From November 2002 to February 2003, four very similar cases of cremation occurred in Heping City within a period of five months.

The victims were all young women who had never given birth. The bodies were all dumped in remote places, such as abandoned factories, temporarily suspended construction sites, wild land in the suburbs, and unfinished buildings. All the bodies were burned, and their faces and fingerprints could not be distinguished.

After the police investigated, they were able to obtain the following clues:

2002.11.02 First case, size 40 rubber shoe prints

2002.11.08 Second case, fuel was diesel

2002.12.29 Third case, it snowed lightly that day, the murderer left a car tire print

2003.02.18 Fourth case, the body was identified

This was purely coincidental.

The fourth case occurred in February of the following year.

At that time, one and a half months had passed since the third case, and the police still had not found the true identity of the murderer, and they also wondered if he had stopped.

Everyone was under great pressure, especially when the news reported the first three cases, causing panic among the people. In those months, once it got dark, no young women could be seen on the street.

The streets and communities were mobilized to remind residents not to go out at night. Women living alone must be especially careful and call the police station if anything happens.

For a while, the police station called the police several times. Women cried and begged for help, but when they arrived at the scene, they found that eight out of ten cases were burglaries.

At around 2 pm on February 18, several junior high school students called 110 and said that they found a dead person in a haunted house. It was very scary.

The police rushed to the location of the report. It was a run-down villa by the river, dark like a haunted house.

There was a similar black charred corpse in the house, but the difference was that the bones of this corpse had been broken and had several steel nails. The police immediately contacted the hospital and took the autopsy photos to ask the orthopedic doctors.

Finally, a doctor recognized that this was a former patient of his.

The police finally confirmed the identity of the deceased.

Her name is Wang Zihui, 24 years old, and she works as a lobby manager in a restaurant. A few months ago, she accidentally rolled down the stairs and broke her leg. She had to wear a plaster cast for several months before it healed.

When we went to her workplace to inquire, we were told that she had been missing for almost a week.

When asked about the boss, the boss said, "I heard she had a rich boyfriend before, and I thought she was done."

When asked about the colleagues, the colleagues said, "She said she was going back to her hometown for a few days, but who knew she was dead? Oh!"

When asked about the roommate, the roommate said, "Xiaohui died? Oh my God, I didn't know. I was busy packing things and moving these days, and I didn't know anything about her."

This is the only deceased whose identity can be confirmed. The police investigated very carefully and quickly figured out her social relations.

Wang Zihui is not a local in Heping City. She came here from other places to work. She doesn't know many people, mainly the boss and colleagues in the restaurant. The roommate is not a friend of hers, but she got to know each other when she shared a house. She doesn't care about or understand each other.

According to the colleagues, they saw Wang Zihui get into a man's car and guessed it was her boyfriend, but her sister denied it and said she had never heard her mention anyone she was dating.

The suspicion of the mysterious man increased suddenly.

After a detailed investigation, the police finally dug out the mysterious man driving the car.

His name is Wu Bing, and he is a fellow villager of Wang Zihui. He made a little money in the building materials business in the past two years, and immediately bought a car, thinking that he would drive back to his hometown during the Spring Festival to show people his ability.

When asked about his relationship with Wang Zihui, he said: "We are from the same village. This girl didn't go home last year. Her parents were very worried and asked me to take care of her."

The police asked: "Have you driven to find her?"

"Just once, I invited her to dinner and said a few words to her, nothing else." Wu Bing was very nervous at the time, "Officer, this girl didn't commit a crime, did she? I'm not familiar with her, and we don't have much contact normally."

The police certainly didn't believe it.

With just one suspect, of course, they investigated thoroughly.

As a result, they found out bribery, hired murder, and shoddy workmanship, but no matter how they investigated, they seemed to have nothing to do with the previous three cases.

Wu Bing's car was fueled by gasoline, his shoes were size 42, and he had social events almost every day in the past few months and got drunk. How could he have the time to kill people and dump bodies?

The case was deadlocked.

After the Wang Zihui case, although the murderer was not caught, he stopped and did not strike again.

The police force is limited and it is impossible to invest in it indefinitely. After another month, it gradually faded. After another half a year, the case files began to accumulate dust.

A year later, this serial murder and corpse burning case became one of countless unsolved cases, and no one mentioned it gradually.

Until 2007, the murderer struck again, and this time, the police finally caught him.

In January 2007, the weather was cold and the city of Heping had an unprecedented heavy snowfall.

It may be this snow that ruined the murderer's plan. When the fifth body was found, only the coat and face were burned, and the body was still intact.

Nearly five years have passed, and criminal investigation technology has been constantly developing.

The forensic doctor successfully extracted some key evidence from this body: a small amount of beech wood debris and cigarette ash on the soles of the shoes, undigested hamburgers, chicken and some fried fish in the stomach, and paint on the nails.

After comparison, it was common acrylic paint, and the remaining clothes were very young, so the police guessed that the deceased was a student or teacher at an art school.

After visiting and investigating, they found someone who met the requirements.

Li Xiaonuan, a senior student at the Academy of Fine Arts, will graduate in a few months, but has not found a job yet and only takes some odd jobs.

In the past two days, she took an order to paint several large murals for a store. She goes out at eight or nine in the morning and returns at six or seven in the evening.

The day before the incident, she went out at nine in the morning as usual, but did not return until the lights were turned off. Her roommates were a little strange, but they did not take it to heart. It is normal for college students to not return home at night. They thought she went to a friend's house to spend the night.

According to the physical examination report provided by the school, the police believed that the fifth body was highly similar to Li Xiaonuan's information, so they collected DNA from family members and finally confirmed that the deceased was Li Xiaonuan.

Her parents were heartbroken and knelt on the ground begging the police to find the murderer and bring him to justice.

The police officer in charge of the case at the time carefully agreed. His name

was Ji Liming.

Compared with the previous four cases, the fifth case has unique advantages: the victim went missing yesterday, but the body was found the next day. The heavy snow extinguished the flames, and the body was well preserved. There were a lot of evidence left at the scene.

The police were very excited and conducted a very detailed investigation.

The pigment in the fingernails confirmed the identity, and the stomach residue was investigated and confirmed to be bought in a nearby burger shop. The specialty of this burger shop is fried fish, which is not made of cod or sole, but small yellow croaker. It is very recognizable and is not available in other shops.

The proprietress said that she remembered a girl in a red coat came to buy something in the evening, but she didn't remember the exact time. However, the cash register recorded that there were two chicken burgers and fried fish, one of which had beef patties, but Li Xiaonuan did not have any in her stomach, so it was confirmed that she bought them at 17:30.

The red coat she wore was related to the remains of Li Xiaonuan's clothes. Judging from the digestion situation, the time of death was about 2-4 hours after the meal.

So, when did Li Xiaonuan eat?

The proprietress provided a valuable clue. She said that the girl who bought the things did not seem to have eaten lunch (this is consistent with the owner's statement that Li Xiaonuan was busy all day and often did not eat), and she was very hungry. She took a bite of the fried fish and burned her tongue. Then she asked her to buy an iced Coke.

The cash register record can confirm this.

Therefore, it can be basically determined that Li Xiaonuan died between 19:30 and 21:30.

Then there are the beech wood chips. There

is very little beech wood in the country, most of which are imported from abroad and are generally used for furniture. Of course, the dormitory of the Academy of Fine Arts would not use such wood. The soft furnishings store has been renovated, the floor has been swept clean, and there are no sawdust.

The probability of sawdust getting on the murderer's body is very high.

But beech wood is not that rare. People who decorate, work in the furniture industry, and transport may have dropped it somewhere.

Ji Liming found the map and drew a circle at the Academy of Fine Arts, which is in the south of the city, and a circle at the store, which is in the west of the city. He also marked the buses and subways in the two places.

Finally, a big circle was drawn at the garbage dump where corpses were cremated, which is also in the west of the city.

He drove to the Academy of Fine Arts and drove around the area a few times. The Academy of Fine Arts is located in a remote area, with a park nearby and beautiful scenery, which is suitable for sketching and also for dumping corpses.

Therefore, he concluded that the murderer targeted Li Xiaonuan in the west of the city, not in the Academy of Fine Arts.

Back to the west of the city.

He drove through every street, took a notebook, and recorded all the shops under renovation. He went back and sent the task to each community police station to inquire door-to-door whether any beech wood had been used.

He also asked people to check the order of the transportation company to see if anyone had taken over the job of transporting wood.

A large number of police forces were invested, like an airtight net, to pull all the suspects to the surface.

The police locked in a suspect.

Wu Honglin, male, 35 years old, truck driver, in early January, he took an order to transport wood and returned to Heping City around the 15th.

He and his wife rented a small house of 30 to 40 square meters in the west of the city, and they lived a very tight life. Usually, Wu Honglin drove the train for long distances, and his wife drove an electric tricycle to pick up passengers. In 2007, the operating market was still very irregular, and there were many similar black cars, which could be seen everywhere on the streets.

When the police came to their house, his wife thought they were investigating black cars, and she smiled and said that she had a license, and handed over a cigarette, hoping that they would be generous.

"Comrade police, we are just making a living." The woman in her thirties twisted her hands, fearing that they would take her tricycle away.

She spent 700 to 800 yuan to buy it, and had only been driving it for less than two years, so it was still new.

But the police ignored her and asked her, "Where is your husband?"

"He went out to make money." The woman became more and more uneasy and asked tentatively, "Comrade police, did he hit someone? We will compensate, of course."

The policeman in charge said, "Sit down first, I have something to ask you."

The woman asked anxiously, "What happened?"

"Where was your husband on the night of January 17th?"

"The 17th... he was outside picking up passengers."

"But the transportation company said he came back on the 15th."

"Yes, that's different for long-distance driving. When there is no work on weekdays, he lets me rest and drives my tricycle to pick up passengers."

"Was he outside all night on the 17th?"

"Yes."

"Are you with him?"

"No, I remember it was very cold those days, and I was not feeling well, so he told me to rest at home." When she said this, a happy smile appeared on her face.

The police asked a few questions and left.

Then, the police found Wu Honglin, who was soliciting customers on the street, and took him back to the police station for investigation.

Wu Honglin admitted that he did not go home on the night of the 17th, but he did not admit that he had picked up Li Xiaonuan, and even denied killing her.

But the situation was not favorable for him.

There was a mid-range tobacco and alcohol shop near the shop where Li Xiaonuan painted. The owner was afraid of being targeted by thieves, so he installed a surveillance camera at the door.

The camera captured Wu Honglin's three-wheeled electric vehicle passing by the door at around 17:00.

The police asked him where he was from 19:00 to 21:00 on the 17th.

Wu Honglin said that the traffic police in the city center were strict, and he usually hung around the factories in the west of the city, and that day was probably the same.

"Tell me the truth, did

you pick up a young girl that day?" "No, I really didn't. Young girls don't take this kind of car. On the 17th...it seemed that the weather was bad that day. I picked up a woman who was going to school to pick up her child. It was still daylight at that time. It was definitely not the one you are asking about."

"No business after dark?"

"Yes, but there was only one order, and it was quite late, maybe around eight or nine o'clock."

This was a critical time point. The police asked, "Do you remember the place?"

"Remember, I often picked up customers in this area these two days. It was a woman with long hair and a suit. She seemed to be an agent. I saw she was carrying a large handbag full of documents. She was very polite. I asked for 15 yuan, but she didn't have change, and she didn't even ask for change when she gave me 20."

The clues were relatively clear, and that place was a newly developed area, with only two or three agents. After asking them one by one, they quickly found the passenger.

She said, "Yes, I was working overtime on the night of the 17th. It was too late and there were no buses, so I called a black tricycle. What did the driver look like? I don't remember him at all. He seemed not very tall and had an accent." The

police showed her a photo of Wu Honglin. She was not sure, but she recognized the tricycle.

"It was this car, I'm sure, with green curtains and it was quite clean inside."

The police asked, "What time was it? Do you remember?"

"I got home around 9:20 and got on the car around 8:50."