On January 25, 2011, the elderly Qiao Maolin from Gaoxian Village, Quwo County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, came to his son’s house as usual. Because his son worked away from home all year round and his twin grandsons attended school in the county town, only his daughter-in-law, Dong Xueqin, was at home running the small shop and mahjong stall the family had opened. Qiao Maolin was worried that his daughter-in-law could not handle everything alone, so he came every day to see what help she needed.

After entering the courtyard, Qiao Maolin called Dong Xueqin’s name, but no one answered. He saw that the bedroom door was open, and from outside the door he saw a person lying on the ground, with the head covered by a quilt and a large pool of blood underneath. When Qiao Maolin lifted the quilt, he saw that the person lying on the ground was his daughter-in-law, Dong Xueqin. Her head had been smashed open, with a large dent in it. He was terrified at the time and immediately called the police.

After receiving the report, the Quwo County Public Security Bureau immediately organized criminal investigation, technical investigation, police station, and other relevant personnel to rush to Gaoxian Village, where the incident occurred, to conduct a scene investigation.

At the scene, the police saw that Dong Xueqin’s brain matter had spilled out, and she was lying in a pool of blood wearing underwear. In the small bedroom, there were spattered bloodstains everywhere on the walls, bed, table, cabinet, and floor.

The police also found a bloodstained steel rod and a pair of bloodstained gloves on the deceased’s bed. According to forensic identification, Dong Xueqin died from skull fracture caused by being struck with the steel rod.

The deceased, Dong Xueqin, was 41 years old. Her husband, Qiao Yanjun, worked away from home all year round. To supplement the family income, Dong Xueqin ran a small shop at home and also set up a mahjong stall, mainly for villagers to come and spend money there. According to Qiao Maolin’s recollection, when the villagers who had been playing cards there the night before the incident went home, Dong Xueqin was still fine. But who would have thought that overnight she would die an unnatural death.

The incident occurred right before the Spring Festival. Because of Dong Xueqin’s murder, the villagers felt anxious and fearful. On the one hand, everyone hoped the Qiao family would quickly bury Dong Xueqin so she could rest in peace. On the other hand, all kinds of rumors about Dong Xueqin’s murder were flying everywhere, with everyone saying different things.

In short, everyone felt that Dong Xueqin’s murder at home overnight was a very strange matter. But what no one expected was that an even stranger matter happened next.

According to local custom, after burying Dong Xueqin, the Qiao family hired Han Tianxi, a professional grave keeper in the village, to guard her tomb. However, who could have imagined that just one night later, the grave keeper Han Tianxi also died mysteriously in front of Dong Xueqin’s new grave. Even more unexpectedly, the police found no external injuries on Han Tianxi’s body, nor any obvious signs of a struggle inside or outside the small brick hut next to the grave where he was staying. So how exactly did Han Tianxi die?

Han Tianxi’s wife said that because the weather was too cold, she had strongly opposed Han Tianxi going to guard Dong Xueqin’s grave, but Han Tianxi would not listen to her dissuasion and insisted on going.

In the local people’s view, being murdered is a very unlucky matter, and many grave keepers were unwilling to take this job. But why did the elderly Han Tianxi insist on guarding Dong Xueqin’s grave? Gradually, all kinds of strange explanations spread through the village.

According to village rumors, the elderly Han Tianxi was very likely murdered after learning the truth about Dong Xueqin’s killing. But strangely, Han Tianxi did not appear to have been killed by others, let alone to have committed suicide. For a time, two people had died one after another for unknown reasons, leaving the villagers deeply worried.

Of course, no matter which explanation it was, it was only the villagers’ speculation. The police still had to rely on evidence when handling the case. But to unravel all these mysteries, the first thing the police had to do was find out the truth behind Dong Xueqin’s murder and identify the real culprit behind it. Just as the police were examining the scene of Dong Xueqin’s murder, the culprit’s movement trajectory attracted the police’s attention.

At the scene, the police found that the culprit had climbed over the wall of Dong Xueqin’s home and entered the courtyard along the stairs of the west room. After the culprit came down into the courtyard, he left his footprints in the courtyard. These were the footprints of one person. Following the footprints, the police found that the culprit had entered the room after breaking the glass of the Qiao family’s west door.

From this, the police inferred that the person who killed Dong Xueqin should have been someone familiar with the layout of the Qiao family’s house. So who exactly was this acquaintance? And when did he commit the crime? At that moment, the police discovered another new point of doubt.

The police found that in a concealed place at the gatehouse in the deceased’s courtyard, the main electrical switch was in the off position. The Qiao family’s main switch was located behind the main gate, and ordinary people did not know this. Therefore, this action by the culprit further indicated that he was familiar with the Qiao family’s environment. So why did he cut off the main power switch late at night? Could it be that Dong Xueqin had not yet gone to sleep at that time? It was precisely this detail that allowed the police to see a clue.

The police found that there was a computer in the deceased’s home. Through technical means of recovery, the police found that this computer had been shut down abnormally at 3:04 a.m. on January 25.

The time of the abnormal shutdown should also have been the time when the main switch was turned off. It should have been that after entering the scene, the culprit turned off the main switch before entering Dong Xueqin’s bedroom. At this point, the time of the culprit’s crime was basically determined.

Based on the height of the Qiao family’s main switch, the police estimated that the suspect’s height range should have been above 1.75 meters.

In addition, the police also found the mobile phone Dong Xueqin had used while alive at the scene. Unfortunately, the phone had been severely damaged. Therefore, while arranging for technicians to repair the phone, the police also stepped up careful examination of the scattered bloodstains and footprints in the house.

The police found that the footprint left by the culprit’s shoe sole had the characters “CI” or “CL,” and also the number “35.” These were markings unique to Liberation-brand rubber shoes.

From the footprints, the perpetrator should have been a male between 1.75 and 1.80 meters tall, wearing a pair of Liberation-brand rubber shoes at the time of the crime. But Gaoxian Village, where the crime occurred, had more than 7,000 permanent residents, and there was also an industrial park and freight platform nearby. Most of the construction workers and villagers there had such rubber shoes. So could the culprit be found just on the basis of such rubber shoes? Was there any other more direct evidence at the scene?

The police found that the culprit had worn gloves when committing the crime and had left no fingerprints. In the process of killing the victim, the culprit had left no hair, no fallen fragments from any part of his body, and no blood, so the police did not obtain the culprit’s DNA.

The police analyzed that the culprit had a certain ability to counter investigation, and he very likely had a criminal record. Moreover, judging from the time when the culprit sneaked into the victim’s home at 3:00 a.m. to commit the crime, the culprit might have been a bachelor or a man living alone. So why did the culprit sneak into the Qiao family’s home late at night to kill Dong Xueqin? What exactly was his motive?

According to the police investigation, apart from looking after the small shop and mahjong stall at home, Dong Xueqin did not have much social activity. The Qiao family also had a good reputation in the village, and no old or new grudges with anyone were heard of. Therefore, at the beginning of the investigation, the police preliminarily ruled out the possibility of a revenge killing. At the crime scene, Dong Xueqin’s lower body was exposed, so was the suspect a rapist killer? But after autopsy, the police found no signs that she had been sexually assaulted.

Why did the culprit kill Dong Xueqin? To rule out the many previous possibilities, the police believed that the greatest possibility at present was robbery. But after careful questioning of the Qiao family, the police found that no important items in the home had been lost, and there were no obvious signs of ransacking in the room.

Revenge killing, rape killing, and robbery killing all seemed unlikely. But a culprit would not kill without reason; there must have been some reason for the killing. The police repeatedly questioned the deceased’s family, asking whether anything had indeed been lost.

After Dong Xueqin’s husband, Qiao Yanjun, returned home from Hangzhou, he provided the police with a piece of information. He said that Dong Xueqin usually put the money received at the small shop into a fixed drawer, and once it reached 100 yuan, she would take it away and put it aside. Normally, there should have been several dozen yuan in income in this drawer every day, but at the scene the police found that only a few coins were left in the drawer. This showed that money or valuables had indeed been taken.

So would the culprit really kill crazily for less than 100 yuan in loose change? What unknown secrets were hidden behind Dong Xueqin’s murder? Just as the case investigation fell into difficulty, the police discovered an important clue. It turned out that when the police went to the home of the elderly grave keeper Han Tianxi to investigate, they found that his son, Han Hejun, actually had bloodstained jeans, and there were also spattered bloodstains on the pants.

Han Hejun was 44 years old, unmarried, 1.80 meters tall, also from Gaoxian Village, and had a previous record of theft. Before Dong Xueqin was murdered, Han Hejun often went to her shop to play mahjong. Various characteristics of Han Hejun also matched the profile of the criminal suspect previously drawn by the police. So was the culprit really Han Hejun? While sending Han Hejun’s pants for testing, the police also launched an investigation into Han Hejun’s background.

When Gao Xian Village villagers mentioned Han Hejun, the评价 they gave most often was that he was idle and did not engage in honest work. The villagers said that Gaoxian Village had developed relatively well in recent years. Ever since the county government established an industrial park there, the vast majority of people in the village had become workers in the park’s factories. Relying on labor income, the villagers had basically all built new houses. However, because Han Hejun was lazy and fond of ease, and because he lost nine out of ten gambling sessions, he and his parents had continued to live in a dilapidated old house all these years.

So was Han Hejun the acquaintance who killed Dong Xueqin? If it really was him, was he also responsible for the village rumor that the elderly Han Tianxi had been killed to silence him?

Although Han Hejun had a bad reputation in the village, when people heard that he might be the murderer, the villagers had different opinions.

The villagers unanimously believed that Han Hejun did not have the courage to kill. Usually when he fought with people, he was always the one beaten, and he could not even beat a child.

But all these statements were merely the villagers’ speculation. So was Han Hejun really the culprit? And what would the test result be for the bloodstained pants the police had previously collected? The test result made the police very discouraged: the blood on Han Hejun’s pants was actually pig blood.

Although the bloodstain was pig blood and had no direct connection to the case, because Han Hejun’s footprints were very similar to those at the scene, and Han Hejun had no alibi for the night of the crime, the police decided to continue investigating Han Hejun.

At the same time, based on the various characteristics of the criminal suspect they had obtained, the police also carried out large-scale screening in Gaoxian Village and other surrounding villages and towns.

Eventually, through their efforts, the police identified 57 suspects whose physical features matched the culprit. But screening out the culprit from so many people could easily delay the time needed to find him.

Just then, the police discovered a new clue from Dong Xueqin’s mobile phone, which had been sent for repair. Among the 57 suspects, a person named Li Jun entered the police’s field of vision. Li Jun was 42 years old and from Gaoxian Village, Quwo County, Shanxi Province.

The police found that Li Jun often sent text messages to Dong Xueqin, and their relationship seemed somewhat ambiguous. He even sent her text messages at one or two in the morning. The content of the messages was things like: “Don’t tell me you are already asleep. I want to see you. I want to meet you.”

According to what the police learned, Dong Xueqin was a virtuous, kind, hardworking woman of upright conduct. But considering whether Li Jun had his own designs on Dong Xueqin, and whether, when she rejected him, he might have become angry out of shame and taken a desperate risk, and because Li Jun also matched several other characteristics of the criminal suspect.

Later, when the police investigated the time Li Jun returned home on the night of the crime, they discovered another point of doubt about Li Jun. At first, his daughter gave one time, while his wife gave another. Later, his daughter changed the time to the one his wife had given. This made the doubt about Li Jun’s return time grow larger and larger, giving the impression that the whole family was coordinating their story. But the police could not completely determine that Li Jun’s wife and daughter were committing perjury, because at two or three in the morning a person’s consciousness is very likely blurred, and it is normal not to remember the exact time.

When the police conducted footprint comparisons on all suspects, Han Hejun was very cooperative and very calm, but Li Jun appeared restless and uneasy. Therefore, Li Jun seemed an even greater suspect than Han Hejun. But the police still had no direct evidence pointing to exactly who the culprit was. Therefore, after analyzing the existing situation, the police decided that the most urgent task was still to find the pair of Liberation-brand rubber shoes that had left footprints at the scene.

But what no one expected was that the subsequent investigation would be even more full of twists and turns.

Villagers and people selling shoes at the market could all prove that Han Hejun had bought Liberation-brand rubber shoes. But when the police questioned him, he consistently denied having Liberation-brand rubber shoes, and the police indeed did not find Liberation-brand rubber shoes at his home.

So why did Han Hejun lie? If he really was the culprit, why did he still appear so calm and composed when接受 investigation? Without direct evidence, the police had no choice but to examine the original crime scene again.

After another careful examination, an inconspicuous detail on Dong Xueqin’s body suddenly attracted the police’s attention.

The police found that the index finger of Dong Xueqin’s left hand had a sharp-instrument wound, and there was also a mark on the deceased’s mobile phone as if cut by a knife or other sharp object. Based on this, the police believed that when the criminal suspect entered Dong Xueqin’s bedroom, he should have been carrying a knife.

The weapon that killed Dong Xueqin was clearly a cylindrical steel rod, so why was there also a sharp-instrument wound? And if the culprit had brought a sharp instrument, why did he go to the trouble of using the steel rod to kill her? At present, the most important thing was to find this sharp instrument.

During the earlier scene investigation, the police had found a trail of bloody footprints going from inside the house to an outdoor dry toilet. At first, the police suspected that the criminal suspect had gone to the toilet after committing the crime. But later, after failing to find the sharp instrument or knife, the police suspected that the criminal suspect had thrown the sharp instrument or knife into the toilet. Therefore, the police decided to immediately empty all the excrement from the dry toilet.

Hard work paid off. After the excrement was emptied, the police found a knife at the bottom of the dry toilet, with the three characters “Chen Lianhe” carved on it. It was a boning knife used for killing pigs.

After comparison, the police found that this boning knife matched the wound on Dong Xueqin’s finger exactly. So whose knife was this?

Dong Xueqin’s husband, Qiao Yanjun, claimed that his own home did not have this kind of knife, and that this knife was a new one that had never been used.

At this point, this knife became the key to solving the case. Who would it point to? While sending a special person to the knife factory to verify the situation, the police also carried out screening and investigation among butchers in the markets around the village. After checking person by person, a butcher named Zheng Xu entered the police’s sight. Zheng Xu was 36 years old and from Gaoxian Village Town, Quwo County, Shanxi Province.

Zheng Xu said that at the time he had bought more than a dozen boning knives at the market and then put them on his pork stall. After he finished at the market and counted them, he found that one was missing.

The evidence from the scene of a murder case unexpectedly pointed to three different suspects. The first was Han Hejun, who was addicted to gambling and lied about not having the Liberation-brand rubber shoes from the crime scene, trying to cover things up, so he was highly suspect. The second was Li Jun, who had an ambiguous relationship with the deceased Dong Xueqin and was very uncooperative with the police investigation. The third was the boning knife found by the police based on the scene, whose owner was the butcher Zheng Xu. Judging from the three people’s appearances and the time of the crime, all three had the possibility of committing the crime. So was the real culprit one of these three, or was there someone else? The police decided to thoroughly investigate the source of the boning knife.

After repeated recollection, Zheng Xu remembered a detail from the day at the market, and it was precisely this detail that once again pointed the finger at a suspect the police had previously suspected.

The police asked Zheng Xu who could have come into contact with the lost knife. He said that at the time Han Hejun had helped him sell meat at his pork stall. After he bought the boning knife, he placed it behind the stall cart. Only two people could have come into contact with the knife: one was himself, and the other was Han Hejun.

So was Zheng Xu saying this to exonerate himself, or was it really true? For the sake of prudence, the police once again found Han Hejun to learn about the situation.

After the police summoned Han Hejun to the police station, this time Han Hejun was very uncooperative, saying he had a cold and felt very uncomfortable and wanted to go home to rest. His behavior was very abnormal.

When the police again conducted a footprint comparison on him, Han Hejun’s reaction became even stranger. First, he was unwilling to walk. Second, he put his hands in his pants pockets and swayed as he consciously changed his walking pace.

At this point, Han Hejun’s suspicion of committing the crime rose sharply. After carefully sorting out all the evidence, the police immediately arrested Han Hejun and brought him to justice.

The grave keeper’s son, Han Hejun, had been arrested. This news immediately caused discussion in the village. Even Han Hejun’s mother had not expected that he would be the culprit.

Han Hejun’s mother said: “I never thought my son would kill someone and do such a terrible thing. I am truly sorry to Dong Xueqin and her family. I really have no face to see them.”

Soon Han Hejun confessed to the fact that he had killed Dong Xueqin, and the police also found the place where Han Hejun had destroyed the pair of Liberation-brand rubber shoes.

What exactly was Han Hejun’s motive for the crime? What caused his father Han Tianxi’s death? Could the timid and cautious Han Hejun really have ruthlessly killed someone just to steal a few dozen yuan from Dong Xueqin’s home? All of this must begin with Han Hejun’s bad habit of gambling.

Han Hejun said that from the first time he gambled, nearly 15 years had now passed. Over these years, apart from a small portion of the money he earned from odd jobs used to supplement the household, the rest was all lost to gambling. Gambling was like a devil. Once the devil possessed him, he could not control himself. But once he started gambling, he became clear-headed, and at the gambling table he was even quite pleased with himself.

It was precisely because of years of addiction to gambling that no one in the village was willing to act as matchmaker for Han Hejun, so that he was still single now. But in Han Hejun’s view, his gambling was only small gambling and would not lead to anything serious.

In a gambling session in early January 2011, Han Hejun lost all 1,500 yuan of wages he had just received. As the New Year was approaching, Han Hejun, who had a previous theft record, targeted Dong Xueqin’s small shop.

During the crime, after Han Hejun entered the second door, he finally felt his way to the drawer where Dong Xueqin’s family kept money and was just about to take the money when she discovered him. Then the two struggled together.

During the struggle, Han Hejun used a steel rod he had randomly grabbed in the room to beat Dong Xueqin to death. After that, Han Hejun took several dozen yuan from the drawer and left the scene. So why did he carry a knife but not use it to kill?

Han Hejun said that at the time he had just thought of going in to get some money and had not thought of killing at all. He said that after walking from the room to the courtyard outside, his mind went completely blank and he had no consciousness at all. He did not even know how he had hit Dong Xueqin.

Afterward, Han Hejun counted the money he had stolen and it was less than 50 yuan. But it was precisely this more than 40 yuan that cost the innocent Dong Xueqin her life.

After his arrest, Han Hejun was full of regret, and he expressed deep remorse for the harm caused to Dong Xueqin’s family.

Han Hejun’s mother also left the village, abandoning their old house, because she had no face to meet people in the village. And because of Han Hejun’s crime, the Qiao family’s elderly man lost his daughter-in-law, the husband lost his wife, and the twin sons lost their mother.

So what exactly happened to Han Hejun’s father, the elderly Han Tianxi, who had guarded Dong Xueqin’s grave? Was he killed by someone, as the villagers said? Later, the Quwo police conducted a careful examination of the elderly Han Tianxi’s body and ultimately determined that Han Tianxi had suffered from heart disease while alive, and that the extremely cold winter nights while guarding the grave caused the elderly Han Tianxi to die of a sudden heart attack.

Through police analysis and the interrogation of Han Hejun, the police also inferred that before the elderly Han Tianxi died, he might have known that his son had killed Dong Xueqin. Therefore, he insisted on guarding Dong Xueqin’s grave, also hoping in this way to atone for his son. But what he did not expect was that he himself would also meet such a fate. In a sense, Han Hejun went from small gambling at first to petty theft, and finally to becoming a murderer. He not only deprived Dong Xueqin of her life, but also indirectly caused his own father’s death.