From November 2002 to February 2003, over a period of 5 months, Peace City witnessed 4 extremely similar cases of burned corpses.
All victims were young women who had never given birth. The bodies were abandoned in secluded locations: abandoned factories, temporarily closed construction sites, suburban wilderness, and unfinished buildings. All corpses were burned, making it impossible to identify faces or fingerprints.
After investigation, the police obtained the following clues:
November 2, 2002 - First case: Size 40 rubber shoe print
November 8, 2002 - Second case: Diesel fuel used
December 29, 2002 - Third case: Light snow fell that day, tire tracks left by the killer's car
February 18, 2003 - Fourth case: Victim's identity discovered
This was purely coincidental.
The fourth case occurred in February of the following year.
By then, a month and a half had passed since the third case, and the police still hadn't uncovered the killer's true identity. They even wondered if he had stopped.
Everyone was under immense pressure, especially after news reports of the first three cases caused public panic. During those months, as soon as it got dark, young women were nowhere to be seen on the streets.
Streets and communities were mobilized to remind residents not to go out at night, and lone women were advised to be especially careful and to call the police station if anything happened.
For a time, tension was high. The police station received several emergency calls, with women tearfully begging for help. However, when they arrived at the scene, eight out of ten cases turned out to be burglaries or robberies.
On February 18th, around 2 PM, several middle school students called 110 (emergency number), saying they had found a dead body in a haunted house, which was very scary.
The police rushed to the reported location, which was an unfinished villa by the river, as dark as a haunted house.
Inside the house lay a similar blackened, charred corpse. The difference was that this body's bones had been fractured and had several steel pins in them. The police immediately contacted the hospital and showed the autopsy photos to orthopedic doctors.
Finally, one doctor recognized the body as his former patient.
The police finally confirmed the victim's identity.
Her name was Wang Zihui, 24 years old, working as a hall manager in a restaurant. A few months ago, she had accidentally fallen down the stairs, breaking her leg, and had been in a cast for several months before recovering.
When inquiring at her workplace, everyone said she had been missing for almost a week.
The boss said, "I heard she was dating a rich boyfriend, so I thought she had quit."
A colleague said, "She said she was going back to her hometown for a few days. Who knew she would end up dead? Sigh!"
Her roommate said, "Xiao Hui is dead? Oh my God, I didn't know. I've been busy packing to move these past few days, so I wasn't aware of her situation."
This was the only victim whose identity could be confirmed. The police investigated very carefully and quickly uncovered her social relationships.
Wang Zihui wasn't a local of Peace City; she had come from elsewhere to work. She didn't know many people, mainly just her boss and colleagues at the restaurant. Her roommate wasn't her friend; they only knew each other because they shared an apartment and didn't care about or understand each other's lives.
According to a colleague, Wang Zihui had been seen getting into a man's car, which they guessed belonged to her boyfriend. However, her close female friend denied this, saying she had never mentioned dating anyone.
The suspicion surrounding this mysterious man suddenly increased.
After a detailed investigation, the police finally uncovered the identity of this mysterious car owner.
His name was Wu Bing, from the same hometown as Wang Zihui. He had made some money in the building materials business over the past two years and immediately bought a car, intending to drive it back to his hometown during the New Year to show off his success.
When asked about his relationship with Wang Zihui, he said, "We're from the same village. This girl didn't go home last year, and her parents were very worried, so they asked me to look after her."
The police asked, "Did you ever drive to see her?"
"Just once, to treat her to a meal and give her some advice. Nothing else," Wu Bing was quite nervous at the time. "Officer, this girl hasn't done anything wrong, has she? I'm not close to her, we don't have much contact usually."
The police, of course, didn't believe him.
With just this one suspect, they naturally investigated him thoroughly.
As a result, they uncovered bribery, hiring someone to commit murder, and using substandard materials in place of good ones. However, no matter how they investigated, it seemed unrelated to the previous three cases.
Wu Bing's car ran on gasoline, his shoe size was 42, and he had been socializing and drinking heavily almost every day for the past few months. How could he have had time to kill and dispose of bodies?
The case reached a deadlock.
After the Wang Zihui case, although the killer wasn't caught, he also ceased his activities and didn't strike again.
With limited police resources, they couldn't continue investing indefinitely. After another month, the case gradually cooled down. Half a year later, the case files began to gather dust.
A year later, this serial killing and corpse burning case became just one of many unsolved cases, gradually fading from mention.
Until 2007, when the killer struck again, the police finally caught a break.
In January 2007, during a bitterly cold spell, Peace City experienced an unprecedented heavy snowfall.
Perhaps it was this snow that disrupted the killer's plans. When the fifth body was discovered, it had only been burned on the outer clothing and face, with the body remaining largely intact.
Nearly five years had passed, and forensic technology had continued to advance.
The medical examiner successfully extracted some key physical evidence from this body: the soles of the shoes had traces of beech wood chips and cigarette ash, the stomach contained undigested hamburger, chicken, and some fried fish, and there was paint under the fingernails.
After comparison, it was found to be common acrylic paint. Combined with the youthful style of the remaining clothing fabric, the police suspected the victim was a student or teacher from an art school.
After investigating, they found someone matching the description.
Li Xiaonuan, a senior student at the Academy of Fine Arts, was due to graduate in a few months but hadn't found a job yet, only taking on occasional freelance work.
These past few days, she had taken on a job to paint several large murals for a shop. She would leave at eight or nine in the morning and return at six or seven in the evening.
The day before the incident, she left at nine in the morning as usual but hadn't returned by lights out. Her roommates found it slightly strange but didn't worry too much, as it was normal for college students to stay out overnight. They assumed she had spent the night at a friend's place.
Based on the school's provided physical examination report, the police believed the fifth body closely matched Li Xiaonuan's information. They collected DNA samples from her family and finally confirmed that the deceased was indeed Li Xiaonuan.
Her parents were devastated, kneeling on the ground and begging the police to find the killer and bring him to justice.
The officer in charge of the case at the time solemnly promised to do so.
His name was Ji Liming.
--
Compared to the previous four cases, the fifth case had a unique advantage: the victim had disappeared yesterday and the body was discovered the next day. The snow had extinguished the flames, preserving the body well, and leaving behind a wealth of physical evidence at the scene.
The police were very excited and conducted an extremely thorough investigation.
The paint under the fingernails confirmed the identity, and after investigation, the stomach contents were determined to be from a nearby hamburger shop. This shop's specialty fried fish used small yellow croakers instead of cod or dory, making it very distinctive and unlike any other place.
The shop owner's wife remembered a girl in a red coat coming to buy food in the evening, but couldn't recall the exact time. However, the cash register records showed two orders of chicken burger and fried fish, one with an extra beef patty, at 5:30 PM. Since Li Xiaonuan's stomach didn't contain beef, this confirmed the purchase time.
The red coat matched the remnants of Li Xiaonuan's clothing. Based on the state of digestion, the time of death was estimated to be 2-4 hours after the meal.
So, when did Li Xiaonuan eat?
The shop owner's wife provided a valuable clue. She said the young girl who bought the food seemed not to have eaten lunch (which corroborated with the landlord's statement that Li Xiaonuan often skipped meals when busy). She was very hungry and took a bite of the fried fish as soon as she got it, burning her tongue, and then asked for an iced cola.
The cash register records confirmed this.
Thus, it could be determined that Li Xiaonuan's time of death was between 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM.
Then there were the beech wood chips.
Beech wood is rare in China, mostly imported from abroad, and is generally used more for furniture. The dormitories at the Academy of Fine Arts certainly wouldn't use such wood, and the shop where she was painting had already completed its interior decoration, with the floors swept clean, leaving no wood chips.
The probability that the wood chips came from the killer was very high.
However, beech wood isn't that uncommon. It could be found in renovation work, furniture making, transportation, and who knows where else it might have fallen.
Ji Liming found a map and circled the Academy of Fine Arts in the south of the city and the shops in the west. He marked out the bus and subway routes to both places.
Finally, he drew a large circle around the garbage incineration plant, also in the west.
He drove to the Academy of Fine Arts and circled the area a few times. The academy was in a remote location, with a park nearby. The scenic environment was suitable for sketching, but equally suitable for disposing of a body.
Therefore, he concluded that the killer had targeted Li Xiaonuan in the west of the city, not at the academy.
Back in the western part of the city.
He drove down each street, notebook in hand, recording all the shops under renovation. He then assigned tasks to each community police station to inquire door-to-door about the use of elm wood.
He also had people check with transportation companies to see if anyone had taken on a job transporting wood.
With a large police force deployed, it was like casting a tight net, bringing all suspicious individuals to the surface.
The police locked onto a suspect.
Wu Honglin, male, 35 years old, a truck driver. In early January, he had taken on a job transporting wood and returned to Peace City around the 15th.
He and his wife rented a small apartment of 30-40 square meters in the west of the city, living in tight financial circumstances. Usually, Wu Honglin drove long-distance trucks, while his wife operated an electric tricycle to transport passengers. Back in 2007, the transportation market was still quite unregulated, with many such unlicensed vehicles visible everywhere on the streets.
When the police came to their door, his wife thought it was a crackdown on illegal taxis. She smiled apologetically, saying she had a license, while offering them a cigarette, hoping they would let her off.
"Officers, we're just trying to make a living," the woman in her thirties said, wringing her hands nervously, afraid they would take away her tricycle.
This was something she had bought for seven or eight hundred yuan, having used it for less than two years. It was still quite new.
But the police paid no attention to her concerns and asked, "Where's your husband?"
"He's out earning money," the woman said, growing increasingly uneasy. She tentatively asked, "Officers, did he hit someone? We'll pay compensation, definitely."
The officer in charge said, "Sit down first, we have some questions for you."
The woman asked anxiously, "What's this about?"
"Where was your husband on the evening of January 17th?"
"The 17th... he was out picking up passengers."
"But the transportation company said he returned on the 15th."
"Yes, yes, that was for long-distance trips. It's different. When there's no work, he tells me to rest and takes my tricycle to pick up passengers."
"Was he out all night on the 17th?"
"Yes."
"Were you with him?"
"No, I remember it was very cold those days. I'm not in good health, so he told me to stay home and rest." At this point, a happy smile appeared on the woman's face.
The police asked a couple more questions and then left.
Next, they found Wu Honglin picking up passengers on the street and brought him to the police station for questioning.
Wu Honglin admitted that he was out on the night of the 17th and didn't return home, but he denied picking up Li Xiaonuan, let alone killing her.
However, the situation looked unfavorable for him.
Near the shop where Li Xiaonuan had been painting, there was a mid-range tobacco and liquor store. The owner, worried about thieves, had installed a surveillance camera at the entrance.
The camera captured Wu Honglin's electric tricycle passing by around 5 PM.
The police asked him where he was between 7 PM and 9 PM on the 17th.
Wu Honglin said that because traffic police were strict in the city center, he usually just circled around the factories in the west of the city, and that day was probably the same.
"Tell us honestly, did you pick up a young woman that day?"
"No, really no. Young girls don't ride these kinds of vehicles. On the 17th... I think the weather was bad. I picked up a woman who was going to school to pick up her child. It was still light out then, definitely not the one you're asking about."
"No business after dark?"
"Yes, but just one fare, quite late, probably around 8 or 9 o'clock."
This was a crucial time point, and the police asked, "Do you remember the location?"
"Yes, I've been picking up passengers in that area these past couple of days. It was a woman with long hair, wearing a suit. I think she was a real estate agent. I saw she was carrying a large handbag full of documents. She was very polite. I said 15 yuan, and she didn't have change, so she gave me 20 and wouldn't let me give her change."
The lead was quite clear, and since it was a newly developed area with only two or three real estate agencies, they quickly found the passenger after asking around.
She said, "Yes, I worked overtime on the night of the 17th. It was too late for the bus, so I called an unlicensed tricycle. What did the driver look like? How would I remember that? I think he wasn't very tall and had a bit of an accent."
The police showed her a photo of Wu Honglin. She couldn't be certain, but she recognized the tricycle.
"It was this vehicle, I'm sure. It had green curtains and was quite clean inside."
The police asked, "Do you remember what time it was?"
"I got home around 9:20 PM, so I probably got on the vehicle around 8:50 PM."
