the situation. However, his family said that Ma had gone out after receiving a call at noon on January 6th and had been missing ever since. Despite days of searching by the family, no results had been found.
Could Ma be the victim? On January 17th, after comparison by technical police, it was confirmed that the burned male corpse was indeed Ma.
By this point, the basic facts of the case were clear: Ma had met with misfortune after receiving a call from Wang Junping, and Wang Junping's phone was left at the scene. Ma's murder must have been related to Wang Junping in some way.
Suspect Received Over 200,000 Before the Incident
Fengzhen police continued their in-depth investigation in Datong. It was found that Wang Junping and Ma were only ordinary friends without any grudges. Wang Junping had no motive to kill Ma. On the morning of January 19th, the police obtained a valuable clue: starting two months before the incident, a man named Ren from Datong had inexplicably given Wang Junping over 200,000 yuan in several installments. Why did Ren give Wang Junping so much money?
To unravel the mystery, the police immediately shifted their investigation focus to the relationship between Ren and the deceased Ma. With perseverance, on the evening of January 20th, the police clarified that Ren was 38 years old and had assets worth hundreds of millions. He had previously partnered with Ma in a fleet operation on a shareholding basis. The fleet had several loaders and dump trucks. Ren was the major boss, and Ma was the secondary boss. Due to disputes over fleet profits, they had conflicts. On the afternoon of January 22nd, another important clue was uncovered by the police: Ren had called Ma before Ma disappeared, then called Wang Junping. Following that, Wang Junping called Ma.
On the morning of January 23rd, the police received a tip-off that at 11 a.m. on January 8th, Wang Junping had contacted Ren, saying, "I'm in trouble; if I don't run, I'll be caught by the police. Transfer the remaining money to my wife's bank account."
Through the aggregation of these clues, the police initially judged that this was a case of hiring a hitman to commit murder, with Ren hiring Wang Junping to kill Ma. Subsequently, the police promptly secured relevant criminal evidence against Ren and Wang Junping. At this time, Ren, who thought everything was foolproof, was still working in the office of the fleet. To ensure all criminals were captured, the police did not immediately arrest Ren but instead set up covert surveillance and monitoring.
Hitmen Captured in Sleep
At this moment, Wang Junping seemed to have vanished without a trace, and the police could not locate him.
On January 24th, the Fengzhen police decided to capture Wang Junping as soon as possible. However, with such a vast area, where was Wang Junping hiding? The arrest operation was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Finally, the police formulated a preliminary plan for the arrest operation: investigate Wang Junping's social relationships and close friends to unravel clues. On January 25th, they finally identified a close drinking buddy of Wang Junping named Wang Zhihua, 43 years old, from Shuikou Village, Jiayajia Town, Jianyang County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province. Due to poverty, Wang Zhihua remained single and had come to Datong City several years ago to work odd jobs. After the incident, he, like Wang Junping, had disappeared. The police deduced that Wang Zhihua might also be involved in the case and had fled back to his hometown with Wang Junping.
On January 26th, the arresting officers drove to Jianyang County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province.
In the early hours of January 28th, the Fengzhen police arrived at their destination and, with the cooperation of the Jianyang police, headed straight to Wang Zhihua's residence. Disguised as township officials, the police entered Wang Zhihua's home and caught Wang Zhihua and Wang Junping sound asleep. When the police revealed their identities, Wang Junping numbly said one sentence: "I knew I would eventually be caught, just didn't expect it to be so soon..." After an immediate interrogation on-site, he confessed to the crime of killing Ma together with Wang Zhihua.
Economic Dispute Led to Hatred
Wang Junping was a well-known "gangster" in Datong City and had long been friends with Ren. One day in October 2010, Ren found Wang Junping and said, "I have an economic dispute with my second boss, Ma. He has threatened me that if I don't meet his demands, he will kill my whole family. So I want to buy a hunting rifle to get rid of him." Wang Junping replied, "Getting a gun is too troublesome. It's better to hire someone." Ren took Wang Junping's advice and proposed to invest over 200,000 yuan to hire Wang Junping as a hitman to kill Ma. Considering that 200,000 yuan was something he could never earn in a lifetime, Wang Junping readily agreed. Afterwards, Wang Junping lured Wang Zhihua to be his assistant with the promise of "a 50,000 yuan reward to help you find a wife."
Seeing that Wang Junping was basically prepared, Ren paid Wang Junping the money in several installments. With the money, Wang Junping bought a car as transportation and worked with Wang Zhihua to carry out the assassination plan, but they couldn't find a suitable opportunity.
During the New Year holiday, Ma repeatedly asked Ren for money, causing Ren to urgently urge Wang Junping to eliminate Ma quickly. At noon on January 6th, Ren, wanting speed and certainty, called Ma, deceiving him to go find Wang Junping, and they would go together to a neighboring county, Yanggao, to get the money. Ma believed him. Subsequently, Ren called Wang Junping, instructing him to act once they entered Fengzhen territory.
When Wang Junping drove with Wang Zhihua and Ma onto a dirt road leading to Yanggao County via Fengzhen City, Wang Junping signaled Wang Zhihua, who was sitting behind with a sharp knife, to stab Ma, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. Unprepared, Ma opened the door and jumped out after being stabbed in the chest. Wang Junping and Wang Zhihua followed suit, jumping out of the car and chasing Ma, stabbing him multiple times in the chest and back. After Ma died, Wang Junping and Wang Zhihua carried his body into a sand ditch, poured gasoline on it, and set it on fire, attempting to prevent the police from identifying the body.
During this process, due to extreme panic, Wang Junping dropped his cell phone at the scene without noticing. When he and Wang Zhihua hastily fled Fengzhen City, Wang Junping wanted to call Ren to report the news but realized his phone was missing. He planned to return to the scene to search for it but saw it was already dusk and decided against it.
The next morning, they returned to the crime scene but were surprised to see numerous police cars and officers surrounding the area. They hurriedly returned to Datong City and briefly informed his wife and older brother and sister-in-law about what happened and how he "obtained the commission." Subsequently, with the assistance of these three relatives, they cleaned the blood off the car and fled to Sichuan Province with Wang Zhihua.
At 8 p.m. on January 29th, Ren, suspected of hiring a hitman, and three relatives of Wang Junping suspected of harboring criminals were also arrested by the Fengzhen police, and part of the ill-gotten gains were recovered. (Xinhua News Agency Inner Mongolia Channel / Northern New Newspaper)