Unknown Case | Death of a Water Conservancy Engineer: Suspected of being bitten by a wild beast after a corpse was thrown, still under investigation for 21 years
When Yang Zhenhai's body was discovered, it was completely unrecognizable. His face and feet were gnawed by wild animals, and his body was fractured in many places. There was only a trace of flesh left between his head and neck.
At that time, his family had been looking for him for 20 days.
On December 31, 1999, in a ravine near Shangyuan Village, Fenglingdu Town, Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province, six or seven villagers carried a male corpse on a stretcher. The family members confirmed that the deceased had been missing for many days. Yang Zhenhai.
His body was discovered that day by two boys who were catching hares in the ravine, and the disappearance became a murder case, which caused waves in the local area.
Yang Zhenhai’s daughter, Yang Juling, told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that his father was a water conservancy engineer during his lifetime and participated in the design and construction of the Zhongyao Township Reservoir, Wangliao Village Water Diversion Project, and Zun Village Water Diversion Project in Yongji City. And other livelihood projects.
Yang Juling said that for 21 years since his father was killed, the murderer has not been brought back to justice. This murder has become a heart disease of the family. After they applied to the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department to supervise and solve the case recently, the Ruicheng County Public Security Bureau has set up a special class for the case.
On September 17, a police officer of the bureau told The Paper that the case is still under investigation.
Lift the body
In the years after Yang Zhenhai's death, his children moved from Wangping Village to the town one after another. The homicide that occurred in this small mountain village 21 years ago has been forgotten by the villagers, and few people mention it.
On the afternoon of December 31, 1999, in a ravine in Shangyuan Village, Fenglingdu Town, Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province, two teenagers accidentally found a male corpse lying on the side of the ditch while catching a hare. The two were frightened. I had to panic, rushed home and told my parents what had happened.
Soon, the villagers rushed over one after another.
According to Master Jiao, the father of one of the rabbit catchers, on the day of the incident, his son hurried home and told him that he saw a corpse at the bottom of the village entrance. He remembered that he saw one on TV every day during that time. The missing person notice suspected that Yang Zhenhai, who was missing from the neighboring village, decided to take someone to confirm, "I went to the village to call for someone, but no one wanted to go, so I went down to the bottom of the ditch alone."
Master Jiao said that he searched the bottom of the ditch according to his son’s direction and found a male corpse, but he didn’t dare to stay any longer. He immediately rushed to Wangping Village to look for family members to confirm that he remembered the corpse’s feet. Without shoes, there are traces of beasts on the toes.
The ravine where Yang Zhenhai’s body was found was about 100 meters deep. Villager Master Wang recalled that on the day of the incident, it took about half an hour for six or seven of them to lift the body up. “When I was down halfway up the mountain, look at the body shape. And the clothes can basically confirm that it is Yang Zhenhai. After going down to the bottom of the ditch, all of us were shocked when we saw him."
Master Wang still has a fresh memory of what happened that day. He told The Paper that when he saw Yang Zhenhai’s body, half of his face was gone, as if it had been bitten by a wild animal. There was a large pool of oil stains on his pants, like It was deliberately poured on.
In addition, there were many footprints on the ground next to the corpse, which had been trampled flat. About 30 meters away from the corpse, someone had lit two fires there. An empty cigarette case and a few cigarette butts were left next to it. There was someone sitting there, and there was a butt print on the ground."
After Yang Zhenhai's body was discovered, all kinds of rumors spread like wildfire, and even news of his suicide spread.
Yang Juling, the daughter of Yang Zhenhai, said that due to their weak legal awareness and the influence of "suicide" rumors, they did not immediately call the police. However, when they carried his father's body home and uncovered the white cloth on his body, they found the old man's head The part is almost disconnected from the neck, leaving only a trace of flesh connected, and the wound is flat.
In addition, Yang Zhenhai has many obvious traumas. "He has bruises on both arms due to grasping, and there is also a bruise on his abdomen that is in the shape of a round head."
Various signs on the body made the Yang family believe that Yang Zhenhai was murdered by others, not suicide.
That night, they reported to the police.
After the police arrived, they conducted an autopsy on Yang Zhenhai in the backyard of the Yang family.
Missing people
According to a villager in Shangyuan Village, shortly after discovering that Yang Zhenhai was killed, the police took blood tests on villagers in several nearby villages one by one, and also arrested several suspects, including Su Mo'an and his wife mentioned by the Yang family. And son.
Yang Juling told The Paper that her father, Yang Zhenhai, disappeared on December 11, 1999. At around 3 p.m. that day, after lunch, her father carried a hoe to work in the orchard, and did not go home until dark. "No matter when he usually goes out, he will go home before dark, and he will tell his family in advance if he wants to go far."
That night, Yang Zhonglin, Yang Zhenhai’s eldest son, met Su Mouan, a villager in the neighboring village, on the village road. The other party gave Yang Zhenhai’s key to Yang Zhonglin and said that he met Yang Zhenhai on the road, and the old man asked him to send the key home. He said that my dad was in a bad mood at the time and he was going out to relax, and asked me to take my mother to my house overnight to take care of him."
Yang Zhonglin said that Su Moan and his family are relatives, and Yang Zhenhai called his uncle. He didn't take this matter to heart at first.
Early the next morning, Yang Zhonglin informed his younger siblings and the family began to look for Yang Zhenhai, but there was no news.
Yang Zhonglin said that before his father went missing, he mentioned that his colleague’s child would get married the next day. They thought Yang Zhenhai would go to the wedding, but after asking about it, the other party said that he had never seen Yang Zhenhai.
Fenglingdu Town is located at the intersection of the three provinces of Shaanxi, Jinhai and Henan. More than ten days after Yang Zhenhai disappeared, his family went to the three places to search, but found nothing. In desperation, they published Yang Zhenhai on Yongji TV, Lingbao TV and Fenglingdu TV. The missing person notice, the disappearance of Yang Zhenhai, a water conservancy engineer, also spread to the surrounding area.
However, the continuous publication of missing persons did not help the Yang family find Yang Zhenhai. In desperation, they thought of Su Mouan, who had helped Yang Zhenhai give the key. They thought he might be the last person to see Yang Zhenhai, so they rushed to his home. Ask about the situation.
Yang Juling remembered that she went with her sister that day. Su Mouan was not at home, but she saw Yang Zhenhai's hoe in his house.
Su Mo'an's wife asked the two of them to take Yang Zhenhai's hoe back, "It was the one my dad carried when he went out, but since the two families were relatives, we didn't think much about it at the time."
Yang Juling said that just a few days before the discovery of her father’s body, she and her sister went to the neighboring village to look for Su Mo'an. “It was already dark at that time and he was smoking at the door by himself. We asked him if he knew my father was there. Where, he asked us to go to the kiln in the east to have a look."
After receiving the news, the sisters summoned their families overnight to inspect the cave dwelling in a ravine at the east end of Uehara Village.
Yang Juling’s brother-in-law told The Paper that after they arrived at the cave, they only found some artemisia seedlings spread on the ground in the cave. No other abnormalities were seen. “This cave dwelling is on the half slope of the ravine. Later, we found the old man’s body. I know that he was at the bottom of the ditch under our feet."
However, this statement has not been confirmed by Su Moan himself or the police. In fact, Su Moan and others were taken away by the police for investigation and were released due to insufficient evidence.
"victim"
The ravine where Yang Zhenhai’s body was found was less than 500 meters away from Su’s home. Nearby villagers said that many houses in the vicinity had not been built at the time of the incident. Su’s home was at the entrance of the village and was the closest to the scene.
The above-mentioned villagers said that this case caused many villagers to panic, and everyone did not dare to go out at night. This panic eventually subsided as several suspects were arrested one after another. “Among the arrested were three people from Su Mouan’s family. , But they were later released."
Yang Juling said that they thought that the real culprit who killed her father would soon be found out by the police, but after half a year of investigation, Su and several other suspects were released due to lack of evidence, and the investigation of the case was also deadlocked. , No case has been solved so far.
21 years later, when the murder of Yang Zhenhai was mentioned again, Su Moan’s family said that they were the "victims" and said Su Moan was just unlucky, and met Yang Zhenhai on the road to help deliver the key. "It was bad luck."
Su's daughter said that when her parents and elder brother were arrested because of Yang Zhenhai's murder, she was still in school, so she didn't see her family for half a year and suffered a lot.
She said that she was not clear about the case and declined to be interviewed on behalf of her parents.
Yang Juling said that his father, Yang Zhenhai, was born in 1935. After graduating from Taiyuan Water Conservancy Engineering College, he worked in Taiyuan Water Conservancy Department.
In 1960, to support rural water conservancy work, he returned to his hometown from Taiyuan and was in charge of water conservancy in the People’s Commune. He participated in the design and construction of Zhongyao Reservoir, Wangliao Village Water Diversion Project and Zun Village Water Diversion Project in Yongji City. The Yellow Project has been in use today to help local people solve drinking water and irrigation problems.
"There was a shortage of technical talents in the country at that time, so even after retiring, my father was still respected by the villagers and he would die tragically." Yang Juling said that the death of his father has always been like a stone in the hearts of the family, but the real murderer was found. Becoming the family’s biggest wish, "because the case has not been solved, we cannot access the investigation files and we have very limited information."
Yang Juling said that over the years, she and her family have repeatedly counted the existing evidence and doubts of the case. The ravine where Yang Zhenhai's body was found may not be the first scene; she suspected that the murderer had tried to burn the body, and even poured oil on the body. , But for some reason it was not implemented; the murderer once placed a pesticide bottle near Yang Zhenhai’s body, trying to divert the attention of the family and the police, "But who did it, or even several people, and where is the first scene? We never thought of an exact answer in 2009."
However, all these doubts can only be solved when the police solve the case. Since the case is still under investigation, the police have not disclosed Yang Zhenhai's autopsy report and the progress of the case to his family.
In August of this year, Yang Zhenhai's family sent an "Application for Supervision and Detection of Homicide Cases 21 Years Ago" to the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Bureau, explaining the basic facts of the case and requesting increased detection efforts.
The Public Security Department of Shanxi Province replied on August 24 that after receiving the application, the Public Security Bureau of Ruicheng County immediately set up a special team to look up case files and contact family members as soon as possible if the follow-up case progresses.
On September 17, a policeman from the Public Security Bureau of Ruicheng County responded to The Paper in response to the case, stating that the case is currently under investigation, and the specific circumstances are inconvenient to disclose.
The paper reporter Chen Leizhu