Chapter 483 Xipinggou Disappearance Case
"Missing case? Who is missing?" Zhou Yi asked hurriedly.
"A little girl, only six years old, disappeared a few days ago. It's so strange, she just disappeared for no apparent reason and we couldn't find her no matter how hard we looked."
Zhao Liang’s words made Zhou Yi’s heart skip a beat. Only six years old?
Normally, when a six-year-old child goes missing, there are only a few possible scenarios.
Either they got lost accidentally, or were abducted by human traffickers, or... were killed.
Whatever the case, it is a very bad thing for the child.
"Brother Zhao... could you tell me the details of this matter? Perhaps I can offer some advice."
According to regulations, Zhou Yi actually has no right to know about the case. After all, he is on vacation and is in a different place.
The disappearances that had already occurred were not special emergencies, so he asked so carefully.
But Zhao Liang said quite directly, "Okay, that's great. You're from the Criminal Investigation Division there. Although you look much younger than me, you've definitely seen more cases than I have."
Seeing him so straightforward, Zhou Yi was a little hesitant and asked, "Brother Zhao, do you want to report this to your leader?"
"You see, you're from a big city, and things are done according to the rules. To be honest, small places like ours don't have that many rules. Besides, you're a police officer, so our director won't have any objections."
Okay, since the other party said so, Zhou Yi will not say anything more.
Instead, he urged Zhao Liang to describe the situation in as much detail as possible. Since he had already told it, he might as well tell it more thoroughly.
All Zhou Yi needs to do is not cross the line and interfere with other people's work.
It's not a big deal to give some private advice.
Zhao Liang nodded, and without much hesitation, he began to tell Zhou Yi the whole story in front of the villagers.
Today is July 25th, and the crime happened three days ago, on July 22nd.
The location is a village called Xipinggou under the jurisdiction of Shacao Town.
In addition to Yangjiagou, there are six villages under Shacao Town.
In terms of administrative structure, Shacao Town is not very large.
But the area is vast and the population is sparse. The distance between villages and between villages and towns is not close.
In addition, the economic and cultural levels are also poor, so information is relatively isolated.
The little girl went missing on July 22nd, but the Shacao Town Police Station received the report yesterday, July 24th.
That is, during the time when Zhao Liang sent Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang home, the children's family ran from Xipinggou to the town police station to report the incident.
Since Zhao Liang drove away the only police car in the station, the police dispatch was arranged only after he returned.
The missing little girl is Ge Fangfang, six years old.
Logically speaking, he is old enough to go to kindergarten, but even elementary school here is not standardized, let alone kindergarten.
So the children usually play in the village.
Children in rural areas are not like those in cities. When they grow up a little, they are basically free-range. The adults at home will not watch them all the time. As long as they can go home on time for meals, it’s enough.
So on the afternoon of July 22nd, Ge Fangfang and several other children of the same age in the village played under a big tree at the east end of the village. In the evening, they all went home for dinner.
The children also made an appointment to continue playing together under the big tree the next morning.
Ge Fangfang's mother Miao Genhua, who had prepared dinner at home, waited and waited but her daughter did not come home.
Miao Genhua waited until dark, but still didn't see Ge Fangfang come back, so he started to get anxious and went out to look for her.
But after searching around the village, he still couldn't find his daughter, so he went to the homes of several children of the same age to ask, and found out that they had gone home separately before dark in the evening.
Miao Genhua realized that something might have happened and was so scared that her legs went limp.
With the help of the villagers, he ran to the village chief's house and told him what had happened. The village chief immediately mobilized the entire village, and that night everyone held torches and flashlights and searched the entire village.
But Ge Fangfang was nowhere to be found.
The next day, the village chief took people to search in the nearby mountains. Since the child was not found in the village, it was possible that the child ran out of the village for fun and got lost in the nearby mountains.
From the name of the place, Xipinggou, we can tell that the village itself is located in a valley.
It’s just that the topography of the northwest is different from the mountains in the south and north. Most of the mountains on the Loess Plateau are also very barren, with sparse vegetation, and the mountains are covered with yellow sand like the ground.
However, Zhou Yi later learned that although the mountain here is not high, it does not rise from the ground like Yunxia Mountain.
But there are rolling mountains and ravines.
The village chief and the young men in the village searched the area for a whole day but found nothing.
In the end, I had no choice but to give up.
Miao Genhua cried so hard that she almost fainted twice. The aunts and young wives in the village stayed with her all the time.
When she learned that the village chief and his men had not found the child in the nearby mountains, she cried until she fainted again.
Then the villagers gathered together to discuss and analyze why the child Ge Fangfang disappeared out of thin air.
But I can't figure out why.
It was not until the next morning that the little girl's father, Ma Weichang, came back. When he heard that his child was missing and had searched everywhere but couldn't find her, he took his wife Miao Genhua to the town police station to report the incident.
After receiving the call, the police station first asked for Ge Fangfang's specific information, including age, gender, height, weight, physical characteristics, clothing, etc.
Then after Zhao Liang came back, they went to Xipinggou again, checked the place where the child was last seen, and visited and investigated the child's parents, village chief and other relevant personnel.
But no witnesses were found and no valuable clues were discovered.
That's why Zhao Liang said that the person disappeared inexplicably, because they didn't find anything special after the police went out.
What's more, the village chief and his men have searched the entire area, but there are currently no witnesses or evidence proving that the child ran into the mountains, and the police station does not have the manpower to organize a large-scale search of the mountains.
Therefore, after comforting the child's parents with a few words, they took the child's information to visit nearby villages and towns to see if anyone had seen Ge Fangfang.
If nothing is found, the next step is to post a missing person notice.
"Have you reported the situation to the county bureau?" Zhou Yi asked.
Because child missing cases are different from adult missing cases, children do not have full ability to act. Once they go missing, it basically means there is something going on, and the police will attach great importance to it.
When adults go missing, there are all kinds of situations.
Some of them work away from home, have been cheated, have quarreled with their families and run away from home, have had an affair, and some of them have been detained in detention centers after their families report the case to the police.
Zhao Liangliang nodded and said, "After we returned from Xipinggou, the director called the county bureau."
"What did the county bureau say?"
"Just tell us to continue investigating. If we find any clear clues, the county will send people to assist us."
"Isn't the county bureau going to send someone over to investigate?"
Zhao Liang shook his head. "It seems like they're not planning on doing this. Mainly because they have no leads. Our director said the county bureau can't help much either."
Zhou Yi pondered for a moment. He had seen the town police station here before. The conditions were indeed very simple. There were only a few police officers in total, and most of them were elderly. It was understandable that they had limited abilities.
However, the attitude of the county bureau here is a bit hasty. At least they should take the lead in organizing social forces to search the area around Xipinggou again.
"Brother Zhao, let me ask you a question off topic. Are there many murders here?" Zhou Yi asked.
"Murder? The kind that kills people?"
Zhou Yi nodded.
"Not often. One or two cases like this in a year is considered a lot. When I first started working, there were three homicides in the town that year. At the end of the year, our director was summoned to the city to make a self-criticism."
"Then... one or two murders this year, are they complicated?"
Zhao Liang shook his head repeatedly. "It's not complicated. You can basically tell what's going on at a glance. For example, there was a case at the end of last year where a peasant woman, unable to tolerate her husband's long-term beatings when he was drunk, hacked him to death with a kitchen knife one night. Well, they were both in their fifties and had endured it for most of their lives, but in the end, they couldn't hold it back."
Zhou Yi nodded, knowing the severity of the case.
Although it was a murder case, the circumstances were very simple, and because of the nature of the case, Zhao Liang and his team would at most receive a police report, and the subsequent investigation of the case would still be handed over to the county bureau.
So Zhao Liang and his colleagues actually do not have the experience and ability to handle complex criminal cases.
This is also normal, as it is a basic public security agency.
"What's wrong?" Zhao Liang asked.
"Brother Zhao, this is what's going on. When a six-year-old child goes missing, the situation is generally very dire."
"Or maybe it was an accident. After all, you said that most children in rural areas are raised freely and are not supervised by adults. Therefore, places like rivers, ponds, manure pits, and wells need to be searched again to prevent accidents caused by children's own mistakes."
Zhao Liang nodded, thinking about the places Zhou Yi mentioned.
There is not much water here, and there is only one river near Xipinggou. The village chief said that he has already searched for it, and the police station has also contacted the villages downstream to pay attention to the situation and prevent the floating corpses from drifting downstream.
But there is no news yet.
As for the pond, it doesn't exist here.
As for the cesspool and the well, this was something I had not thought of before, and the village chief did not say that he had checked such things.
Zhou Yi continued, "If it wasn't an accident, then we need to confirm whether he was abducted by human traffickers."
Zhao Liang quickly said, "Yes, that's what we suspect now."
Zhou Yi's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he asked hurriedly, "Are there any clues or suspicious places?"
"Not really."
"Have there been any similar cases of missing children in other parts of town in the past six months?"
Zhao Liang thought for a moment and said, "No."
"Brother Zhao, I suggest you report this to the county bureau as soon as possible, and then to the city. Ideally, we could ask the provincial government for assistance, or even ask nearby cities to investigate and see if there have been similar cases of missing children elsewhere recently."
"Why...is this happening?" Zhao Liang was shocked when he heard the big commotion.
"The purpose of doing this is to further confirm whether there is a high possibility that the child was abducted by human traffickers."
Zhou Yi explained, "Most human traffickers operate on a roving basis, operating across provinces and cities. They operate from numerous locations, over a wide area, and through extensive networks. Furthermore, human trafficking itself is a chain-like operation involving multiple locations, including the point of origin, point of destination, and transit points. Therefore, human traffickers generally do not settle in one location for the long term."
Zhao Liang nodded repeatedly. "Yeah, I understand. Human traffickers just move on. So, according to that logic, wouldn't it be unnecessary to check if there are similar cases nearby?"
Zhou Yi replied, "Although human traffickers operate on a roving basis, mobility itself carries significant costs. Before selecting a city to operate, criminals will observe local conditions, plan escape routes, identify suitable targets, and so on, all of which costs money. Therefore, over a period of time, the movement of human traffickers is relatively small, and it is possible that they may be concentrated in one city or region."
"Oh, I see. What you mean is that although human traffickers commit crimes on the move, to be on the safe side, they will commit as many crimes as possible within the areas they are already familiar with. This way, they will spend less and make more money, right?"
Zhou Yi nodded immediately. "That's right. In the eyes of human traffickers, this isn't a crime, it's a business. Business naturally requires making the most profit within a manageable risk range. So, they might concentrate their crimes in a certain area, then leave and never return."
Zhao Liang had already taken out the small notebook and was taking notes non-stop.
"That makes sense. I'll tell the director when I get back."
Having said that, what Zhou Yi asked Zhao Liang to do was actually the most basic case nature analysis and screening work in case investigation.
He felt that the possibility of Ge Fangfang being abducted was very small.
There are mainly two points.
First, the main targets of child trafficking are boys, because the buyers’ needs are to “continue the family line” and “raise children to provide for old age”, and only boys have such functions.
In particular, many areas of human trafficking demand are remote rural areas, where, in addition to the need to continue the family line, there is also the idea of favoring boys over girls.
Therefore, in the age group of one to six years old, which is the hardest hit area for child trafficking, the proportion of abducted boys is much higher than that of girls.
Of course, this does not mean that girls will not be abducted and sold. After all, there are cases in some poor rural areas where girls are bought as child brides.
However, based on big data, Ge Fangfang would not be the best target for human traffickers.
The reason is simple, it’s difficult to do.
On the contrary, adult trafficking basically targets young women.
The purpose is naturally to sell them to old bachelors in poor rural areas as wives and children, just like the Sanpo Village in the past.
It’s just that the ultimate goal is a bit ironic, because they all end up in the same goal, which is to continue the family line.
Second, remote rural areas are not actually the preferred crime areas for human traffickers.
There are few people in rural areas and social relations are simple, so unfamiliar faces from outside can easily attract the attention of local people.
Moreover, the road conditions in rural areas are not conducive to the escape of human traffickers.
On the contrary, although cities have a large population, they also have a large population flow, making it easier for human traffickers to take advantage of the situation.
Traffic is also more conducive to escape and transportation.
If Ge Fangfang was abducted by human traffickers, then theoretically, even if no one saw the traffickers abduct her, there should be villagers who provided information that a strange face appeared in the village that day.
But Zhao Liang said that they had conducted visits and investigations, but did not mention similar information, which means that the possibility of it being a human trafficker is very low.
However, this is just Zhou Yi's logical analysis, and they still need to eliminate it based on the actual situation.
But if it was neither an accident nor abduction, then there is only one possibility left.
Ge Fangfang has been killed.
However, judging from the current situation, it may not be easy to classify and investigate it as a homicide case.
Unless the child's body is found and it is confirmed that the child died of homicide.
Even if there is no body, it is still possible to file a case, but the prerequisite is that there is evidence to prove that the suspect has committed an act of intentionally depriving another person of their life.
For example, there are a lot of bloodstains and murder weapons at the scene, and there are witnesses to prove that there was a conflict between the suspect and the victim.
Based on these evidences, it can be inferred that the victim may have been killed, and the public security organs will file a case for investigation.
But it is obvious that Ge Fangfang's disappearance does not fit this situation.
The case Zhao Liang described didn't seem complicated, and there weren't any special circumstances, but it always felt a bit weird.
"By the way, Brother Zhao, I found a strange place up ahead."
"What?"
"The missing girl is called Ge Fangfang, her mother is called Miao Genhua, so how could her father be called Ma Weichuang? How come this family of three has three surnames?" Zhou Yi noticed it when Zhao Liang said it earlier, but he didn't interrupt him at that time.
"Oh, that's what happened. This Ma Weichang is Ge Fangfang's stepfather, not her biological father."
"Stepfather?" Zhou Yi asked casually, "Is there anything wrong with this Ma Weichang?"
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