Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Prologue : 3

The “Western Suburbs Serial Murders” cases, which occurred in September 2008, left an extremely heavy mark on the history of Chinese criminal investigation due to their horrific and bloody nature, the cruel and cunning methods used, and the exceptional difficulty of their investigation.

There were four “Western Suburbs Serial Murders” cases. If the locations of these four cases were connected on a map of the city, they would form an irregular rectangle in the northwest direction. The first starting point of this irregular rectangle was the fourth floor of a residential building in the Chengyuli community. The victim was named Yang Hua, 28 years old, an employee of a stock exchange in the city, living alone, a plump but not particularly beautiful woman. On the day the cases were discovered, she was supposed to go to work but did not come. Her colleagues called her mobile phone, which rang but went unanswered. Because work at the stock exchange was so demanding, the managers were focused on finding replacements rather than searching for Yang Hua. Furthermore, several colleagues later testified that “Yang Hua used to frequent nightclubs after getting off work, and after drinking too much, she would disappear and sleep somewhere, often skipping work the next day,” so no one suspected anything bad might have happened to her. The police investigation later revealed that the only reason Yang Hua hadn’t been fired despite her frequent absences was her inappropriate relationship with Director Sun of the stock exchange. The first person to discover Yang Hua’s murder was none other than Director Sun, whose obese skin was almost translucent.

That day after getting off work, Director Sun wanted to meet Yang Hua, but her cell phone went unanswered, so he went to her door. Just as he reached for his keys at the door, he noticed the security door was ajar, and the inner wooden door was unlocked. He listened intently, but there was no sound from inside. A sense of foreboding washed over him. He wasn’t worried about Yang Hua’s safety but rather whether his wife had discovered his infidelity and was lying in wait, ready to catch him red-handed. So, instead of going in, he turned and went downstairs.

Naturally, Director Sun was surprised to see one of Yang Hua’s friends as he quickly exited the building. This friend, also an employee of the stock exchange, was worried about her illness and had brought fruit and milk to visit her after getting off work. She happened to run into Director Sun. But Director Sun, feeling guilty, buried his head in his coat collar, and given the dim lighting in the apartment complex, he didn’t notice that it was a colleague approaching. Yang Hua’s friend, who knew about their relationship, knew that such an encounter was best left unsaid and didn’t dare greet her superior, simply passing by.

After going upstairs, Yang Hua’s friend found both doors unlocked and went straight into the apartment. The room was deathly silent, the lights off. A pungent, fishy stench assaulted her nostrils, and the strange thought, “Why isn’t the meat in the fridge?” flashed through her mind. She fumbled for the light switch on the wall and turned it on. The cramped living room of the old-style apartment building was only big enough for a refrigerator and a dining table. She called Yang Hua’s name and went into the master bedroom. The master bedroom was also dark, but she could vaguely make out a naked woman lying on the bed. Her friend felt a little embarrassed, wondering if Yang Hua and Director Sun had just finished and weren’t dressed yet. It wasn’t until she was about to leave the master bedroom that she realized the strong, fishy stench was coming from the woman on the bed. She was instantly terrified, her body going limp. She didn’t even dare to go closer to check if Yang Hua was alive or dead. She scrambled out of the room, stumbled outside, and called the police.

According to the 110 call recording, her first words to the police were, “My friend is in trouble; it seems she’s been murdered. Please come quickly!”

The investigation of the crime scene revealed that Yang Hua was murdered between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. the previous night. A high level of alcohol was detected in her blood, and witnesses testified that she had drunk heavily at a bar near her home that evening, and was unsteady on her feet when she left. As she went upstairs to her apartment and took out her keys to unlock the door, she was suddenly struck violently from behind! The wound on the back of her head indicated that the murder weapon was likely an iron hammer. The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy stated that the force of the blow was so great that Yang Hua died almost instantly. Afterwards, the perpetrator carried Yang Hua into the apartment and raped her, or more accurately, committed necrophilia, before calmly escaping, only leaving the two doors slightly ajar.

To the police’s shock, the killer left not a single trace of evidence at the scene to identify him: because he wore gloves during the crime, no fingerprints were found; because the first blow killed the victim without struggle, there was no trace of his blood, hair, skin, or clothing buttons; and because he used a condom during the necrophilia and took it away afterward, no semen could be found in the victim’s body. Particularly horrifying, Yang Hua’s genitals and the nearby sheets showed signs of burning, likely the result of some kind of portable high-temperature blowtorch. Initially, the police speculated this was a perverse act of desecrating the corpse, but later, when they realized the truth, they were chilled to the bone: the killer’s actions were entirely rational—he absolutely refused to allow the police to collect any pubic hair, leaving not a single one!

Even though the murderer had taken Yang Hua’s phone, wallet, and necklace, Du Jianping, the district criminal investigation captain in charge of the case, wisely saw that this was just a smokescreen used by the murderer to deceive the police, directing the motive toward a robbery with financial gain as the primary goal and sexual assault as a secondary one. The experienced Du Jianping also never suspected a crime of passion from the outset—for example, he was the first to rule out Director Sun, who was seen entering and leaving the scene, as numerous past cases showed that crimes of passion often exhibit a contradictory duality of hatred and “pity” for the victim. For instance, the perpetrator might stab multiple times but carefully cover the victim’s private parts, never simply smashing them to death, necrophilia, burning the genitals, and then leaving the body exposed before leaving the scene—this was an outright rape murder case motivated by bestial lust.

And such crimes are rarely “one-hit kills.”

After consulting with and receiving approval from his superiors, Du Jianping decisively issued three orders: first, to establish a Special Task Force, with himself as the team leader to investigate the case; second, to hold a press conference to disclose some information about the case to the media and request their assistance in issuing warnings to remind the public to pay attention to safety; third, to notify the five subdistricts and the various People’s Armed Forces and Security Departments in the surrounding 72 communities of Chengyuli to take proactive preventative measures, and for single women living alone, the neighborhood committee should take a two pronged approach—meeting them in person and offering reminders face-to-face. When some leaders worried that a second or third order would cause public tension, he bluntly retorted with a vulgar remark: “People have already died; what are you afraid of!”

Although Du Jianping realized that the urgent task was to build a sufficiently strong firewall before the murderer committed another crime, he was still a step too late. Just three days after Yang Hua’s murder, the second case occurred. The crime scene was a secluded residential building on Chunliu Street. The victim, surnamed Wu, was only twenty-three years old. After attending the Sculpture Park concert, she was struck on the back of the head with a hammer on her way home late at night. Perhaps she didn’t die immediately, because after dragging her into the house and raping her, the murderer repeatedly struck her face with the hammer, leaving her bloodied and brain splattered.

Of course, the murderer still left no fingerprints, bloodstains, hair, or any other clues that could provide personal information. Wu’s genitals were also burned.

Faced with Little Wu’s brutal death, the detectives felt an overwhelming heaviness in their hearts. Although years of dealing with various crimes could sometimes lead to numbness in the face of corpses and pools of blood, the killer’s brutality and almost provocative handling of the crime scene enraged every officer involved. Both criminal investigators and forensic technicians worked day and night, searching for any remaining traces of evidence, meticulously investigating suspects, thoroughly examining every lead, and using big data analysis to detect criminal characteristics. The city police also increased manpower for the Special Task Force. The killer, seemingly aware that the net was tightening around him, suddenly went into hiding, and for a full month, no new cases occurred.

At the time, Du Jianping assigned Li Ziyong the task of investigating the family and social relationships of the two victims together with Gao Xiaoyan, a household registration officer at Chunliu Police Station. Gao Xiaoyan, a short-haired, petite, and ordinary-looking but clever girl, had a voice that tinkled like wind chimes when she laughed. She and Li Ziyong got along well as partners; one was outgoing and could easily glean information from everyone, while the other was quiet but meticulous in her notes and adept at analysis. After nearly a month of work, although they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the killer, they became very good friends.

“I’m telling you!” One evening, while Gao Xiaoyan and Li Ziyong were eating ramen at a roadside stall, Gao Xiaoyan suddenly blurted out, “Would it kill you to wash your face, shave, and change into something clean? And that long hair of yours—you never shave or wash it; even a hen wouldn’t lay an egg in such a messy place!”

Li Ziyong was a little embarrassed: “I’m just too busy…”

“Come on! Who isn’t busy?” Gao Xiaoyan scoffed. “You’re not too busy; you’re too lazy! Any girl who falls for you would be incredibly unlucky!”

Li Ziyong touched his thick nose: “That’s why I’ve never expected anyone to fall for me…”

“What a disgrace!” Gao Xiaoyan slammed her chopsticks into her noodle bowl. “Make sure you look presentable before you come out with me again, or I’ll be too embarrassed to acknowledge you!”

They’ve been hanging out together for almost a month; how come it was only now that she reminded him to pay attention to his appearance? Li Ziyong was a little bewildered, but he still grunted in agreement.

After dinner, everyone naturally went home. Li Ziyong had already reached his doorstep and was about to go upstairs when the last thought in his head finally came to him. He turned around and went to the local barbershop, sat down, and said to the barber, “Give me a short haircut.”

The barber only glanced at his hair, not even daring to touch it with his fingers, and looked hesitant. “You… you should probably wash it first.”

“Okay!” Li Ziyong agreed. After washing, he sat back down in front of the barber’s mirror. While cutting his hair, the hairdresser advised him to get a buzz cut, saying, “It won’t get dirtier and will be easier to wash.” Li Ziyong agreed, and after a flurry of scissors and hair, the man in the mirror looked like a clueless son-in-law visiting his future mother-in-law for the first time. He chuckled to himself, thinking, “Let’s see what Gao Xiaoyan will say about me tomorrow!”

However, Gao Xiaoyan never commented on his appearance again; she became the third victim of the “Western Suburbs Serial Murders.”

In fact, Gao Xiaoyan could have completely avoided this tragedy. If she had gone straight home after parting ways with Li Ziyong, nothing would have happened. However, according to her colleagues, around 8 p.m. that night, she suddenly returned to the police station. When asked what she was doing there so late, she said she had been busy assisting the Special Task Force with their investigation and hadn’t had time to process several files on released prisoners, so she came to work overtime. She left the station at 11:10 p.m. after finishing her overtime shift.

Gao Xiaoyan didn’t live far away, so the trajectory of her life’s countdown can be roughly estimated: After leaving the police station, she rode her bicycle, arriving at her apartment building in about ten minutes. As she opened the door, she was struck on the back of the head with an iron hammer and immediately fell unconscious. However, this brave and strong girl suddenly woke up when the assailant dragged her inside and fought back before being killed. Her struggle only shattered a glass fish tank on a living room shelf, seemingly meaningless to the police investigation…

At Gao Xiaoyan’s memorial service, Li Ziyong wept bitterly, and the other officers also shed tears. For the police, everyone who risked their lives to protect the people’s happiness and social stability was a comrade in arms, a brother and sister with whom they shared a deep bond; even the death of a loved one was less painful than the sacrifice of a comrade. Gao Xiaoyan’s death cast an unprecedented shadow of dejection and embarrassment over the entire investigation. All members of the Special Task Force, including Du Jianping, were dejected; even their cries of “Avenge our comrade!” at the memorial service sounded weak and feeble. Yes, the chase and counter chase between the police and criminals could be likened to hunting, but what was going on this time? The hunter was killed before even catching a glimpse of the jackal, and her death was not due to tracking the jackal, but rather because the jackal mistook her for prey…

So, after the memorial service, a detective’s words were carried by the chilly autumn wind to the ears of every mourner. These words were considered vulgar and barbaric, yet also deeply meaningful. It was unclear whether he was referring to the girls who had tragically died young, the chaotic and helpless criminal investigation, or the unfinished and complicated relationship between Li Ziyong and Gao Xiaoyan. Anyway, what he said was—

“Damn it, it ended before it even began.”