"After working hard for 30 years, he eventually became a victim of demolition..." Yesterday, a post titled "Suzhou Demolition Murder Case" appeared on a local Suzhou forum, drawing significant attention from netizens. The post claimed that a certain Mr. Zhu, a responsible official at the Chefang Relocation Office in Shizhi Town, Wuzhong District, Suzhou, went to a factory on the evening of January 31st to stop a demolition company from tearing down the building. He was later found unconscious at the scene and ultimately died due to ineffective rescue efforts. The post further mentioned that although the Suzhou police concluded the death as an accidental fall, many doubts still lingered about the incident. What exactly happened? Yesterday, the reporter followed the leads and conducted a detailed investigation.
□Fast Reporter Chen Chao, He Yinping
Post: Strange Death of a Demolition Official
The post stated that a few years ago, due to district adjustments, the original Chefang Town in Wuzhong District, Suzhou, was split into two parts; one part was transferred to娄葑in Suzhou Industrial Park, while the other remained under Wuzhong District in Shizhi. However, the governments of both areas had never reached a transfer agreement regarding the ownership of a specific plot of land in Chefang Town.
On the afternoon of January 31, 2012, when the property rights of the Sihua plot still belonged to Wuzhong District, a demolition company forcibly demolished a factory. Mr. Zhu was subsequently assigned to prevent the demolition. That evening, he was found unconscious in the old factory of the Sihua 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 were still many questions surrounding the case. For instance, Mr. Zhu showed no external wounds or bleeding, and his body was clean. Some people also claimed that they saw seven or eight individuals cornering Mr. Zhu inside the factory, with others keeping watch outside.
Family Questions Cause of Death
At 1:30 PM yesterday, the reporter first arrived at the Chefang Office where Mr. Zhu used to work in Shizhi Town, Wuzhong District. The office staff were very reluctant to discuss Mr. Zhu's death. An office worker told the reporter that Mr. Zhu was the head of the relocation office at the Chefang Office and was responsible for overseeing the factories on plots owned by Wuzhong District.
After much effort, the reporter managed to find the residential complex where Mr. Zhu lived. According to Mr. Zhu's father, around 3:30 PM on January 31st, Mr. Zhu, who was playing cards at home, received a call from his colleague Mr. Lu, informing him that a demolition company intended to demolish a factory on a certain plot. After checking it out, Mr. Zhu returned home. At around 6:46 PM, while having dinner, Mr. Zhu received another call from Mr. Lu, saying 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 heard a strange voice on the phone. The caller informed her that Mr. Zhu had been found unconscious in a factory on a certain plot and had already been sent to the hospital. Mr. Zhu's family immediately rushed to the hospital. According to Mr. Zhu's sister, when she saw her brother, she found him lying in a corner of the hospital, vomiting uncontrollably and unconscious, with no visible external injuries. A hospital examination revealed a fractured skull. Ultimately, after being comatose for four days, Mr. Zhu passed away at 7:45 AM on February 3rd. The Zhu family said that after seeking information from the police station investigating the matter, the police concluded that it was a high-altitude accidental fall, but they did not believe it.
Under the guidance of the Zhu family, the reporter visited the site 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 boards. Mr. Zhu's father pointed to below the entrance to the second floor and told the reporter that Mr. Zhu was found lying there initially. "This height is only three meters, and the body surface had no marks, and the clothes were neat and clean. But look at this place; it's full of dust. If he fell, there should have been injuries." Mr. Zhu's father said that after hearing about the incident, he asked nearby residents if anyone witnessed it. Someone told him they saw seven or eight people cornering Mr. Zhu against the wall inside the factory, with others keeping watch outside. Mr. Zhu's father believed that his son's death was definitely related to Wu, the contractor responsible for the demolition.
The Police Deemed It an Accidental Fall
An informed source told the reporter that this matter actually dates back to 2004. At that time, Suzhou underwent a new round of district adjustments, splitting the original Chefang Town under Wuzhong District into two parts, with some land being transferred to Loufang Town in Suzhou Industrial Park. In subsequent years, the ownership of many houses in the former 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 police of the industrial park that after Mr. Zhu was found unconscious in the factory, someone immediately reported it to the police. The jurisdictional police station responded promptly upon receiving the report. The person who reported it was Wu, the contractor responsible for the demolition. Wu claimed that he discovered a drunk individual who had fallen from a height at the demolition site, which turned out to be Mr. Zhu. Upon arrival, the police quickly sent Mr. Zhu to the hospital for emergency treatment and simultaneously launched a thorough investigation into the case.
Through a series of investigations, the police discovered that Mr. Zhu's death was due to an accidental fall. It was suspected that earlier in the day, Mr. Zhu had visited the demolition site once and may have gone up to the second floor, where the wooden floorboards were intact at the time, allowing him to ascend without issue. However, when Mr. Zhu returned to the site around 7:00 PM, because he was familiar with the layout, he followed the same path upstairs. Unfortunately, the wooden boards on the second floor had been removed, causing him to fall.
Who removed the wooden boards? Further police investigations revealed that a shop near the factory had installed surveillance cameras. Through the surveillance footage, it was discovered that the person who removed and transported the wooden boards was none other than Wu. According to Wu's confession, as the contractor responsible for the demolition of the plot, he preemptively removed the wooden boards from the entrance of the second floor of the cement factory to prevent theft, selling them for over two thousand yuan. Around 7:30 PM that evening, Wu came to check if anyone intended to steal things in the dark, using a flashlight to inspect the area. It was then that he discovered Mr. Zhu lying inside the cement factory and subsequently called the police.
The police explained that the currently damaged roller shutter door leading to the cement factory was intact at the time of Mr. Zhu's fall, having been forcibly broken open later to facilitate his rescue. Considering all circumstances, the police ruled out the possibility of Mr. Zhu being murdered. If the family requested, a forensic autopsy could further clarify the cause of death. However, since the ownership of the cement factory still belonged to the Chefang Office of Shizhi Town, Wuzhong District, Wu's actions were considered theft. Currently, Wu has been formally arrested on these charges.