22 years later, police nab murder suspect

A SUSPECT in a 22-year-old burglary and murder case has been caught, Shanghai police said yesterday.

The man, surnamed Song, is alleged to have committed the crime with two others in a residential complex in Huangpu District.

A man surnamed Gan was caught at the scene while a man surnamed Yan is said to have fled with Song.

Gan was sentenced to death. Yan, who was caught in 1999, got life in prison.

Three men had broken into an apartment on the sixth floor of a building on Luban Road on the afternoon of March 24, 1997, and killed a 26-year-old woman surnamed Zhao, police said.

Gan injured Zhao at first and as she rushed downstairs for help, Yan Shenwu, a traffic police officer who lived on the fifth floor, heard noises and rushed to help. Gan stabbed the officer in the chest, a wound that almost killed him. But the officer fought with Gan until more neighbors and police arrived.

Around 20,000 yuan (US$2,800) in cash, treasury bonds and other items were taken from Zhao’s home, police said.

Over the past 22 years, the police had never given up hope of catching Song, the remaining suspect, although the only clue initially was that he was from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

However, with the help of new technologies, at the beginning of this month police there discovered that Song was back in his hometown under another name. Song was apprehended in his hometown on September 8 and is said to have confessed to the crime.

Song is married under his new identity and has a child of 13 years old, police said.