During the rush hours, some young, pretty and fashionable women in Lanzhou took a taxi; however, they stepped onto a one-way road.
■ New Express reporter Liu Hu text/photo from Lanzhou, Gansu
On December 15th at 10:00 AM, a beam of sunlight shone through the tightly closed windows, illuminating the central part of the first criminal trial court of Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court. It fell on the hands of a young man dressed in orange prison clothes who was sitting in the defendant's seat, just like a spotlight on a stage.
The judge was reading out the verdict. This man kept rotating a steel ball on his cold handcuffs with his right thumb and index finger. The other prisoner standing next to him, who was half a head taller, remained motionless.
Their names are Cheng Dengpan and Wang Huijun, both born in 1984, ex-armed police officers, residing in Xichazhen, Gaolan County. Cheng Dengpan operates a contracted taxi. They were charged with jointly murdering six female passengers, including police officers, merchants, hotel waitresses, toll collectors, and students.
Several people went missing
At 2:00 PM on December 29, 2009, middle-aged businesswoman Xu Aijun parted ways with her husband Wang Hongwei outside their home near Peili Square in Anning District, taking a taxi to go to Chenguan District for errands. Xu Aijun independently operated a plastic steel aluminum alloy window and door factory, was 44 years old, and had a 6-year-old son.
At 6:00 PM that day, Wang Hongwei received a call from the teacher at Gansu Normal University Kindergarten where his son attended, saying that the child's mother hadn't come to pick him up and asking him to hurry over.
Wang Hongwei found it strange: his wife was a loving mother who would always pick up her son on time regardless of any circumstances. After hanging up the phone with the teacher, he tried contacting his wife but couldn't get through. Thereafter, Xu Aijun didn't return home all night.
The couple had been together for 11 years and had never encountered such a situation. Early the next morning, Wang Hongwei reported the incident to the Peili Police Station. The police said that since the disappearance hadn't reached 24 hours, they couldn't file a case.
Where did his wife go? Wang Hongwei was puzzled. Days later, as his wife still hadn't returned, he became anxious and searched everywhere with Xu Aijun's family but found no trace of her.
Almost simultaneously, there were several cases of women disappearing in Lanzhou city. In newspapers, streets, and forums, multiple "Missing Person Notices" appeared:
At 6:40 PM on December 14, 2009, Zhao Xin, a 21-year-old female clerk from Xiaoxihu Police Station, parted ways with her sister outside Gansu Provincial People's Hospital, crossed the zebra crossing, and disappeared into the crowd;
In the afternoon of December 20, 2009, Hu Baoxia, a 27-year-old woman from Wen'an County, Langfang, Hebei, disappeared after coming out of the "Hao Xiao Zai" hair salon on Gaolan Road;
At around 6:00 PM on December 28, 2009, Yang Xiuli, a 24-year-old female staff member from the Liushu Toll Station of Gansu Provincial Expressway, disappeared near the Zhengmao Hailong Garden on Yanxi Road;
At around 9:00 PM on December 30, 2009, Gao Xiaochun, a 23-year-old waitress at Ouya Seafood Hotel at Xiguan Crossroad in Lanzhou, disappeared after work;
At 5:30 PM on New Year's Day in 2010, an 18-year-old student Li Jing from Tourism School bought a ticket at Dongzhai Bus Station on Pingliang Road in Lanzhou and then went to Xizhai to buy clothes; her mother could no longer get through to her by phone;
...
These missing person cases had a common feature: they were mostly young women, and most occurred during broad daylight.
Case Breakthrough Through a Dry Well
The continuous occurrence of female disappearances alarmed the Lanzhou police force. A special task force was established to investigate the cases, starting from the times and locations of the disappearances.
When Li Jing went missing, she told her mother that the bus was too crowded and she would take a taxi; before disappearing, Yang Xiuli told her friend that she would be there in ten minutes and might also take a taxi. The police decided to focus on taxis as a significant suspect.
What led to a breakthrough in the investigation was a surveillance video taken when Gao Xiaochun disappeared. According to a close friend of Gao Xiaochun who informed the police: she saw Gao Xiaochun get into a taxi. Surveillance footage from the area also captured Gao Xiaochun getting into a taxi.
Although the license plate number in the surveillance footage was unclear, the police compared the video with GPS information from all the taxis in the city and discovered that driver Cheng Dengpan of the light blue taxi with the license plate number "Gan A86664" who happened to pass by at that moment was a major suspect.
Cheng Dengpan, originally from Tuancun Village, Xichazhen, Gaolan County, Lanzhou City, was born in November 1984, has a junior high school education, served as an armed policeman in Xinjiang, and since March 2009, has been operating a taxi contracted from Weilong Taxi Company, driving during the day while his father Cheng Shineng drives at night.
At around 6:00 AM on January 29, 2010, the police arrested Cheng Dengpan in a residential compound in Xiaoxihu, Qilihe District, Lanzhou City. Cheng confessed to collaborating with Wang Huijun to rob and murder several female passengers. Wang Huijun is Cheng's fellow townsman and former comrade-in-arms. At around 7:00 AM the same day, Wang Huijun was also arrested in a rented apartment near Huachen Building in Chengguan District.
That day, the police took the two suspects to the south side of Sanchagou Mountain Road about 60 kilometers north of Lanzhou city, looking for a dry well. Both suspects confessed that the murdered female passengers were thrown into this well.
The dry well was found. It was a round earthen structure, 1.7 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep. Upon observation by the police using a telephoto lens, a human foot was seen inside. The police immediately called upon the Special Operations Team of the Lanzhou Fire Brigade for assistance in recovery.
Two soldiers descended to the bottom of the well and successively retrieved six female corpses. Forensic examination determined that apart from one victim who died from traumatic and hemorrhagic shock, the remaining five were strangled to death by mechanical asphyxiation.
Murder Plan
Why did a public transportation tool become a killing ground? Why did taxi driver Cheng Dengpan commit murders? On June 30 of the same year, the case was heard in Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court. According to Cheng Dengpan's confession, the reason he killed these unarmed women was because his family was poor, his girlfriend's parents opposed their relationship, and under immense pressure, his girlfriend eventually left him. He initially wanted to kill his girlfriend's parents, but feeling pity for her and lacking the courage to act, he never followed through.
Subsequently, Cheng Dengpan decided to kill innocent women as a way to vent his frustrations. He approached his comrade-in-arms Wang Huijun, suggesting they collaborate under the guise of "getting rich through robbery." Wang Huijun, who was unemployed, agreed.
They meticulously planned their actions: Cheng Dengpan would drive and select targets, while Wang Huijun would primarily wield a knife to hold victims hostage. Their targets were young, attractive, fashionably-dressed women. Once the target boarded the taxi, Cheng Dengpan would notify Wang Huijun by phone and arrange to meet under the pretense of carpooling. When they reached a suitable location, Cheng Dengpan would signal Wang Huijun to act by playing a specific song, and they would jointly carry out the robbery. Cheng Dengpan had already planned to dispose of the bodies in a dry well near his hometown. "The well opening is small and it's so deep that the bodies will definitely not be discovered."
After committing four cases of robbery and murder, to facilitate nighttime disposal of the bodies, they specifically spent 100,000 yuan purchasing a silver-white Fukang car with the license plate number "Gan AG4392."
During the trial, the families of the six victims sought a total civil compensation of 5.17 million yuan, simultaneously suing Weilong Taxi Company and its merged company Benma Taxi Company along with the supervisory authority Lanzhou Municipal Transportation Management Office, demanding joint liability. During the trial period, Weilong Taxi Company stated that it bore no responsibility, but out of moral obligation, offered to voluntarily pay 300,000 yuan in condolence money to the families of the six deceased.
On December 15th, after reviewing the case, Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court determined that both Cheng Dengpan and Wang Huijun were guilty of intentional homicide and robbery, with extremely heinous crimes and severe offenses, both deserving severe punishment. In the first-instance judgment, both were sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life. The two defendants were ordered to jointly compensate the six victims' losses amounting to more than 1.6 million yuan.
Regarding the request for taxi companies and related units to bear joint liability, the court ruled that although Cheng Dengpan was a driver for Weilong Taxi Company and the crime occurred in an operational taxi, the company granted only legal and legitimate operational permissions. The criminal acts exceeded the scope of the company's authorized duties and were personal actions, thus not bearing joint liability. Benma Company was another independent legal entity unrelated to this case and therefore did not bear joint liability. The regulatory body’s management of the taxi industry does not fall within the scope of criminal civil litigation.
Since neither of the two criminals had the ability to compensate, the families of the six victims placed their hopes for compensation on the taxi company's joint liability. The "taxi company bears no responsibility" ruling by Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court greatly angered the husband of the first victim, Zhao Xin, who tore up the judgment document as soon as he exited the courtroom.
Government Responsibility
Collaboration between the two perpetrators was key to the success of the six murders. The taxi driver picked up passengers midway, allowing his accomplice to board with a knife in hand to threaten and kill the female passenger.
Why are there so many instances of ride-sharing? Why didn't single women take precautions when strangers got into the car? A local journalist in Lanzhou said that the municipal government bore significant responsibility in this matter.
In Lanzhou, there are approximately 7,000 taxis. What perplexes all outsiders is that here, taxis operate based on odd-even license plate numbers, while private cars are restricted daily to only 1/5 (two digits among 0-9), causing a serious shortage of transportation capacity. A local taxi driver stated that this "restriction on public transportation" has been implemented for over a decade and continues to this day.
"Black cabs are rampant. Many citizens hate ride-sharing and oppose it, yet have no choice but to accept it," a local media journalist said. "If there was no ride-sharing, perhaps these six lives wouldn't have been lost. However, the government hasn't reflected on this."
What troubles the victims' families most is the local government's demand for media silence, suppressing reports on this case. Officials claimed it would harm local economic development. For two years, no TV station or newspaper has reported on this major case, Wang Hongwei said. "If the police had filed the case earlier and widely publicized it through the media, reminding citizens to be cautious, I believe the subsequent cases may not have happened."
Hu Baosong, the younger brother of victim Hu Baoxia, said, "My sister was killed on December 20th, and we arrived in Lanzhou on the 25th to look for her without any leads. When we reported to the police station, their response was: she's not stupid or disabled, she must have gone somewhere to play. Just go home and wait, we can't file a case." "Due to the police filing the case late, many people died. If the police had filed and solved the case earlier, such massive casualties wouldn't have occurred. Who will take responsibility?"
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