Category Archives: Murder Cases in China

Zhang Koukou Case

Zhang Koukou Case: China’s Lunar New Year Revenge Killing Explained (1996–2019)

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I. Case Background: A Homicide from Twenty-Two Years Earlier

The core facts of the Zhang Koukou case cannot be understood apart from the neighborhood conflict that occurred in 1996. The criminal motive recognized by the court in Zhang Koukou’s trial points directly to this old case.

Zhang Koukou’s family and Wang Zixin’s family were neighbors in Wangping Village, Xinji Town, Nanzheng District, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province. On August 27, 1996, the two families clashed over a neighborhood dispute. During the conflict, Wang Zhengjun, the third son of Wang Zixin (then 17 years old), intentionally caused the death of Zhang Koukou’s mother, Wang Xiuping.

Regarding the cause of the 1996 conflict, CCTV reporters learned from local village cadres and villagers after the case that Wang Xiuping and Wang Zixin’s family had a dispute over a foundation boundary, which later escalated. According to media reports, Wang Xiuping displayed extreme behavior during the conflict, and Wang Zhengjun struck her temple with a wooden club, causing her death.

On December 5 of the same year, the former Nanzheng County People’s Court issued a judgment in the case. The court found Wang Zhengjun guilty of intentional injury, but given that he was under eighteen at … Read More

Luoyang Arcade Murder

Luoyang Arcade Murder (2000): Owner Killed 3 Schoolboys Over 2.5 Yuan, Burned Bodies

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On February 27, 2000, a heartbreaking tragedy occurred in Luoyang, Henan. Three sixth-grade primary school students, after quietly leaving an arcade because they had overspent by 2.5 yuan, were tricked into returning by the arcade owner Jin Xiangwu and brutally killed. He then colluded with his elder brother to move the bodies and burn them to destroy the evidence. This bloody case, triggered by a trivial sum of money, exposed the perpetrator’s extreme cruelty and disregard for life, and caused a strong social shock locally.

I. Background: An Arcade and Three Boys

The crime scene was located in Luoyang City, and the arcade involved was operated by Jin Xiangwu. Jin Xiangwu was a local self-employed operator, and his elder brother Jin Xiangyu participated in helping destroy evidence after the incident. The three victims were all sixth-grade students of the First Primary School of Luoyang Bearing Factory: Duan Keke, Xue Yashan, and Du Ruofei. The three were of similar age, were close in daily life, and often visited the arcade together in their spare time. For primary school students at that time, arcade spending was not cheap, and the three had limited pocket money, which also planted the seeds for the … Read More

Suzhou Doctor Qiu Xiaoqiang Killed Wife Gu Su

Suzhou Doctor Qiu Xiaoqiang Killed Wife Gu Su with Ketamine on Mid-Autumn Festival 2003 — Autopsy, Murder Trial and Death Sentence

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On September 11, 2003, it was the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, a day for families to reunite, admire the moon, and eat mooncakes. But for Professor Gu’s family in Suzhou, this day marked the beginning of their nightmare.

At 9:55 that evening, Professor Gu, who was about to go to bed, received a call from his eldest son-in-law Qiu Xiaoqiang, saying that he was taking his wife Gu Su to the hospital and asking Professor Gu to come quickly.

Professor Gu’s drowsiness immediately vanished. Gu Su was his eldest daughter. A month earlier, she had suddenly developed heart disease, and a week before that, she had been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment once.

On September 4, a week earlier, when he and his wife hurried to the hospital, their daughter Gu Su was being taken into the emergency room.

At that time, Gu Su’s face was pale, and she was clutching her chest. When she saw her father Professor Gu, she tightly grasped his hand and said with all her strength, “Dad, save me quickly!”

Qiu Xiaoqiang was Professor Gu’s favored student and also his eldest son-in-law. Looking at Qiu Xiaoqiang waiting anxiously outside the emergency room, Professor … Read More

Shenzhen Family Murder 2013 1

Shenzhen Man Who Raped and Killed Daughter, Wife and Son Sentenced to Death: Full Case Timeline

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On the morning of February 19, 2013, at 10 a.m., police in Bao’an District, Shenzhen, received a report. The caller, Mr. Liang, had been unable to contact his sister Ms. Liang, his nephew, and his niece for several consecutive days. Worried that something had happened to the three of them, he called the police for help.

According to Mr. Liang, his sister Ms. Liang, shortly after the New Year holiday, took her son Yang Jun and daughter Yang Ying from Dongguan to Shenzhen to reunite with her husband Yang Fei. After his sister arrived in Shenzhen, Mr. Liang wanted to check on them out of concern, but for several days in a row he could not reach them. Mr. Liang also did not know where his brother-in-law Yang Fei lived, so he could not go looking for them himself.

After receiving the report, the police quickly retrieved Yang Fei’s temporary residence information in Shenzhen from their computer system and located his residence. After knocking on the door for a long time with no response, the police brought the landlord of the rental apartment and successfully opened the door. The police did not find anything unusual inside the apartment, and Yang … Read More

1997 Changzhou Grocery Store Double Murder Solved After 14 Years

1997 Changzhou Grocery Store Double Murder Solved After 14 Years: How Forensic Sketch and Offender Database Caught the Killer

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On the morning of October 21, 1997, police in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, received a report from employees of Yimin Grocery Store that their two night-shift workers had been killed the previous night.

Upon receiving the report, police immediately rushed to the scene. The scene was extremely bloody. The two victims had been struck on the head with a blunt instrument while asleep and killed. A check by store staff revealed that a large quantity of cigarettes had been stolen.

Of the two deceased, one was Zhu Jumei, a retired female employee who had come to the store for the night shift. The other was Xue Chunfeng, a newly hired 20-year-old female sales clerk who lived at the store at night because her home was relatively far from where she worked.

Through crime scene investigation and taking into account the stolen cigarettes from the store, police quickly determined the nature of the case: it was a homicide that had escalated from theft to robbery and murder.

Based on the crime scene investigation and interviews conducted in the surrounding area, police developed a preliminary profile of the perpetrator: a young adult male, approximately 25 years old, financially strapped and in great … Read More

Internet Cafe Addiction Rob and Kill a Grocery Store Owner

Yantai Xingfu Community Murder Case: How Internet Cafe Addiction Led a 24-Year-Old to Rob and Kill a Grocery Store Owner

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There is a Xingfu community in Zhifu District, Yantai City. Twenty-five years ago, the Xingfu No. 12 Village Vegetable Wholesale Market was built here. This vegetable wholesale market is the largest vegetable transfer station in Yantai City. It is bustling every day, and vendors doing business come and go. Along both sides of a main north-south road are some low shops, where the owners do small retail businesses and are all very familiar with one another.

However, two days before Qingming Festival in 2011, the neighbors next to a shop called “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store” found it very strange that the owner, the elderly woman Guo Lanqiu, had not opened for three days. According to the surrounding neighbors, Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had been in this wholesale market the longest. She had been doing business here since the market was built, and she rarely had times when she did not open for business. Even during festivals and holidays, she seldom rested.

The hardworking Mrs. Guo Lanqiu had not been open for three days, which also aroused the curiosity of the surrounding neighbors. The neighbor next door to “Jiaodong One-Yuan Store” decided to go and see what was going on.

When the neighbors … Read More

Mother Drowns Twin Sons With Cerebral Palsy 1

Mother Drowns Twin Sons With Cerebral Palsy: The Tragic Han Qunfeng Case Explained

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“Sorry, I took the two sons away without your consent. The disaster of these past 10-plus years was brought by me, so I can only take them away myself. Thank you for always staying by my side through everything. Facing days of despair over our sons being unable to care for themselves, it would be better not to spend such a long time enduring it any longer. I do not resent anyone. After we are gone, you must live your life well again. Do not resent and do not hate. Let the three of us, mother and sons, leave quietly. Please take good care of yourself. In the future, we will be reborn as new people.” This was a suicide note written by a wife to her husband.

The woman who wrote this suicide note was named Han Qunfeng, a native of Liaobu Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province. On the night she wrote this suicide note, she did something shocking: she personally drowned her 13-year-old twin sons in the bathtub, and then took a large amount of sleeping pills and pesticide to commit suicide. Her husband, who had returned from outside, discovered all of this in time and pulled his … Read More

Husband Murders Wife Over Gambling Debts

Husband Murders Wife Over Gambling Debts in Shanghai Farm, Stages Burglary to Cover Crime

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Liaoyuan Farm is located in the southern part of Fengxian District, Shanghai. Far from the city center, the environment is beautiful, and the lives of the farm workers are quiet and comfortable.

On the afternoon of March 2, 2011, a hurried knock on the door broke the tranquility of the farm. The person knocking was Mr. Jin, the brother of the female homeowner Jin Lan. Because his sister usually worked the night shift and generally rested at home during the day, and now her cell phone could not be reached, Mr. Jin came to see what had happened at his sister’s home.

Mr. Jin knocked for a long time, but there was no movement at all inside. Worried, Mr. Jin took out the key his sister had left him and opened the door. Mr. Jin saw that his sister seemed to still be sleeping in bed.
When Mr. Jin walked to his sister’s bedside and lifted the blanket, he was instantly stunned. He saw his sister lying stiffly in bed without moving at all. Mr. Jin touched his sister’s body and found it was ice-cold and already rigid.

The victim Jin Lan was lying under the blanket, completely naked, with … Read More

Mother Strangled Daughter Killed in Fire

Village Mother Strangled and Daughter Killed in Arson Fire: DNA Evidence Leads Police to Neighbor Who Confessed to Rape and Robbery Attempt in Hebei, China

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Julucun Village, Taocheng District, Hengshui City, Hebei Province. On April 26, shortly after 6 a.m., villager Jia got up early to go water his family’s field. Suddenly, he discovered that smoke was coming from his neighbor Zhang Hongying’s house. Jia quickly told his wife to go call Zhang Hongying. She called out several times, but no one responded.

The thick smoke grew heavier and heavier. Sensing that something was wrong, Jia went out to the main street and called several villagers, so everyone went into Zhang Hongying’s yard together to see where exactly the smoke was coming from.

They found that the source of the smoke was in the middle room of the north house of Zhang Hongying’s home. By that time, the cotton stored inside had already caught fire, and most of the fire had spread to the other two rooms of the north house. The roof had been burned through, forming a large hole. The furniture and some electrical appliances in the house had already been destroyed by the fire. When everyone came to the westernmost room of the north house, they made an even more shocking discovery: Zhang Hongying’s youngest daughter, only 5 years old, lay motionless … Read More

Gaoxian Village Murder Case Shanxi

Dong Xueqin Murder Case (2011): Shanxi Police Investigation, Suspect Han Hejun & Grave Keeper’s Death Explained

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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 … Read More