by: ZHAO Ting
update: Dec 03, 2015 22:46 GMT+8
58-year-old wife spends 17 years tracking down husband killers
Li can never forget the scene where five men beat and stabbed her husband to death 17 years ago. She has traveled across the country to track down the hiding criminals all through the years.
The 58-year-old woman Li Guiying is a resident in Xiangcheng County of north China's Henan Province. The killing happened in 1998 when she was serving as a village official and some residents opposed her work.
Never did she expect these residents would injure her in front of her house with knives and killed her husband who came up to stop.
"I told myself that my husband shouldn't be killed. I made up my mind that I would do all I could to catch these criminals," said Li.
The woman started her hunting shortly after her recovery, and she has helped local police to capture four of the five criminals in 17 years.
Police captured the first two criminals in 1988 and another two in 2011 and 2015 respectively with the information offered by Li.
To collect first-hand clues about the whereabouts of the criminals, Li trekked through many parts of the country including Hainan Province in the south, Yunnan Province in the southwest and Xinjiang Region in the northwest.
"I disguised myself by wearing glasses and a hat and carrying a canvas bag. I acted like a beggar, trying not to be recognized," said the woman who left her five children to her relatives when she was away.
The hardship paid off in 2010 when Li got to know that the family of a hiding criminal built a new house in their home village. She offered the clue to police, which became a big help to capture the criminal in March 2011 in Xinjiang.
"We checked all the bank accounts in the county and found the name of the criminal's mother. We traced the phone number bonded to the bank card and found another phone number suspected to be the criminal's. Soon we contacted the security department in Xinjiang and send them the number for further investigation," said Gao Liangjun, a squad leader of Xiangcheng County in Zhoukou City, north China's Henan Province.
In 2015, Li got to know from villagers that the fourth criminal had shown up with his name changed. After contacting the local household registration department, the police found out the criminal's new name and captured him in Beijing last month.
"We have formed a special group to track down the final criminal still on the run. We will take various measures to catch him as soon as possible," said Zhang Yafei, spokesman of the Xiangcheng Public Security Bureau.
Li said she is grateful that her relatives have been taking good care of her children. But she will never forgive the fifth criminal before the police capture him.
"I won't give up no matter how the legal circumstances evolve in time. To capture the criminals who killed my husband, that is a goal carved in my heart," said Li.