The case we are going to talk about today can be called the most cruel and vicious murder case in China in the 21 st century, that is, the 2004 gut-digging demon serial murder case in Gansu! This case shocked China and the rest of the world, and it took the police more than 50 days to apprehend the culprit. When more than a dozen witnesses collectively identified the murderer at the scene of the trial, the murderer directly retracted his confession in court, shouting that he was not guilty! Because the evidence was insufficient, the court was helpless for a time.
So, is the real culprit in this case, who has been in prison for 20 years? If not, who will be the real culprit? Today, let's find out with me!
The first victim
At about 11 o'clock in the evening of August 12, 1994, on a dirt road in Suantan Town, Ganzhou District, Zhangye, Gansu Province, an old sheep herder was driving his sheep home in the light rain. This road is the only way for him to herd sheep every day, although it is late tonight, but he is still familiar with the road, however, I don't know what is going on, the old man has been beating the drum suddenly in his heart today, as if he had a premonition that something bad was going to happen.
Coincidentally, when he was passing by a few bungalows, by the faint light of the house, the old man herding sheep actually saw a person lying on the side of the road! The old man was worried that someone had fallen and injured himself, so he hurriedly walked over to help, and when he got closer, he looked like a young girl. The old man shouted a few times first, the girl was motionless, he suddenly felt that something was wrong, and quickly reached out and wanted to help the girl up, but unexpectedly directly stained with blood on his hand!
The police arrived at the scene, and after investigation, it was confirmed that the deceased was a girl about 20 years old, and the cause of death was suffocation caused by being strangled by a rope. What is terrible is that the murderer actually desecrated the corpse after the murder, brutally dragged the intestines out of the lower body, and wrapped them around the victim's neck, positioning them precisely and using neat methods! Such cruel methods made forensic doctors who were accustomed to all kinds of tragic deaths stunned.
But why did the murderer treat a young girl like this? According to the clues left at the scene, the victim was not violated before his death, and the valuables he was carrying with him were not robbed. The likelihood of vendetta increases. The police immediately investigated the deceased's social information.
According to the identification of nearby villagers, the deceased's name was Arlene, who was only 19 years old and lived in a nearby rented house. Arlene's family is very poor, her parents have little education, and they can only farm at home to earn a little money to maintain the family's livelihood, but Arlene also has a younger brother who studies very well, and now she is short of money to pay for college tuition. The neighbors also said that Arlene was a warm-hearted girl with a decent style, not like she would make enemies with others. In this way, the vendetta is not established.
In the end, there were no eyewitnesses, and the scene was also rained, and key physical evidence such as footprints and fingerprints were washed away, and the tragedy has since become an unsolved case. And the evil name of the murderer "gut-digging demon" also spread in the local area, causing great panic among the residents.
Generally speaking, in such a tragic case, the murderer must have been hiding for a while, but who knew that just a month after Arlene's case, the "gut-digging demon" actually reappeared!
The second victim
At 0:30 a.m. on September 20, also in Ganzhou District, in a noodle restaurant on East Street, a waiter Li who was less than 20 years old, was stunned by the murderer when he went to the public toilet to go to the toilet, and the method was the same as Arlene's, and the intestines were dragged out of the lower body. He then quickly fled the scene. Fortunately, the public toilet was only a dozen meters away from the noodle restaurant, and she let out an exclamation at the first moment of victimization, which alarmed the proprietress Ming, who hurriedly ran out and found her unconscious in the public toilet, called an ambulance, sent her to Zhangye People's Hospital, and helped her pay the medical bills.
Afterwards, according to the recollection of the doctors who participated in the rescue that day, Li's "omentum" and small intestine were all prolapsed, the small intestine was broken into five or six sections, and the "mesangium" was seriously damaged, even the part that was not broken, the "serous layer" was all fallen off, and the entire small intestine was necrotic as much as more than 2 meters, and the remaining was less than 1 meter. It can be seen how vicious the murderer was when he committed the crime, which is simply intolerable. Moreover, although Li's life was saved, the digestion and absorption functions of the human body were seriously affected, and he couldn't take care of himself at all, which happened to a young girl It was really pitiful.
In a town that has always had good public order, such brutal and vicious cases have occurred one after another, and the pressure on the Zhangye police can be imagined, so as soon as Li woke up, the police went to ask if they could see the gangster's appearance clearly, but unfortunately, Li could only say the general outline of the gangster, and could not accurately describe his appearance.
The case once again fell into a bottleneck, and the police could only deduce the murderer's motive based on the facts of the case and try to narrow the scope of the investigation.
Motive for the crime
Obviously, judging from the modus operandi, the gangster who violated Arlene and Li is the same person, so what is his motive for committing the crime?
First of all, love kills and vendetta kills are impossible, both girls are decent people, there is not even a man in the network, there is no emotional conflict. Moreover, Arlene and Li were not violated, and the murderer was very hidden in the location of each crime, and fled immediately after completing the crime quickly. It can be seen that the murderer's purpose is not to rob sex.
Moreover, the two victims didn't have much money, they came to Zhangye from other places to work, and they were also very economical on weekdays, unlike rich people, it was unlikely that they would kill money, and according to Li's recollection, the gangsters directly stunned her as soon as they appeared, and they didn't ask her for money.
Third, according to forensic analysis, this gut-digging demon is likely to be very familiar with the structure of the human body, otherwise he would not be able to quickly penetrate the uterus and accurately find the intestines, and the method of dragging it out is clean and neat, as if he knows some anatomical knowledge.
Combined with the above three points, the murderer is not for money, sex, or hatred, but only picks women, and chooses an extremely cruel way to dig out his intestines, it is obvious that he has an extremely sexual pervert psychology and has a strong hatred towards women.
As a result, the police narrowed the scope of their investigations to directly investigate men who had a history of harassing or assaulting women.
Attempted attack
In the process of sorting out the cases of women being attacked and harassed, the police found that less than a month before Arlene was killed, there was also a case of sneak attack on women in Zhangye, and the gangsters have not been caught so far.
The one who was attacked was a middle-aged woman, Cao, who agreed with her husband to go out for a barbecue after work that day, but that day her husband worked overtime and was a little late, so Cao had been standing at the door of the barbecue restaurant waiting for him. During this period, her husband called her and asked her the specific address of the barbecue restaurant. Suddenly, a man in black came out of the alley, choked Cao's neck and pushed her to the ground, Cao screamed repeatedly, just at this time her husband had arrived nearby, the man hurriedly fled when he saw this, Cao and his wife chased for a while, but they didn't catch up, so they could only go to the public security bureau to call the police, but because it was too dark at night, Cao and her husband couldn't tell what the man looked like, and the police had no way to investigate, so they simply made a registration.
Seeing this case, the police immediately became vigilant, the way the man sneaked up on Cao and choked his neck, exactly the same as when the gut-digging demon attacked Arlene and Li!
Three days after Arlene was killed, another woman was also attacked by an unknown man. Peng of Mashenmiao in Ganzhou District reported that at about 10 o'clock in the evening, his rental house was invaded by a drunk man, who first choked her neck and pushed her down with bad intentions. But before escaping, the man grabbed her lower body so hard that it left a laceration there.
Pinching the neck and scratching the lower body is also very similar to the criminal habit of digging out the intestines, and more importantly, when the criminal broke into Peng's house, Peng turned on the light and saw the man's face clearly! The police immediately drew a simulated portrait of the suspect based on Peng's testimony.
After that, the Zhangye police scattered the portraits to various sub-bureaus in the city, hoping to obtain useful information. Don't say it, this method really worked, an old policeman who was on duty near the Donghu Community in Ganzhou District all the year round blurted out after seeing the portrait: Isn't this person Qiao Jianguo?
According to the old policeman's recollection, in April of that year, a woman called the police to report that she was attacked by Qiao Jianguo. The woman's surname is He, engaged in the special "industry" of prostitution, Qiao Jianguo is one of her guests, the two were unhappy in the process of trading, Qiao Jianguo suddenly became angry, hit He fiercely, and snatched her mobile phone. After He called the police, the police found Qiao Jianguo, and Qiao Jianguo took the initiative to return the mobile phone to He and compensated for some medical expenses, and the two reconciled.
From this point of view, Peng and He Mou, at least two women have been attacked by Qiao Jianguo, which shows that he hates women very much. Since then, the police have made a series of in-depth investigations on Qiao Jianguo, and the more they investigate, the more they feel that this person has a bad record, a lot of criminal records, and is very suspicious of committing crimes!
Qiao Jianguo is his person
Qiao Jianguo was born in 1970, is a native of Zhangye, his family is very ordinary, his parents are hard-earned construction workers, meager income, Qiao Jianguo has 3 sisters, 1 brother, a family of seven people live a tight life. However, as the youngest child, Qiao Jianguo has always been the darling of the family, his parents and older brothers and sisters often save their living expenses, buy snacks for him, and make good clothes. After going to elementary school, Qiao Jianguo also failed to restrain his temperament, often fought with his classmates, his academic performance was very poor, his father beat and scolded him several times, but it had no effect, so he could only give up and let it go.
After barely being admitted to high school, Qiao Jianguo fell in love with a girl, but the girl's family disliked Qiao Jianguo for being too poor, and felt that Qiao Jianguo himself was not motivated, so they prevented his daughter from dating him. This incident gave Qiao Jianguo a great blow, since then, his temperament has changed greatly, he has given up on himself, mixed up with the underworld, fought all year round, and participated in gang robberies, in 1989, Qiao Jianguo was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison by the Zhangye Court for robbery, because of his good behavior in prison, he was released in 1994.
After being released from prison, Qiao Jianguo wanted to change his mind, but because he had no skills, he repeatedly hit a wall and could only do odd jobs to support himself. Slowly, in order to relieve the depression in his heart, Qiao Jianguo became addicted to drugs! In the 10 years between his release from prison and before the crime, he was taken to a drug rehabilitation center twice for compulsory drug rehabilitation, and was not released until March 14, 2004. In other words, when he attacked the prostitute He, he had just been released from prison for less than a month!
Just a few days after he was released from prison, he wanted to attack women, which shows that Qiao Jianguo has a strong hatred for women, and the motive for committing the crime is consistent with the police inference. Coincidentally, his whereabouts are also very secretive, on August 12th, when Arlene was killed, Qiao Jianguo was still in Zhangye, but after the incident, he hurriedly bought a ticket and ran to Beijing, as if he was avoiding the limelight, on September 17th, Qiao Jianguo returned to Zhangye, however, only three days later, Li was attacked in the public toilet and cut out his intestines.
How can there be so many coincidences in the world? The police immediately determined that Qiao Jianguo was suspected of committing a major crime, and then took his photos and found all the victims in the past. Among them, Peng instantly recognized Qiao Jianguo as the man who invaded her home and had bad intentions! Cao and his wife said that Qiao Jianguo's body shape was very similar to that of the gangsters, and as for his appearance, they could not be sure. And Li, who escaped death, also thought that Qiao Jianguo's facial contour was very similar to the gut-digging demon that night.
In addition to the victim, there are also eyewitnesses who said that on the night of Arlene's murder, Qiao Jianguo was seen near the scene of the crime, when he looked panicked, walked in a hurry, and his hands were covered with blood. It's just that at that time, the witness thought that he had fallen down after drinking and injured his hand, and did not think about the case.
At this point, all the clues point to Qiao Jianguo, on September 23, the police surrounded Qiao Jianguo, as long as he went out, he would be arrested.
However, the police obviously underestimated Qiao Jianguo, Qiao Jianguo soon discovered the police's plan, he and his brother Qiao Jianmin strengthened the doors and windows of the house together, holding a kitchen knife in the room, trying to resist stubbornly, and made a big fuss: Whoever wants to be a hero rushes in and tries it, I must pull a few pads before I die!
In the end, after 9 days of confrontation between the two sides, the police found Qiao Jianguo's mother, and in the persuasion of his mother's tears, Qiao Jianguo finally opened the door and went downstairs, and was arrested.
Confession or not
After Qiao Jianguo was arrested, he readily admitted that he had attacked Cao and Peng while drunk, but Qiao Jianguo resolutely denied the two bloody cases of Arlene and Li. He even publicly shouted to the police: If you can find evidence, you will shoot me!
In fact, if Qiao Jianguo is the real murderer, there are indeed some loopholes in logic.
First of all, there is a natural difference between the nature of these cases and the targets of the violations. Qiao Jianguo clearly admitted that the three cases of He, Cao, and Peng were all cases of harassment of women, and the victims were all relatively old. The two cases of Arlene and Li, who can be done by the gut-digging demon, are real bloody cases, and the victims are all girls under the age of 20. Therefore, from the point of view of the object and method of committing the crime, Qiao Jianguo and the intestine-digging demon are not consistent.
Secondly, Qiao Jianguo has already shown signs of reform. According to Qiao Jianguo's girlfriend, soon after he was released from prison, the two fell in love, Qiao Jianguo had completely quit drugs at this time, before the case, the two were still thinking about going to Beijing to start a business and partner to open a Lanzhou ramen restaurant, for this matter, Qiao Jianguo went to Beijing with her in August and found a storefront. The two also discussed finding a date to hold a wedding after returning home for the Mid-Autumn Festival. So, here's the question, no matter how you look at it, this kind of behavior is psychopathic, but Qiao Jianguo was emotionally stable and his life was thriving during his relationship, is it necessary to do such a tragic bloody case? This is obviously not in line with common sense. And his girlfriend said that "the two of them went to Beijing together to find a storefront", which can also explain Qiao Jianguo's strange whereabouts in the past few days.
Third, the identification of Qiao Jianguo lacked key physical evidence. Although several witnesses claim that they saw Qiao Jianguo, there is no conclusive evidence such as fingerprints, footprints, and DNA to convict him. Especially Arlene's case, to be precise, this is the only fatal case among several cases, if you want to prosecute Qiao Jianguo for intentional homicide, this case is very important, but because there is no evidence of death, plus it rained that day, all the evidence has been destroyed. Moreover, there is another strange point, that is, in the case of Li, Li was seriously violated like Arlene, but Li was not dead, and the scene of the crime was intact, how could it be that no clues belonging to the prisoner were extracted?
Fourth, and most importantly, Qiao Jianguo did not have any medical knowledge. As mentioned earlier, Qiao Jianguo has been very poor in learning since he was a child, he has never been exposed to any medical knowledge at all, and he has no experience in slaughtering livestock, and according to Dr. Liu Baifu, who diagnosed Li, this kind of behavior is difficult to complete in ten minutes, even if it is a doctor with complete theoretical knowledge. So, how did Qiao Jianguo complete the whole process of removing the intestines neatly as the forensic doctor and the doctor said?
However, the strange thing is that even though there are many doubts in this case, two days later, Qiao Jianguo still pleaded guilty! According to him, he wanted to kill Arlene because he unilaterally wanted to talk to Arlene about friends, but Arlene did not agree, so he became murderous. And wanted to kill Li because after being drunk, he mistakenly recognized Li as He. No matter how perfunctory these two reasons sound, admitting guilt is admitting guilt, and soon, Qiao Jianguo was prosecuted to the court for intentional homicide.
Retract your confession in court
On January 17, 2005, Qiao Jianguo's case was tried for the first time, and because the case was too widespread, the Zhangye court decided to try it publicly, and it can be said that everyone was waiting to see how this brutal serial killer was sentenced to death. To everyone's surprise, Qiao Jianguo actually retracted his confession in court!
Qiao Jianguo's lawyer believes that there is currently no direct evidence to prove that Qiao Jianguo committed two cases of bloody intestines, and that the police only brought Qiao Jianguo's photos to the witnesses to identify them one by one after locking up Qiao Jianguo, which obviously misleads the witnesses to have a strong tendency when testifying. And Qiao Jianguo himself also said that the reason why he admitted these two cases of bloody cases was only because he was too annoyed by the police and wanted to "clean up for a while", and also said that there were many contradictions between the confession he made up and the testimony of the witnesses, and he wanted to confront the witnesses face to face.
After that, the prosecution and defense had a heated debate on the issue of evidence, but in the end, the court of first instance still adopted the prosecution's opinion, holding that Qiao Jianguo constituted the crimes of intentional homicide, rape, robbery, and intentional injury, and should be punished concurrently and sentenced to death. Qiao Jianguo was not satisfied and appealed in court, and the Gansu High People's Court held that the evidence in Qiao Jianguo's murder case was insufficient and remanded the case for retrial.
On August 18, 2005, the Zhangye Municipal People's Court retried Qiao Jianguo's case, and although the trial process was not as open as the first time, it finally insisted on sentencing Qiao Jianguo to death. After the second-instance verdict was announced, Qiao Jianguo was still not satisfied and continued to appeal, and expressed the hope that the final verdict could be tried publicly, so that he would "die in an upright and clear manner".
On 17 January 2007, the Gansu High Court issued a final verdict that Qiao Jianguo was guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Two years later, due to his good behavior in prison, the Gansu High Court shortened his sentence to 18 years and 6 months, which means that on March 17, 2029, Qiao Jianguo will be released from prison after completing his sentence.
Who is the real culprit?
Because there are many doubts in this case, coupled with Qiao Jianguo's bizarre commutation of death sentence to death reprieve, this makes many people feel more and more that there is someone else who is the real culprit?
In fact, there are really two rumors about the murderer in this case.
The first is from the victim Li's proprietress Ming, Ming once told the police that after hearing Li's scream, she immediately ran out and ran into 3 sneaky young people on the street, because she saw that she was calling Li, the 3 young people made a gesture in the direction of the crime, as if to remind who to run, but at that time she was in a hurry to find someone and didn't take it to heart. By the time she found Li and came back for help, the three had disappeared without a trace.
The second is to think that Qiao Jianguo and Li Dai are stiff. Because just after Qiao Jianguo was sentenced to death in the first instance, Qiao Jianguo's brother Qiao Jianmin actually jumped from the 7th floor and died on the spot. Some people who are familiar with Qiao Jianmin said that Qiao Jianmin is a person with a worse record than Qiao Jianguo, in the early years, Qiao Jianguo mixed with society, and Qiao Jianmin also participated, and later Qiao Jianguo's drug use was also influenced by Qiao Jianmin, Qiao Jianguo quit drugs after being released from prison in 2004, but Qiao Jianmin was still an addict until the day he committed suicide. Therefore, there are many people who suspect that driven by drugs, Qiao Jianmin is likely to do brutal things, such as gut-outing. Because Qiao Jianmin and Qiao Jianguo are similar in appearance, it is very likely that the witnesses confused the two, and Qiao Jianguo can only be stiff in order to protect his brother.
So, do you think Qiao Jianguo will be the bloody and brutal murderer of this case? What do you think about this case? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area below, and we will discuss it together.