Suspects in 22-year-old murder case arrested

Two suspects in a murder that occurred 22 years ago in east China’s Zhejiang Province have been arrested, reports The Beijing News.

Suspect Wang Ming (an alias) is interrogated by police. [Photo provided by Huzhou police]

The killing happened early in the morning on November 29, 1995 at a family hotel in a village of Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The police found the hotel owner and a guest dead in one of the hotel rooms, while the owner’s wife and his grandson were found killed in a room nearby.

All the four victims died from blunt force trauma to the skull. Investigations showed it was a robbery-led murder.

Two hotel guests who checked in the day before and left the hotel after the murder were believed to be the killers, and their accents suggest that they were from the southern part of Anhui Province.

However, the two left no identity information. Although the police took their fingerprints, footprints and the towels they used, the limited technology at that time did not lead to a breakthrough in the case.

Investigations of the case restarted in June this year, with over 100 police officers inquiring of more than 30,000 people in order to find the killers.

DNA profiling matched the saliva left on a cigarette end found at the scene of the killings with the Liu family in Nanling County of Wuhu City, Anhui Province. One of the suspects Liu Biao (an alias) was identified later and arrested last Friday.

The other suspect, Wang Ming (also an alias), was then found and arrested in Shanghai.

According to information provided by the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, the two suspects wanted to steal money from another hotel guest staying in the same room but killed him after their intention was uncovered.

The two then lured the hotel owner to come into the room and killed him. After killing the owner’s wife and grandson in a room nearby, they fled with a watch and some other items.

Liu, 53, had become a writer and the chief editor of a school magazine, and 64-year-old Wang was the legal representative of an investment consulting company.