The highly anticipated trial of the provincial capital's "Galaxy Park Murder Case", which has garnered widespread attention from all sectors of society, will be held this morning at the Intermediate People's Court of Hefei City. Why did the victim Zhang XX write an IOU for 80,000 yuan to Tao Ping, who hired someone to kill her? What conflicts and disputes arose during the interactions between Tao Ping and Zhang XX? What premeditations did the killer Sun Yixin have before pushing the victim into the water? And what experiences did the second person who hired the killer, Li Yan Yan, encounter while hiring the killer? Some lesser-known details of the case may gradually come to light during today's trial.
Case Recap
According to the indictment, in May 2010, Tao Ping conspired with Li Yan Yan to hire someone to kill the victim Zhang XX. Tao Ping planned to use the IOU written by Zhang XX to demand money from her family and promised to repay Li Yan Yan's family debts upon successful completion of the task. Li Yan Yan contacted the defendant Sun Yixin, asking him to help kill Zhang XX, and promised him a reward, to which Sun Yixin agreed. The three defendants plotted multiple times at Tao Ping's place on how to kill Zhang XX, deciding to drown her by pushing her into the water at Baohe Park in Hefei City. Later, the three defendants also attempted to poison Zhang XX's husband Xue XX by putting poison in his drink, but failed.
On the evening of June 10, 2010, at around 9 PM, Li Yan Yan lured the victim Zhang XX to the south side of the Rainflower Pond west of Tongcheng Bridge in Galaxy Park, Hefei City, where she was waiting for her. The defendant Sun Yixin then pushed Zhang XX into the water. According to the forensic examination, the victim Zhang XX drowned.
It is understood that prior to the trial, the parents, husband, and daughter of the deceased Zhang XX submitted a criminal civil complaint to the court, demanding that the three defendants compensate them for various losses, including death compensation, funeral expenses, maintenance fees, and mental distress compensation, totaling 482,800 yuan.
Did Li Yan Yan also report Tao Ping to the police?
In last year's "Anhui Opera Martial Arts Case," the murderer Xia Xingjie reported that the "Galaxy Park Murder Case" was orchestrated by someone hired by Tao Ping, leading to Tao Ping's arrest due to Xia Xingjie's tip-off. However, it was learned yesterday that in the evidence, the second defendant Li Yan Yan had also reported Tao Ping to the police.
It is understood that after being arrested by the police, Li Yan Yan wrote a letter of confession and disclosure to the police. In the letter, she stated that when she was first detained, she was very scared and did not fully disclose the details. After being transferred to the second detention center and after multiple talks with the prison officers, who explained the severity of the situation and its consequences to her, she realized her mistake and decided to disclose the full story, cooperating with the police investigation.
Why did the deceased write an IOU to help her secret admirer?
According to the indictment, Tao Ping's main reason for hiring someone to kill Zhang XX was to collect money from Zhang's family using the IOU after her death. Why did Zhang XX write an IOU for 80,000 yuan to Tao Ping without any apparent reason?
According to Tao Ping's confession, one day in October, Zhang XX came to her house to play. During their conversation, Zhang XX told Tao Ping that she liked a 35-year-old chef named "Xiao Chen" at the teahouse. Since "Xiao Chen" was economically disadvantaged, Zhang XX wanted to give him some money to buy a house. However, if she directly told her husband about "Xiao Chen," he would definitely not give her the money. Therefore, Zhang XX devised a plan and wrote an IOU stating that she owed Tao Ping 80,000 yuan. Zhang XX also said that if something happened to her, she wanted Tao Ping to collect the money from her husband and give it to "Xiao Chen."
Tao Ping also confessed that after writing the IOU, she kept it in her bag until one day she accidentally found it. It was then that she conceived the idea of hiring someone to kill Zhang XX and then collecting money from her family using the IOU.
Was Li Yan Yan coerced into marriage during the process of hiring the killer?
It was learned that during her confession to the investigating authorities, the second defendant Li Yan Yan admitted that before finding Sun Yixin, she had approached several other people. In Tao Ping's confession, it was revealed that the main reason Li Yan Yan turned to Sun Yixin was because she encountered "coercive marriage proposals" when approaching another individual.
According to Tao Ping's confession, after agreeing to her plan, Li Yan Yan immediately started calling people like Fu Mou, Yuan Mou, and "Lao San," telling them that an aunt kicked her scale while selling vegetables and she wanted to beat up this aunt. Later, Li Yan Yan informed Tao Ping that Fu Mou agreed to help beat up Zhang XX, but under the condition that Li Yan Yan would become intimate with him. Li Yan Yan also received two thousand yuan from Fu Mou and placed the money under Tao Ping's custody. A few days later, Tao Ping told Li Yan Yan that taking someone else's money was inappropriate. Li Yan Yan then returned part of the money.
Was there a threat to kill the deceased's daughter?
The deceased Zhang XX's daughter, Xue Mou, stated to the investigating authorities: "In April 2009, after my mother Zhang XX moved house in Hefei, she told me that a property certificate went missing from our home. This property belonged to my parents in Shanghai. After some time, Zhang XX called me and said that Tao Ping had conveyed a message from someone demanding 200,000 yuan in exchange for returning the property certificate. If she didn't pay, the certificate would never be returned, and they would send someone to Shanghai to kill me. Zhang XX asked Tao Ping who this person was, but Tao Ping claimed she didn't know who it was. At the time, I felt these statements were contradictory. Not long after, Zhang XX told me that the property certificate had been returned."