17 years ago, the double corpses of a rented house in Dingbai Village, Xi'an were finally identified as the real culprit!, After many twists and turns

A robbery and homicide case 17 years ago was finally solved, but the process from investigation to review and prosecution went through twists and turns. The suspect retracted his confession, and evidence collection was extremely difficult because of the age. After the procuratorial organ supplemented the investigation, the criminal was finally brought to justice.

Fingerprint comparison for solving homicide cases

Bringing significant turning points

On January 8, 2006, a couple surnamed Li from Dingbai Village, Yanta District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, came to their homes to demand rent due to the tenant's delayed payment. After opening the door, the couple saw two young women lying side by side on the bed. Their mouths were wrapped in tape, their hands were tied to their chests with ropes, their faces were cut apart by knives, and they had no vital signs. The frightened couple quickly called the police.

After receiving the alarm, the Yanta Branch of Xi'an Public Security Bureau and the criminal police of Xi'an Public Security Bureau rushed to the scene of the crime. After on-site investigation and evidence collection, criminal investigation technicians found that the window of the bedroom was covered by newspapers, and a suspect's fingerprint was left on the tape sticking the newspaper, so they extracted it. However, due to the fact that the tenant moved in under a false identity and their true identity was unknown, it was not possible to compare their fingerprints. The investigation of the social relationship between the two victims also yielded little, leading to a stagnation in the investigation of the case.

Ten years later, during the nationwide fingerprint solving battle of public security organs in July 2016, a technician from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Chongqing Public Security Bureau discovered that Xue's fingerprint in the national fingerprint database was consistent with the fingerprint left at the scene of the Dingbai Village murder. The news quickly spread to the public security organs in Shaanxi Province, and the police officers who participated in the investigation of this case were extremely excited. "It's been ten years, and finally we have a definite clue!"

With this significant breakthrough, the public security organs quickly convened a special task force. After strict control, Xue, an unemployed person living in Yintai District, Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, was arrested and brought to justice on September 2 of the same year. After arriving at the case, Xue confessed his former accomplices Jiang Moujia and Jiang Mouyi, and both of them were subsequently arrested.

In October 2016, the case was investigated and concluded by the Yanta Branch of Xi'an Public Security Bureau, and was transferred to the Yanta District Procuratorate for examination and prosecution. The fact of the crime identified by the public security organ is that in November 2005, the suspect, Mr. Xue, together with Mr. Jiang A and Mr. Jiang B, rented room 302, No. 135, Dingbai Village, Yanta District, Xi'an City. The three people premeditated robbery and jointly bought tools such as knives, ropes and tapes. Jiang Mouyi proposed to rob his former colleague Ms. Wang. After Xue Moumou and Jiang Moujia agreed, the three of them tricked the victim Ms. Wang and her companion Ms. Xie into renting a place on the afternoon of December 18, 2005, citing an invitation to have a meal. They used tape, ropes, and other means to control the two victims and stole 100 yuan in cash and bank cards from the bag carried by the victim Ms. Wang. After forcing them to obtain the bank card password, the three of them took 1800 yuan in cash from a nearby bank ATM and divided it privately. Afterwards, fearing that the situation would be exposed, the three of them killed Ms. Wang and Ms. Xie. In order to evade investigation, the three of them also cut the faces of the two victims several times, causing their disfigurement.

Due to insufficient evidence

The procuratorial organs make a decision not to prosecute

Due to the significant circumstances and serious impact of this case, in November 2016, the Yanta District Procuratorate of Xi'an submitted the case to the Xi'an Procuratorate for examination and prosecution based on its level of jurisdiction. After carefully reviewing the case materials, the prosecutor of the Xi'an Procuratorate found that there were serious deficiencies and deficiencies in the evidence system of the case.

Although the three suspect admitted the fact of robbery and homicide after they arrived at the case, Jiang began to retract his confession after making guilty statements many times, claiming that he did not know anything about the case. Furthermore, the existing objective evidence in this case is not sufficient to determine the case.

Firstly, the original tape carrying Xue's fingerprint and related physical evidence were not transferred with the roll. From the existing evidence chain, this crucial fingerprint can only prove that Xue appeared at the crime scene, and other evidence only shows that Xue and others rented the house, and extracting his fingerprint from the window of the house is reasonable and cannot directly prove that he committed a criminal act.

Secondly, after the identification of the blood stains extracted from the crime scene, the substances in the body nails and the adhesive tape on one of the bodies at the scene, the traces of the three suspect were not detected, which objectively failed to prove the correlation between the three persons and the criminal act. In addition, the investigation records and photos show that there are still many items on the scene that may have traces of victims or suspect, but none of them are on record, so it is impossible to identify and reinforce the existing evidence.

Finally, the three suspect all confessed in their oral statements that the murder weapon was a double-edged knife, which was discarded after the crime. It is now impossible to verify its origin and whereabouts. The autopsy report also does not describe the characteristics of the wound of the deceased and the specific shape of the wound, which cannot be mutually corroborated with the guilty confession.

The Xi'an Municipal Procuratorate believed that the existing evidence could not prove that the three suspect had committed criminal acts due to the lack of material evidence support, and the court returned the case to the public security organ for supplementary investigation twice. However, due to the long time of the incident, it is difficult to supplement the evidence. After research and discussion by the procuratorial committee, the Xi'an Municipal Procuratorate considered that although there was some evidence proving that Xue, Jiang, and Jiang were suspected of major crimes, there were still problems such as unclear criminal facts and insufficient evidence, which did not meet the conditions for prosecution. On December 23, 2019, the Xi'an Municipal Procuratorate made a decision not to prosecute three suspect.

Self supplementary investigation

Forming a complete closed loop in the evidence chain

After receiving the non prosecution decision from the Xi'an Procuratorate, in January 2020, the Yanta Branch of the Xi'an Public Security Bureau filed a reconsideration request with the Xi'an Procuratorate. Due to the lack of new evidence submitted by the public security organs, the court rejected the application for reconsideration, and the public security organs subsequently submitted a review application to the Shaanxi Provincial Procuratorate. On March 19 of the same year, the Shaanxi Provincial Procuratorate deemed that the reasons for the Xi'an City Procuratorate not to prosecute were not sufficient, and decided to revoke the decision of the Xi'an City Procuratorate not to prosecute. At the same time, it supported the Xi'an City Procuratorate to supplement its own investigation and further improve the evidence of the case.

Immediately, the Xi'an Procuratorate decided to have prosecutor Li Meng, who had experience in handling major and difficult cases, and chief forensic expert Zhang Hongxing reorganize the case handling team to handle the case. The public security organs have also established a special case team to actively cooperate.

After discussion, the two prosecutors believed that the key point of the case was to further verify the validity of the guilty confession of the suspect and to consolidate evidence. Since the three suspect have been detained for a long time, they were successively detained in multiple prison rooms in the detention center and contacted many detainees. Will they ever exchange the case? The prosecutor started with this and after conducting investigations and interviews with more than 20 detainees who had been detained together with Xue, Jiang, and Jiang, the prosecutor gained important insights.

According to Miao, who was detained in the Yanta District Detention Center in Xi'an, on December 28, 2017, he was assigned to a certain prison room and met Jiang Yi first. Jiang Yi said that their cases were the same, and they were sentenced to death. Jiang Yi even mocked him and ran for more than ten years. He was only caught after running for more than ten days. In February 2019, Miao and Jiang were in the same monitoring room. When communicating the case, Jiang Moujia said that his case was committed in Dingbai Village in 2006. After killing someone, Xue Moumou and Jiang Mouyi ran away. He was brave and played in Dingbai Village for a few days before leaving. Miao curiously asked Jiang how he was caught by the police, and Jiang said it was Xue who confessed. He asked Xue how he was arrested again, and Jiang said that the fingerprints at the scene were the same as those left by Xue who was arrested for drug use at the police station.

At the same time, the prosecutor learned from the detention center's correctional office, which was once responsible for guarding three suspect, that after entering the detention center, Xue, Jiang, and Jiang had never complained or submitted complaint materials.

In order to further improve the autopsy identification, the two prosecutors have communicated and contacted the public security officers multiple times. However, the victim's body had already been cremated. After multiple searches by the public security officers, more than 100 autopsy photos and well preserved negatives taken with film cameras during the autopsy of this case were finally found in the archives. The autopsy photos clearly showed that multiple wounds on the two dead were formed by double-edged sharp weapons, which mutually confirmed that the murder weapon admitted by the three suspect in their confessions was a double-edged knife. The photo also shows that the two deceased had bleeding points in their lungs due to suffocation, and facial knife marks were also formed in a dying and dying state. This can also confirm the three's confession of the crime technique of first covering the victim with a blanket, then stabbing him with a knife, and finally cutting his face to disfigure him.

In addition, the public security officers have made multiple efforts to find the original physical evidence of the 2006 January 8 Dingbai Village murder case, and have found the crucial fingerprint original from it, which is still well preserved and clear and distinguishable. Most of the physical evidence extracted during the on-site inspection was also found. Jiang's DNA was detected on one of the wine bottles, confirming that he had been to the scene, and his confession was overturned as a result.

After careful investigation, a solid closed-loop has been formed between the suspect's confession, witness testimony, expert opinion, on-site physical evidence and other evidence, laying a solid foundation for public prosecution.

On March 21st this year, the case of Xue, Jiang, and Jiang committing robbery and murder, which was prosecuted by the Xi'an Procuratorate, was heard in the Xi'an Intermediate Court.

In March this year, the case was heard in court. The picture shows the prosecutor reading out the indictment.

In this case, except for the defendant Jiang Mouyi who pleaded guilty and punished during the review and prosecution stage, and paid civil compensation to the families of the two victims for forgiveness, during the court investigation stage, Xue Moumou and Jiang Moujia retracted their confessions throughout the case, refusing to admit their guilt, claiming that they had never been to Dingbai Village or the crime scene, let alone seen the two victims. Their confessions were also formed under the torture of the public security organs.

The prosecutor presented multiple medical examination forms for the defendant, testimonies from disciplinary officers, testimonies from detainees in the same ward, and synchronized audio, video, and CD materials, confirming that there was no evidence of torture in this case. The fingerprints and DNA in the physical evidence left Xue and Jiang speechless. At the same time, the prosecutor also invited forensic experts as witnesses to testify in court, providing detailed explanations on professional issues such as wounds, pulmonary bleeding points, and near death injuries, demonstrating the high degree of consistency between criminal behavior and expert opinions.

As evidence was presented one after another, the defendants Xue and Jiang had no room for further defense. After trial, the court believes that the facts in this case are clear and the evidence is indeed sufficient.

In May this year, the Intermediate People's Court of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, made a first instance judgment on the robbery and murder case of Xue, Jiang, and Jiang, which was prosecuted by the Xi'an Procuratorate. The defendant Xue was sentenced to death for intentional homicide; Committed the crime of robbery, sentenced to eight years imprisonment, and decided to execute the death penalty. The defendant Jiang Moujia was sentenced to death for intentional homicide; Committed the crime of robbery, sentenced to seven years imprisonment, and decided to execute the death penalty. The defendant Jiang Mouyi was sentenced to death for intentional homicide with a two-year reprieve; Offending robbery, sentenced to seven years in prison, decided to execute with a two-year reprieve. Recently, during communication with the investigating judge, it was learned that the defendant has filed an appeal and the second trial has not yet been pronounced.