Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 336 Case Analysis Meeting (Seeking monthly votes)
Xia Yu was running around non-stop, but he didn't feel tired at all; on the contrary, he was very excited.

Wow, it feels so good to be able to stand on your own!

When he finished all the investigations, he realized it was almost midnight.

He picked up his pager and saw that Pan Hongjie had sent him a message, telling him to come back for a case analysis meeting once he had finished investigating.

The message had been sent an hour earlier. He rushed back to the bureau and found the lights on in the second team's office.

When I ran inside, the room was full of people, not just the second team.

Pan Hongjie was speaking in front of the blackboard when his sudden appearance interrupted the meeting.

"Sorry, Captain Pan, I didn't see the message up ahead and I'm back late."

Pan Hongjie was clearly in a good mood, waving his hand and saying, "It's nothing. It's good that you're back. Report to Director Guo to see if you've made any discoveries."

Xia Yu was startled. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the middle-aged man sitting next to the desk was none other than Director Guo.
"Hello, Director Guo." Xia Yu quickly saluted.

Guo Yuanchao, the head of the Anyuan Municipal Public Security Bureau, put down his thermos and nodded kindly: "I'm just observing, you can continue."

Someone patted Xia Yu on the shoulder. Xia Yu turned his head and saw that it was Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi looked at him questioningly, and he nodded knowingly.

Xia Yu took a deep breath and said, "Director Guo, Captain Pan, I have indeed made some discoveries, and I would like to report them to the leaders now."

……

Based on the interrogations of Zheng Tianlan and Jiang Wei, the investigation of Huang Yanli, and the findings reported by Xia Yu.

The entire outline of the case is now relatively clear to the investigators.

The reason it is described as relatively clear is that there are still many gaps in key information that require further verification and investigation.

In summary, this is a series of cases triggered by a heinous act of hiring a hitman.

First, Huang Yanli is the prime suspect in the murder-for-hire case. She hired Fu Daqing with the intention of killing her husband, Zheng Guangming.

How Huang Yanli and Fu Daqing came to know each other is currently unknown and needs to be confirmed through interrogation of Huang Yanli and Fu Daqing and comparison of their testimonies.

Huang Yanli's motive for murder may have been fear that Zheng Guangming would discover her illicit relationship with Zheng Tianlan, or it may have been fear that Bai Xiuxiu would threaten her position.

Next, after accepting the hired murder request, Fu Daqing planned to find an accomplice. The first person he approached was his friend Zheng Xiaojun, but Zheng Xiaojun refused to join after learning what the job entailed. So Fu Daqing turned to another friend, Li Youqiang.

Li Youqiang, who was not interested in doing anything productive, readily agreed and, along with Fu Daqing, took his treasured Tibetan knife and homemade gun with him to Anyuan.

For reasons that are unclear, Fu and Li did not take immediate action.

Instead, it dragged on until March 16th.

That day, Zheng Guangming was driven to Bai Xiuxiu's residence by his driver, Feng Qiang.

Xia Yu has already found out and confirmed where Bai Xiuxiu lives.

Bai Xiuxiu lived in a self-built, detached, fully-furnished villa, which was not registered under Zheng Guangming's name, but rented by him in the name of his company. The expense was found in his company's accounts, and the fee for the whole year was paid in one lump sum.

Xia Yu contacted the landlord, who was a civil servant who had been transferred to another location. After confirming by phone, he learned that the house was rented out by an elderly man in his fifties. According to his relative, a rather pretty young woman was also present when the house was viewed.

The two are clearly not father and daughter, as their behavior is far too intimate.

Xia Yu did not go in, firstly because the necessary search procedures were required, and secondly because this place was likely the primary crime scene and required a professional on-site investigation.

Upon hearing this, Director Guo immediately instructed Chen Dejiang and the technical department to conduct an on-site investigation. He promised to approve the search warrant immediately, and the relevant review departments would conduct compliance approval on the spot.

It's clear how eager he was to solve the case.

However, with the leader taking the lead, no one will hesitate anymore.

Zheng Guangming's purpose in going to Bai Xiuxiu's residence that day was likely to spend the night together, which can be confirmed by the presence of Viagra residue in his body.

At the same time, Huang Yanli must have notified Fu Daqing and Li Youqiang to take action, so the two of them illegally entered Bai Xiuxiu's residence.

At this point, Zheng Guangming had already finished having sex with Bai Xiuxiu. He may have suffered a heart attack while sleeping afterwards, or he may have been stimulated or frightened by the sudden intrusion of Fu and Li, which led to the heart attack.

The forensic autopsy confirmed that Zheng Guangming's cause of death was a sudden heart attack. There were no obvious external injuries on his body, indicating that he was not abused or beaten and did not die from a heart attack during the beating.

After Zheng Guangming's death, Fu and Li strangled Bai Xiuxiu with a rope to cover it up. Before or after the strangulation, either Fu Daqing or Li Youqiang raped Bai Xiuxiu, which can be corroborated by the fact that Tang Wenli found their bodily fluids inside the female corpse, and also consistent with the fact that the body was not wearing underwear when it was discovered.

Then Fu and Li loaded the male and female corpses into Bai Xiuxiu's red Toyota car, which was registered under Zheng Guangming's name and "lent" to Bai Xiuxiu.

Fu and Li drove Bai Xiuxiu's red Toyota to the wasteland outside Xiaoqiushan Park, which they had scouted beforehand. They entered the park through a gap in the iron fence that the poachers had damaged.

As for why the body wasn't buried on the wasteland outside Xiaoqiushan Park, Pan Hongjie and his colleagues have done an analysis.

The main concern is the existence of risks.

Firstly, the wasteland wasn't very large, and the terrain along the perimeter of the park's wire fence was uneven, making it unsuitable for burying the body. This is why the poachers made an opening there—for convenience.

This raises a second risk: since there's a gap in the tunnel, the park will increase patrols. Furthermore, if other poachers use this area to steal monkeys, the police will definitely investigate the surrounding area, making them easier to catch.

The third point is also based on very simple logic. March is the season when weeds grow, and when Zhou Yi and his group discovered that wasteland, the weeds were already taller than their knees. If they buried the body there, it would inevitably damage the newly grown weeds in March. In a wasteland overgrown with weeds, there would be a bare patch that would attract more attention.

In contrast, the mountain has many hills and a large park area. Crucially, Xiaoqiu Mountain Park is not free, and apart from the peak tourist season, the number of visitors to the park is quite limited, making it much safer than the surrounding wasteland.

On the night of March 16th, Fu and Li moved the body to Xiaoqiushan Park and then dug a pit to bury it.

During this process, Bai Xiuxiu, who was not completely dead, woke up and tried to escape, but was caught up by Li Youqiang and stabbed to death from behind with a hidden knife.

After completely silencing them, Fu and Li buried the body.

But when Li Youqiang finished dealing with the matter and left, he accidentally lost the Tibetan knife.

It may not have been discovered at the time, but rather later. However, because it was uncertain where it was lost, no one risked returning to the burial site to search for it.

Later, the Tibetan knife was picked up by a vendor who came to the mountain to steal monkeys, and then appeared on his stall. Finally, it was discovered by Li Youqiang's wife, Zhang Xianglan, who found the burial site.

After Fu and Li committed the murder, they should have gone to Huang Yanli the next day to ask for the remaining payment.

Xia Yu discovered that Huang Yanli withdrew 50,000 yuan from the bank at around 9:00 AM on March 17th.

And just as he had predicted, the money was not withdrawn from Huang Yanli's account, but was a three-year fixed deposit in her son Zheng Tianyu's name, and it had not yet matured when it was withdrawn.

Given the Zheng family's wealth, if Huang Yanli really needed money temporarily, there was no way she would have to withdraw money from her son's unmatured fixed deposit account.

Therefore, it is highly likely that the money was used to pay commissions to Fu Daqing and Li Youqiang.

The total amount for hiring the hitman is currently unknown, but it will definitely be more than 50,000, because there is also a deposit.

However, the corresponding cash withdrawal amount for the deposit could not be found, so it may not be a large amount. Given the Zheng family's circumstances, having 10,000 to 20,000 yuan in cash at home should not be a problem.

Zhou Yi added a piece of information here: how should Fu Daqing and Li Youqiang prove to Huang Yanli when they collect the final payment that they have truly completed their mission and killed Zheng Guangming and Bai Xiuxiu?

It's impossible to take Huang Yanli to dig up the body and show it to her.

Therefore, the most likely scenario is that they took photos of the body or took away some important item that Zheng Guangming was carrying.

Zhou Yi prefers personal items because taking photos would require developing them, which is too complicated to implement.

As for instant cameras, there was no domestic production capacity in 1997. Only the overseas brand Polaroid was available, and they were basically only sold in high-end shopping malls and foreign-related stores in first-tier cities, making them extremely difficult to obtain.

Therefore, a thorough search is needed of the Zheng family's villa and Huang Yanli's parents' home.

Zhou Yi guessed that it was most likely Zheng Guangming's ID card or his personal phone number.

In addition, Xia Yu also found that on March 20th, Huang Yanli's mother withdrew 30,000 yuan from the bank.

That afternoon, Zheng Guangming's driver resigned from his job, citing that his family member was unwell and he needed to go home to take care of her.

The company's HR said they needed to wait for General Manager Zheng to come back and sign, but Feng Qiang said urgently that he had already bought a ticket for that evening and had to leave.

It is reasonable to speculate that she was bribed by Huang Yanli, and the 30,000 yuan that Huang Yanli's mother withdrew was used for this purpose. As for the reason, it is currently unknown.

As for Zheng Tianlan, judging from the interrogation feedback, he was completely controlled by Huang Yanli, basically obeyed Huang Yanli's every word, and believed the clumsy lies Huang Yanli told him.

Zhou Yi's opinion is that this person no longer has much value and was probably just being used by Huang Yanli.

But Guo Yuanchao didn't think so. He felt that there might still be some clues to be found in Zheng Tianlan.

Therefore, Pan Hongjie was asked to use some methods against Zheng Tianlan.

(End of this chapter)