Senior specialist police officer honored
Attendees moved by Yu's dedication.
Over the past 27 years, Yu Xionghui, a police officer with the criminal investigation team in the Qingpu branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, has solved some 3,000 criminal cases, spending most of his time hunting clues to crack mysteries one by one.
Yu, 53, is widely recognized as a "laofashi," or senior specialist, by his peers, and he is always assigned the hardest cases for his expertise.
He has been to more than 90 percent of the provinces across China to track criminals, and still works on the front line despite his age and illness.
What are the difficulties in solving criminal cases, and is science and technology now omnipotent?
"Science and technology help improve the efficiency of criminal investigations, while perseverance and pursuit of bringing criminals to punishment is the key, particularly for old cases," said Yu.
Handling homicide cases and unsolved old cases is the daily routine of Yu.
To trace clues, he sometimes spent three weeks in a month outside the city. The Qingpu branch has kept the record of zero unsolved homicide case for many years thanks to the unremitting efforts of Yu.
Yu is honored.
He spends a lot of time in the yellowed case files to seek clues.
"Behind these vast case files are murders and suspects at large," he said.
Most of these unsolved cases happened in the 1990s, and investigators tried all means to crack them, but failed due to technology restrictions.
Over the past years, Yu kept researching old materials, uncovering unnoticed paper trails, and visiting witnesses.
In Yu's career, he caught the district's No.1 suspect who was at large for 28 years.
In 1990, the man, then 16 years old, killed a woman and her three-month child in Qingpu, and fled to Hunan, Guangdong and Hainan provinces, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He was eventually caught in Anhui Province.
Yu paid a hundred visits to other parts of the nation, and screened about 100 suspected as the man's appearance has changed.
"My motto is 'never give up any possibility, any case and any suspect at large,'" he said. "With time flashing by, we never forget these suspects at large just like families who lost their beloved ones. We will track them, despite where they are, to bring them to justice."
Yu's story is told.
Yu was on the verge of death several times in his career. His car once went into a mountain gully when he was driving in downpour on a narrow mountain trail. He also faced nefarious criminals.
Long-term work overload has led to lumbar disc herniation and high-blood pressure, but he still sticks to his beloved post. He once worked for 96 hours without sleeping.
In 2019, he was rushed to hospital for cerebral infarction, but this has not stopped him.
Yu has won quite a number of honors, but keeps low-profile and humble.
He is now teaching young counterparts.
"I want to pass on not only my experience, but also the spirit of police officers to them," he said. "At the same time, I'm learning new technologies from them."
Chen Wei, a disciple of Yu, added: "He is like a textbook with no last page, and I will keep learning from him as his spirit encourages all of us."
