Nanjing police have concluded another decades-long murder case, the trail of which leading them to the city of Chengdu where the assailant was found to be working in a supermarket. He had stolen from and murdered a woman in Nanjing some 20 years ago.
The story dates back to 24 March, 2000, when a Mr. Li reported to police that his wife had been found dead in their home, in what was to turn out to be both a robbery and murder.
Naturally, an intensive police investigation was immediately launched, but due to the limited forensics technology of the time, little progress was made.
In a video report published by The Paper, Huang Wei, Deputy Party Secretary of Nanjing Public Security Bureau Criminal Police Detachment, said that it was only last month (October, 2020) that they had acquired the techniques necessary to decode the evidence gathered in 2000, ushering in a turning point in the case.
Back in 2020 and posing as a shirt salesman, the attacker had gained access to the victim’s home and after having committed the murder, had made off with a large amount of cash, in both Chinese Renminbi and American Dollars.
With their new-found forensic technologies, Nanjing Police were able to identify the assailant and trace him to the west of China.
Police have now arrested the suspect, a Mr. Lu, in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, where he was working in a local supermarket. Over the years, he had managed to be promoted to the level of department manager.
Yu Guangcheng, Brigade Chief for the Gulou Branch of Nanjing Criminal Police, revealed that Lu initially planned not to return to Nanjing, fearing arrest, for a few months, yet chose to make Chengdu his adopted home for the next 20 years.
Back in Nanjing, local police have reason to celebrate the capture, it coming but 2 months after the trial of a suspect in the 1992 murder and rape of a Nanjing Medical University student, leading to the prosecutor’s case being upheld and the accused receiving the death sentence.
