"He worked hard for 30 years, but eventually became a victim of demolition..." Yesterday, a post titled "Suzhou Demolition Murder Case" appeared on the local Suzhou forum, drawing a large number of netizens' attention. The post claims that there is a responsible person surnamed Zhu in the Relocation Office of the Chefang Branch of the Zhi Town, Wuzhong District of Suzhou. On the night of January 31 this year, he went to a factory to stop the demolition company from tearing down the house and was later found unconscious at the scene. He ultimately died due to ineffective rescue efforts. The post also mentions that although the Suzhou police have concluded that his death was caused by an accidental fall, there are still many doubts about this incident. What is the truth behind this? Yesterday, the reporter followed the clues and conducted a detailed investigation.
□ Fast Reporter Chen Chao, He Yunping
Forum Post: Strange Death of Demolition Official
The forum post states that a few years ago, due to district adjustment, the original Chefang Town of Wuzhong District, Suzhou, was split into two parts. One part was transferred to Loufang of Suzhou Industrial Park, while the other part was merged into Zhi Town of Wuzhong District. However, the two local governments never reached a transfer agreement on the ownership of a certain plot in Chefang Town.
On the afternoon of January 31, 2012, while the Sidehua plot still belonged to Wuzhong District, a demolition company forcibly demolished the factory. Mr. Zhu was then assigned to go and stop the demolition. That evening, he was found unconscious inside an old factory building on the Sihua plot. On the morning of February 3, Mr. Zhu passed away after unsuccessful rescue attempts. Although the Suzhou Industrial Park police concluded that Mr. Zhu fell accidentally from the second floor and died, there are still some doubts about this incident. For example, Mr. Zhu had no visible wounds or bleeding on his body, and his body surface was clean. Some people claimed they saw seven or eight individuals cornering Mr. Zhu against the wall of the factory, with others keeping watch outside.
Family Questions Cause of Death
At 1:30 PM yesterday, the reporter first came to the Chefang Branch where Mr. Zhu used to work in Zhi Town, Wuzhong District. The staff members at the branch office were all very tight-lipped about Mr. Zhu's death. An office staff member told the reporter that Mr. Zhu was the head of the Relocation Office and was also responsible for managing the factories 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 31, while playing cards at home, Mr. Zhu received a call from his colleague Mr. Lu, who informed him that a demolition company was planning 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 the factory on the plot again. Mr. Zhu immediately notified the urban management department and other relevant departments 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 told her that Mr. Zhu was found unconscious in a factory building on a certain plot and had been sent to the hospital. Mr. Zhu's family quickly arrived at the hospital. According to Mr. Zhu's sister, when she saw her brother, she found him lying in a corner of the hospital, vomiting incessantly, and unconscious, but with no visible external injuries. The hospital examination results showed skull fractures. Ultimately, after being in a coma for four days, Mr. Zhu passed away at 7:45 AM on February 3. The Zhu family said that after investigating with the police station handling the case, the police finally concluded that it was a high-altitude accidental fall leading to death, but they did not believe it.
Under the guidance of the Zhu family, the reporter came to the scene of Mr. Zhu's death. Entering through a damaged roller shutter door, the reporter saw that the factory building was divided into two floors, with the second floor partitioned off using wooden boards. Mr. Zhu's father pointed to below the entrance of the second floor and told the reporter that Mr. Zhu was found lying here. "This height is only three meters, and there were no scratches on the body, and the clothes were neat and clean. But you can see that it's dusty everywhere here. In theory, if he fell, there should be injuries on his body," Mr. Zhu's father said. After hearing about this, he went nearby to ask if there were any eyewitnesses. Someone told him that they saw seven or eight people cornering Mr. Zhu against the wall of the factory, with others keeping watch outside. Mr. Zhu's father believed that his son's death was definitely related to Wu, the foreman who came for the demolition.
The Police Believe It Was an Accidental Fall Leading to Death
An informant told the reporter that this matter actually dates back to 2004. At that time, Suzhou underwent a new round of district adjustments. The then Chefang Town under Wuzhong District was split into two, with one part of the land transferred to Loufang Town of Suzhou Industrial Park. In subsequent years, the ownership of many houses in the former Chefang Town area remained unclear. Mr. Zhu's job was to prevent demolition companies from demolishing houses before the property rights of a house were clearly divided.
Yesterday, the reporter learned from the park police that after Mr. Zhu was found unconscious in the factory, someone immediately reported it to the police. The jurisdictional police station responded promptly after receiving the alarm. The person who reported it was Wu, who was responsible for the demolition. Wu claimed that he discovered an intoxicated injured person who fell accidentally, which was Mr. Zhu. After arriving at the scene, the police immediately sent Mr. Zhu to the hospital for emergency treatment and simultaneously conducted a meticulous investigation into the case.
Through a series of investigations, the police found that Mr. Zhu's death was due to an accidental fall. Because Mr. Zhu had come to the demolition site once during the day, it was suspected that he also went upstairs at that time, and the wooden floor on the second floor hadn't been removed then, so he successfully went upstairs. When Mr. Zhu returned to the demolition site at around 7 p.m., because he was familiar with the scene, he took the same path upstairs, but unexpectedly, the wooden boards on the second floor had been removed, causing him to fall accidentally.
Who removed the wooden boards? Through further investigation, the police found that a shop near the factory just happened to have installed surveillance cameras. Through the surveillance footage, it was discovered that the person who removed and transported away the wooden boards was Wu. According to Wu's confession, he was the foreman responsible for the demolition of this plot. To prevent anyone from stealing the wooden boards, he preemptively removed the wooden boards at the entrance of the second floor of the cement factory and sold them for over 2000 yuan. At around 7:30 p.m. that night, Wu came to check if anyone intended to steal things under cover of darkness. While shining his flashlight around, he discovered Mr. Zhu lying inside the cement factory and then reported it to the police.
The police stated that when Mr. Zhu fell, the now-damaged roller shutter door leading to the cement factory was still intact and was only forcibly broken open later for rescuing Mr. Zhu. Considering various circumstances, the possibility of Mr. Zhu being murdered can be ruled out. If the family requests, an autopsy can be conducted to further clarify the cause of Mr. Zhu's death. However, given that the ownership of the cement factory still belongs to the Chefang Branch of Zhi Town, Wuzhong District, Wu's behavior is suspected of theft. Currently, Wu has been approved for arrest.