Shanghai police solve three decade-old murder cases
A police officer reviews forensic material related to a murder case that took place in Zhoujiadu area in the Pudong New Area in 2001.
Four suspects of three murder cases that took place in Shanghai over 20 years ago have been nailed down, police said on Thursday.
Since all murder cases in Shanghai have been solved before the end of the year for seven years in a row thanks to progresses in forensic science, the police have been reviewing unsolved cases from past years too, hoping to bring comfort to people who suffered the loss of their beloved.
Two of the suspects allegedly killed a couple who ran a grocery store in Luchaogang area in today's southern Pudong New Area on the night of April 2, 1996, and robbed them of all their cash.
At that time, police established that two men who were not native Shanghai residents were the suspects, but couldn't identify them.
In May this year, police identified one of the pair, a man surnamed Wu who lives in another city, based on the biological evidence left on the crime scene in suburban Shanghai 26 years ago.
Wu had committed other crimes since then and had his biological information kept by police proved to match that left in the Luchaogang case.
The other man surnamed Geng, was also identified soon, and both have confessed, police said.
In another case that happened also in today's Pudong, a 69-year-old woman was killed at her home in Zhoujiadu area on May 18, 2001.
In March this year, a man surnamed Yang who was 17 at that time emerged as the main suspect.
Yang was caught in Shanghai earlier this month and confessed, police said.
Yang allegedly became acquainted with the old lady in a local cultural center where she worked and helped her carry something back home on the fatal day.
There, Yang stole about 200 yuan (US$30) from her bedroom but was caught red-handed by the woman. He confessed that he killed her and stole another 2,000 yuan from her.
In Minhang District, police recently solved a murder case that also took place in 2001 in a rural house after a burglary.
The suspect, a man surnamed Liu, was caught in the central Chinese province of Henan earlier this month, and confessed to theft.
