Crime Suspect Identifies the Crime Scene
By Zhang Huiwu, stationed in Xingtai, with contributions from Hu Sanqi (text and images)
■ News Tip: After engaging in sexual relations with a client, a sex worker demanded an exorbitant price. In the ensuing argument, the sex worker met a fatal end. Behind this single bloody incident lies the tragedy of two families.
■ A Nameless Female Corpse Found in the Snow
Every day, Old Zhang, who habitually rises early to jog along the northern outer ring road of Xingtai, was running near the intersection of the northern outer ring and Metallurgy North Road, 200 meters east, when he desperately needed to relieve himself. He quickly ran towards the snowy field on the south side of the road but tripped over a woven bag and fell into the snow. After getting up and brushing off the snow, out of curiosity, he opened the woven bag halfway when a bloodied face scared him half to death...
At 6:50 AM on January 9, 2010, officers from the Steel North Road Police Station and the Criminal Investigation Team No.1 of the Qiaoxi Branch arrived at the crime scene five minutes after receiving instructions from the Xingtai Public Security Bureau's 110 Command Center. The on-site investigation revealed: the nameless female corpse was naked from the waist down, her hands and feet tied with rope, her body curled up and wrapped in a white plastic bag, then placed inside a green woven bag. Her face had been severely disfigured by a sharp weapon, making identification impossible. There were no other valuable clues at the scene, leading investigators to preliminarily conclude that this was the second disposal site for the body.
Two hours later, the "1・9" Murder and Body Disposal Case Special Task Force was established at the Steel North Road Police Station, led by the Criminal Investigation Team No.1 of the Qiaoxi Branch, with assistance from the Criminal Investigation Team No.5, Technical Team, and Steel North Road Police Station. After two case analysis meetings, 3000 notices with photographs were quickly posted through various police stations under the branch.
■ Identification of Both Parties
Because the crime scene was in the cold suburban snow, after several days of investigation by the police, no valuable leads were obtained, causing the case investigation to fall into difficulty.
Just at this time, a special task force officer suddenly received a call from an unknown man, saying he had seen the notice posted on the street, and the photo on the notice looked very much like his wife, Xiao Lu, whom he hadn't been able to contact since January 8th.
Soon, the man was brought to the special task force by the police. After identifying the body, the man could not be entirely sure if the female corpse was his wife, only noting similarities in height, build, and clothing. To quickly ascertain the true identity of the female corpse, the special task force, with the man's consent, swiftly conducted DNA sampling and comparison on the female corpse, ultimately confirming that this corpse was indeed Xiao Lu, the man's wife who had been missing for nine days.
Meanwhile, after 4 days and 3 nights of investigation, after excluding 793 men and women who had close dealings with Xiao Lu, a strange phone number that Xiao Lu had frequently called before her death caught the attention of the police. Eventually, with significant help from the technical department, through a deactivated phone number, another major suspect's phone number was identified, and soon through this suspicious number, the holder's identity was locked down: Li Qiang.
■ Originally Caused by Drunkenness
At around 9 AM on January 23rd, after a sleepless night, more than 20 members of the special task force again laid out their plan. Undercover female officer Zhang Jie, posing as an applicant, successfully apprehended suspect Li Qiang during a scheduled interview at his shop on Park East Street.
It turns out that on the evening of January 5th, after drinking, Li Qiang paid 100 yuan to prostitute Xiao Lu at a foot massage parlor on Dong Chongli Street in the eastern part of the city and they exchanged contact information. On the 7th, they arranged to meet again at Li Qiang’s residence. At around 1 AM on the 8th, after finishing her shift, Xiao Lu came to Li Qiang’s place, where they had sex and fell asleep together.
When they woke up around six or seven in the morning on the 8th, Xiao Lu, citing Li Qiang's marriage and knowledge of his home address, demanded 150,000 yuan from Li Qiang. In the ensuing argument, Li Qiang struck Xiao Lu unconscious with a bottle on the bedside table. When Xiao Lu woke up a moment later, she increased her demand to 200,000 yuan. During another heated argument, Li Qiang, originally intending to scare Xiao Lu with a kitchen knife, lost control in fear of being heard by neighbors due to Xiao Lu’s loud cries and fierce resistance, and ended up killing her.
On the 8th, after working at his store in the morning, Li Qiang bought plastic bags and woven bags at the Yurang Bridge Market at noon. Around 8 PM, he tied Xiao Lu’s hands and feet with rope, placed the bound body into the plastic and woven bags, and transported it to the northern outer ring road using his step-through motorcycle, dumping the body in the snow by the roadside.
■ Tragedy Could Have Been Avoided
The investigating officers told reporters that aside from appearing young and handsome, what Li Qiang said most during interrogation was: "I truly regret it now. I wanted to give her a few hundred yuan, but she insisted on 150,000 yuan, which I don’t have, and I also feared my wife finding out about this." Moreover, Li Qiang kept pleading with the officers to only inform his uncle about this matter, and not his wife.
Li Qiang originally had a very happy family, with a gentle and adorable wife, and their relationship had always been good. A year ago, they moved from their hometown of Weixian into the city, renting a storefront on Park East Street to sell clothes, and business was quite prosperous. Four months ago, his wife gave birth to a son and returned to her hometown, leaving him alone to take care of the store and business in the city. Only a few days after his wife left, after one drunken episode, he forgot his responsibilities as a husband and father.
The police told reporters that if Li Qiang had handled the situation rationally when Xiao Lu demanded 150,000 yuan from him, or if he had stopped when he raised the kitchen knife against Xiao Lu and faced the bloodshed with even a little bit of respect and pity for life; or even if his wife found out about his improper sexual relations with Xiao Lu, and he admitted his mistake, corrected his behavior, and decided to start anew, persisting in facing Xiao Lu’s unreasonable demands or tantrums together with his wife, at least he could have preserved his complete family; similarly, if Xiao Lu had engaged in a proper occupation, and upon waking up after being struck by a bottle while arguing with Li Qiang over the 150,000 yuan demand, thought first of how to escape and save her life instead of continuing to increase her demands for money, today's outcome might have been different. (Note: The names of the victim and suspect in the article are pseudonyms.)