Forensic technology helps close 2006 double murder case
The suspect in a double murder case in suburban Shanghai 12 years ago has finally been caught, police said on Friday.
Thanks to progress in forensic technology, police were able to reanalyze biological information on a brown jacket the suspect left at the scene. It was successfully matched against the suspect’s DNA.
A 32-year-old man surnamed Geng, who is now under detention in Shanghai, has confessed to the crime.
The murder took place in Huinan Town of the Pudong New Area on February 22, 2006.
Two women working in a barber’s shop, 19 and 32 years old, were found dead inside the shop after being stabbed with sharp objects, police said.
Geng, the last customer seen at the shop before the murders took place, was described by witnesses as a young man about 1.7 meters in height, but there were no street surveillance cameras around at the time to aid police in tracking him down.
A brown jacket found on the scene which Geng was seen to be wearing became a key piece of evidence, but it was not till recently that police managed to extract a piece of biological information from one of its stains.
Coincidentally, the information was found to match that of a man surnamed Geng in Henan Province.
Geng left his information with police in that province during a local investigation on a “grave criminal case," police said.
It was at the beginning of last month that Pudong police located Geng in Beijing where he was selling fruit in a market.
He was arrested at his fruit stand on May 7 and soon brought back to Shanghai.
Geng is caught by Shanghai police at his fruit stand in Beijing on May 7.
Shanghai police take Geng (second right) back to Shanghai.
Geng said he had some disagreements with the two women and injured them for fear that they would call for help and not let him go.
He said he left Shanghai after two months and never came back.
Geng later married and made a life in Beijing. He has a son and a daughter.
