□ Reporter Yu Yang, text and pictures Core Tip: His father was kidnapped by someone, his life or death is unknown. In order to find out the truth, he quit his job, sold his house for expenses, and became a "private detective" for six years, chasing every clue of the suspects. Finally, Liu Weihua waited for a "delayed" trial. On March 22, the Fugou County Court of Zhoukou City tried this kidnapping case. Yesterday, facing the reporter's interview, Liu Weihua said, "With the end of the trial, I have mixed feelings and disordered thoughts..."
As the Spring Festival approached, his father suddenly got kidnapped and went missing. In the Fugou Department Store in Fugou County town, Liu Weihua's mother Chen Fengzhi had been operating a certain brand of leather shoes from Luyi County for many years. His father Liu Fayun worked as an accountant at the county hospital and also helped manage the business. During this period, they often dealt with Mr. Ding, the general manager of the shoe factory in Luyi County. What Liu Weihua could not have anticipated was that this deal would eventually lead to his father's fatal misfortune.
On January 25, 2003, Mr. Ding and a "short and stout man" successively appeared in Liu Fayun's office. Prior to this, because the leather shoes supplied by Mr. Ding were counterfeit and substandard, Liu Fayun had proposed to return the goods. That day, Mr. Ding insisted on going to the department store to count the remaining leather shoes, so Liu Fayun left with him. However, Old Liu did not go to the store, nor did he go home. At 2 p.m. the next afternoon, a strange phone call came in. The caller said, "Liu Fayun is in our hands, prepare the money quickly." Subsequently, Liu Weihua reported the incident to the local police.
Although the police conducted multiple investigations, they failed to find any valuable clues. And the suspects involved in the kidnapping, including Mr. Ding, disappeared without a trace.
"My father's life or death is unknown, I must get to the bottom of it!" Liu Weihua did not give up. From then on, he quit his well-paid job in Zhengzhou and embarked on a long journey to find his father and pursue justice.
"Ding is the biggest suspect!" Liu Weihua managed to retrieve Ding's call list. The mobile phone roaming record showed that Ding had escaped via Shangqiu, Jinan, Cangzhou, Changchun, and finally reached Harbin.
Liu Weihua went to Harbin with the police officers. Through a fixed-line telephone call made by Ding, they found the uncle of Xiao Hong (a pseudonym), Ding's mistress. It was learned that after knowing Xiao Hong, Ding cohabited with her and they had a daughter. When the police arrived, Ding and Xiao Hong fled again with their daughter.
After returning to Henan from Harbin, Liu Weihua followed the police to Luoyang and found Song, a driver who used to deliver goods to Ding. Under Song's guidance, they went to Ding's hideout in Luoyang but found no one there. Later, they traced Ding back to his hometown in Luyi County. At this point, Liu Weihua learned that Ding had been investigated by the local police in 1998 for illegal public deposit absorption and was wanted online in 2002.
After failing to find Ding, the police turned their attention to the "short and stout man" who was with Ding. By checking Ding's mobile phone list, it was found that before the case happened, Ding frequently contacted a fixed-line telephone in Bozhou, Anhui Province, and the number used for extortion was also from Bozhou. Liu Weihua and the police immediately went to Bozhou and found out that the owner of the fixed-line telephone was surnamed Yu. After identification, Yu was exactly the "short and stout man". The police learned that Yu usually made a living by driving unlicensed taxis and collecting debts for others. However, when the police arrived at Yu's house, Yu had already disappeared.
Persistently Pursuing Clues in Disguise
The clues were interrupted, and the suspects vanished without a trace, but Liu Weihua was undaunted. He went alone to Harbin and rented a house near the parents' home of Ding's mistress. However, three months passed, and Ding never showed up.
Later, Liu Weihua went to the train station and searched among the crowds every day. He helped passengers carry luggage without bargaining, accepting whatever payment they offered. Due to low wages, he angered his "colleagues" and was beaten up. After recovering from his injuries, Liu Weihua started making a living by collecting scrap. When his money ran out and he couldn't afford the rent, he stayed in a dilapidated house beside a garbage dump in the suburbs, enduring the stench every day.
Riding a tricycle to collect waste and picking vegetable leaves to cook meals. But at night, he would change into a clean tracksuit, come to the neighborhood where Xiao Hong's parents lived, and pretend to be a resident taking a walk downstairs, observing the movements at Xiao Hong's parents' home.
During this time, Liu Weihua discovered a clue about Yu and hurriedly went to Dongguan, Guangdong. From Yu's fellow townspeople, he learned that Yu had applied for jobs through a labor agency in Fenggang, Qingxi, and Chang'an towns. Liu Weihua immediately rushed to the factories. How to find someone among thousands? He took advantage of bathroom breaks, meal times, and rest periods to search in workshops, canteens, and dormitories. He searched three places where Yu might work, but Yu had run away again.
Liu Weihua then went to the police station in Yu's registered location in Bozhou City and befriended an old auxiliary police officer. The old auxiliary police officer was moved by Liu Weihua's spirit and promised to notify him once Yu's whereabouts were discovered.
A Twist in the Investigation: Two Suspects Captured One After Another
Hard work pays off. On March 26, 2009, Yu secretly returned home and was spotted by the old auxiliary police officer. Liu Weihua and the police rushed to Bozhou City overnight. The next day, after six years of fleeing, Yu was finally captured. However, Yu claimed that he only drove a car to help someone collect debts.
To uncover the truth, Ding had to be caught. Liu Weihua returned to Harbin with the police. After several days of investigation, they found that a girl had just arrived at Xiao Hong's parents' home to attend elementary school. Liu Weihua felt this should be Ding's and Xiao Hong's daughter. Subsequently, the police obtained the child's enrollment records through the school she attended, learning that her father was Wang Wenge and her mother was Tao Zhen, whose registered address was in Shandong Province. After comparing photos online, it was confirmed that Wang Wenge was actually Ding, who had settled in Shandong.
On May 25, 2009, at a secluded alley entrance in Jinan City, a middle-aged shoemaker who always kept his head down repairing shoes was surrounded by plainclothes policemen. The shoemaker was Ding. After being arrested, Ding and Yu confessed that they had colluded with Sun and others to kidnap Liu Fayun, leading to his murder during the process. After being wanted online by the police in Luyi County for illegal public deposit absorption, Ding hid in Harbin, Heze, Luoyang, and Shangqiu. To make a living, he bought inferior quality leather shoes from local wholesale markets, replaced them with the brand trademarks of his former shoe factory, and sold them to dealers.
On January 25, 2003, Ding and others kidnapped Liu Fayun and called his home to extort money. Later, Sun, who was drunk, stabbed Liu Fayun to death with a dagger, claiming that Liu wasn't cooperative. They buried him in Sun's wheat field. Afterwards, the group fled separately.
On August 27, 2009, more than ten police cars sounded their sirens and raced to a soybean field in Sun Village, Han Zhuang Administrative Village, Bai Ma Town, Dan Cheng County. With the rumbling of the excavator, a skeleton soon appeared. Forensic experts cleared and collected evidence at the scene, and after DNA identification, it was confirmed that this was Liu Fayun, who had been kidnapped and killed six years ago.
Court Trial: No Verdict Delivered in Court
Eight years after the incident, on the morning of March 22, 2011, at the Fugou County Court of Zhoukou City, the kidnapping case prosecuted by the Zhoukou Procuratorate and publicly tried by the First Criminal Division of the Intermediate People's Court of Zhoukou opened. The two defendants, Ding and Yu, stood in the defendant's box.
The procuratorate legally reviewed and found: On the afternoon of January 25, 2003, around 2 p.m., the defendants Ding and Yu, along with Sun and others, drove to the Fugou County Hospital. Ding and Yu lured the victim Liu Fayun onto the bread van they had driven under the pretext of accounting and forcibly took him away. They later detained Liu Fayun at Sun's house in Sun Village, Han Zhuang Administrative Village, Bai Ma Town, Dan Cheng County. Ding and others forced Liu Fayun to call home and ask for money. On the evening of January 26, in the east room of Sun's house, Sun, after drinking alcohol, stabbed Liu in the chest with a dagger, causing his death. The procuratorate believed that the defendants Ding and Yu kidnapped others for the purpose of extortion and killed the hostage, violating criminal law, and should be held criminally responsible for the crime of kidnapping.
The court did not deliver a verdict in court.
It was learned that the suspect Sun had committed suicide, and the other two suspects were still being pursued. (Editor: SN005)