"After working hard for 30 years, he eventually became a victim of demolition..." Yesterday, a post titled "The Suzhou Demolition Murder Case" appeared on a local Suzhou forum, drawing significant attention from netizens. The post claims that a certain Mr. Zhu, a responsible official at the Chefang Relocation Office in the Zhi Town of Wujiang District, Suzhou, went to a factory on the night of January 31st to stop a demolition company from tearing down a building. He was later found unconscious at the scene and ultimately died due to ineffective rescue efforts. The post also mentions that despite the Suzhou police concluding it as an accidental fall leading to death, the incident remains shrouded in doubt. What exactly happened? Yesterday, a reporter followed the clues and conducted a detailed investigation.
□ Fast Reporter Chen Chao, He Yinping
Post: Strange Death of a Demolition Official
According to the post, several years ago, due to regional adjustments, the original Chefang Town of Wuzhong District, Suzhou, was split into two parts; one part was assigned to the Loufang area of Suzhou Industrial Park, while the other was merged into Zhi Town of Wuzhong District. However, the governments of these two areas had never reached an agreement on the transfer of ownership for a specific plot in Chefang Town.
On the afternoon of January 31, 2012, while the property rights of the Sidewa plot still belonged to Wuzhong District, a demolition company forcibly demolished a factory. Mr. Zhu was subsequently dispatched to stop the demolition. That evening, he was found unconscious inside an old factory building on the Sidewa plot. On the morning of February 3rd, Mr. Zhu passed away after unsuccessful medical treatment. Although the Suzhou Industrial Park police concluded that Mr. Zhu fell accidentally from the second floor, leading to his death, there are still some questionable aspects. For example, Mr. Zhu's body showed no external wounds or bleeding, and his skin was clean. Some people claimed they saw seven or eight individuals cornering Mr. Zhu inside the factory, with others keeping watch outside.
Family Raises Questions About Cause of Death
At 1:30 PM yesterday, the reporter first visited the Chefang Office where Mr. Zhu worked before his death in Zhi Town, Wuzhong District. The office staff were very reserved when discussing Mr. Zhu's death. An office worker told the reporter that Mr. Zhu was the head of the relocation office and was responsible for overseeing the factories on plots owned by Wuzhong District.
After much effort, the reporter located the neighborhood where Mr. Zhu lived. According to Mr. Zhu's father, at around 3:30 PM on January 31st, while playing cards at home, Mr. Zhu received a call from his colleague, Mr. Lü, informing him that a demolition company was planning to demolish a factory on a certain plot. After checking the site, Mr. Zhu returned home. At around 6:46 PM, while having dinner, Mr. Zhu received another call from Mr. Lü, stating that someone was demolishing a factory on the same plot. Mr. Zhu then notified the urban management department and rushed to the scene again.
At around 8:05 PM, Mr. Zhu's sister called him, but a strange voice answered the phone. The caller informed her that Mr. Zhu had been found unconscious inside a factory on a certain plot and was already taken to the hospital. Mr. Zhu's family immediately rushed to the hospital. According to Mr. Zhu's sister, when she saw her brother, he was lying in a corner of the hospital, vomiting incessantly, unconscious, and without any visible external injuries. The hospital examination results showed a fractured skull. Ultimately, after being comatose for four days, Mr. Zhu passed away at 7:45 AM on February 3rd. The family said they sought information from the police station investigating the case, and the police finally concluded that it was a high-altitude accidental fall. However, the family did not believe this conclusion.
Under the guidance of Mr. Zhu's family, the reporter visited the scene where Mr. Zhu died. Entering through a damaged roller shutter door, the reporter saw that the factory was divided into two floors, with the second floor separated by wooden planks. Mr. Zhu's father pointed out that Mr. Zhu was found lying directly below the entrance to the second floor. "The height here is only three meters, and there were no marks or dirt on the corpse, and the clothes were neat and clean. But look at this place, it's dusty everywhere. Logically, if he had fallen from such a height, there should have been injuries," Mr. Zhu's father said. After hearing about the incident, he asked nearby residents if anyone had witnessed anything. Someone told him they saw seven or eight people cornering Mr. Zhu inside the factory, with others keeping watch outside. Mr. Zhu's father believed his son's death was definitely related to the contractor, Mr. Wu, who came for the demolition.
Police Conclude It Was an Accidental Fall
An informed person told the reporter that this matter actually dates back to 2004. At that time, Suzhou underwent a new round of district adjustments, and the original Chefang Town under Wuzhong District was split into two parts. One part of the land was transferred to Loufang Town under Suzhou Industrial Park. In the following years, the ownership of many houses in the original Chefang area remained unclear. Mr. Zhu's job was to prevent demolition companies from demolishing houses until their ownership was clearly defined.
Yesterday, the reporter learned from the Suzhou Industrial Park police that after Mr. Zhu was found unconscious inside the factory, someone immediately reported the incident. The police station in the jurisdiction responded promptly upon receiving the alarm. The person who reported the incident was Mr. Wu, the contractor responsible for the demolition. Mr. Wu claimed that he discovered an intoxicated person who had fallen from a height at the demolition site, which turned out to be Mr. Zhu. Upon arriving at the scene, the police immediately sent Mr. Zhu to the hospital for emergency treatment and simultaneously launched a meticulous investigation into the case.
Through a series of investigations, the police determined that Mr. Zhu's death was caused by an accidental fall. It was suspected that Mr. Zhu had visited the demolition site earlier in the day and had likely gone up to the second floor, where the wooden floorboards were intact at that time. When Mr. Zhu returned to the site at around 7 PM, familiar with the layout, he attempted to ascend via the same route but unfortunately fell because the wooden planks had been removed.
Who removed the wooden planks? Through further investigation, the police discovered that a shop near the factory had installed a surveillance camera. The footage revealed that the person who removed and transported the wooden planks was Mr. Wu. According to Mr. Wu's confession, as the contractor responsible for the demolition of the plot, to prevent theft, he preemptively removed the wooden planks from the entrance of the second floor of the cement factory and sold them for over 2,000 yuan. Around 7:30 PM, when Mr. Wu came to check if anyone intended to steal items under the cover of darkness, he used a flashlight and noticed Mr. Zhu lying inside the cement factory, so he called the police.
The police stated that the roller shutter door leading to the cement factory was intact at the time of Mr. Zhu's fall and was forcibly broken open later during the rescue operation. Considering all circumstances, the possibility of Mr. Zhu being murdered could be ruled out. If the family requests, an autopsy could further clarify the cause of death. However, since the ownership of the cement factory still belongs to the Chefang Office of Zhi Town, Wuzhong District, Mr. Wu's actions are suspected of theft. Currently, Mr. Wu has been arrested.