Every country has mysterious missing-person or crime cases that will be engraved in the
collective memory of people for decades – especially when they remain unsolved. These are ten notorious
cases that are still discussed on Chinese social media and have become recurring stories
in Chinese popular culture to this day. T
he recent shocking murder on a Chinese stewardess during her ride home from the airport, using
the Didi Chuxing car-hailing service, has been on top trending lists on Chinese social
media this month. Although the main suspect in the case, a Didi
driver named Liu, was initially missing, police finally retrieved his body from a local river
earlier this week. The man allegedly jumped into a river and drowned after killing the
passenger. It is a tragic murder that will be remembered
as the 'Didi Murder' for years to come, just as many other criminal cases, many unsolved,
are still being discussed by China media and netizens to this day.
It led to the compilation of this list by What's on Weibo on China's top ten unresolved
(murder) mysteries ("中国十大悬案"), based on stories and lists from Weibo, message
boards, and media reports.
● 10: The Murder of Pamela Werner
This is a case that, even after over 80 years, is still attracting much (online) attention
both in China and abroad. Pamela Werner (帕梅拉•沃纳) was a 19-year-old British girl who was brutally
murdered on her way home from a skating rink in Beijing in January 1937.
Pamela Werner was the adopted daughter of author and former British consul of Fuzhou,
Edward Werner; her adoptive mother had previously died. She was raised in Beijing, and in the
winter of 1937, she had returned from her Grammar School in Tianjin.
On January 7th, Pamela was going out to have tea with a friend and afterward cycled to
the French skating rink. She left the rink around 7.30 at night, when it was already
very dark, and did not return home. The following day, her body was found in a ditch at what
was then called the Fox Tower.
Pamela was not just found murdered – she was also found to have been sexually violated
and was left seriously disfigured and mutilated. Shockingly, her body was found without the
heart, which had been taken from the severed body.
Besides the brutality of the murder, there are many other reasons why Werner's case
has become so well-known. Such a horrific murder of a British girl in China was unheard
of, and the setting of a pre-communist Beijing in a China that was on the verge of the outbreak
of the Second Sino-Japanese War made her case all the more intriguing to many – especially
because investigations of the case offer a glimpse into the 1930s foreign community of
old Peking. Although Pamela's father was obsessed with
the investigation into his daughter's murder, the case was never solved. Among the rumored
suspects were some eccentric expats, vengeful Japanese soldiers, and even senior diplomats
from the British embassy. In 2011, Paul French published the book Midnight
in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, which
sparked a new wave of interest in the case. The newest work on the Pamela Werner mystery
is that of retired police officer G.D. Sheppard, Life & Death In Old Peking: The Murder of
Pamela Werner, which contains new research material (will appear under new publisher
somewhere this year).
9: The Dushanzi Missing Car Case
On October 20 of 1996, two young men from Dushanzi (独山子) in Xinjiang province
named Guo Nonggeng (郭农耕) and Wang Changrui (王昌瑞) (both Han Chinese) disappeared
without a trace after they had embarked on a journey to Urumqi.
The men were heading to Urumqi to join a second-hand car market. They were never seen again.
Despite extensive police research and monetary rewards for anyone providing insights into
the case, the case was never solved. What has been especially puzzling to officials
investigating the case is that not just the two men were lost without a trace, but also
that their car – a grey Volkswagen Santana – was never found.
The men were both in their early twenties at the time of disappearance. The parents
of the two men are still looking for them, and Chinese media occasionally still report
on the case – although there have been no developments.
● 8: Scientist Peng Jiamu's Lop Nor Disappearance
The case of Peng Jiamu (彭加木) is a famous one, which has been elaborately written about
both in Chinese as in English-language sources. Peng Jiamu was a renowned scientist and explorer.
Born in Guangdong Province in 1925, he was a biochemist graduate who subsequently worked
at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and who joined several scientific
expeditions to Xinjiang since 1956.
During one of these missions in 1980 to the Xinjiang Lop Nur (罗布泊) desert, the so-called
"Wandering Lake," the 55-year-old Peng was the leader of a research team of 11 scientists.
He vanished from his camp in the early afternoon of June 17, after leaving a note saying he
was going eastward to find water as he and his team were out of water and fuel. They
had already asked for rescues via telegram, which would arrive the following day.
Lop Nor is a landscape of shifting sand dunes and a largely dried-up basin where the Tarim
Lake once was, which covered more than 10,000 km2 in the Tarim Basin. It is known as a dangerous
area for its strong winds, dry weather, hot temperatures during the day and extremely
low temperatures during the night. On the 24th of June, the CCP Radio issued
a broadcast announcing the disappearance of the famous scientist. Despite large-scale
rescue operations involving helicopters and jeeps, Peng was not found again.
His disappearance captured the imagination of so many because Peng was a well-experienced
researcher and explorer familiar with the area. Some have linked his case to supernatural
events, even suggesting the scientist was abducted by aliens. Other theories include
Peng being murdered by fellow scientists, or him defecting to the Soviet Union.
● 7: The Hong'an County December Murders
This well-known case involves the brutal slaughter of eight people on December 26 of 2007 at
a factory in Shangxinji Town, Hong'an County, in Hubei Province. It is known as the most
horrific murder case of Hubei. The mass homicide was discovered by police
after receiving multiple calls in the early morning of December 27. They found that one
of those murdered was Wang Shishu (汪世书, 56), a man who ran the lime factory in Hong'an
County. The other victims were his wife Chen Xiaorun (54), his cousin's family, and three
factory workers. Four of the victims were over the age of 60, the youngest was only
9 years old. According to Shanghai Daily, six of the victims
were found dead in a bedroom with their bedding untouched, indicating they were killed before
falling asleep. Wang Shishu's wife was found lying in a
pool of blood near the factory gate with a slashed throat, while the body of Wu Xiaofa,
his cousin-in-law, was found in a ditch beside a road near the factory.
Despite that the police offered a 50,000 yuan (±US$7900) for anyone who could provide more
information about the killer, the case has not been solved to this day.
All that is known, is that Wang Shishu had money stolen from him (15,000 yuan or US$±2370
in cash) six weeks before the murders and that the attacker wore a pair of EU-size 40
leather shoes.
● 6: The Beijing Passion Nightclub Murder
Passion Nightclub, also known as Heaven on Earth (天上人间 Tianshang Renjian), was
one of Beijing's most notorious clubs, known for its sexy "66 pink ladies" waitresses
or 'hostesses', who were all tall, elegant, and well-educated. According to Asia Times,
it was also known as Beijing's most exclusive men's club.
One of the club's many ladies was the beautiful Liang Hailing (梁海玲), who was known as
the "No.1 courtesan in Beijing" (花魁). The woman, from Hebei province, was known
to be extremely charming, fair-skinned and 172 cm tall with a weight of 45 kilograms.
She started working for the club in 1996 and stayed on as the best-paid lady of the club
until her death in 2005 – at the height of the club's success.
The Passion Nightclub attracted rich and powerful men, influential people, who would spend a
lot of money there. Renting a private room at the Passion would cost up to 5,000 yuan
(±US$790), with clients spending 20,000-30,000 yuan (±US$3160-4740) per night.
In this People's Daily editorial, it says that one time during the 1990s, the police
had to be called for a dispute that got out of hand at the club which involved a bureau
chief of the Ministry of Public Security – indicating that higher level officials also frequented
the club.
Liang was killed in her own home on November 13, 2005, supposedly through strangulation.
After Liang's death, police investigating her house found that not only did she have
millions of yuan saved at her home, but that she also had the personal contact details
of many provincial and ministerial officials, who apparently maintained close ties with
her. The names of the men who maintained close
relations with Liang were never revealed by the police, and the murder case remains unsolved
to this day. The Passion Nightclub was raided by police
in May of 2010, when 118 night club girls were arrested and the club was (temporarily)
closed for offences involving prostitution. According to this news article from April
of 2018, the Passion is currently still open but is nothing more but a KTV box now.
The case of Liang Hailing's murder is still a hot topic of speculation on Chinese social
media and in the media, with many people saying she was murdered by one or more of her own
'lovers,' who paid her a monthly fee for her services, and that Liang knew too much
about people who were too influential.
● 5: The Shaanxi Village that Disappeared
The 1987 disappearance of an entire village in Shaanxi province in the Qinling Mountains
is a story that is not exactly one about murder, but a mystery case that is still making its
rounds in Chinese (social) media. According to this report by NDTV and Epoch
Times, it was a matter of one night when not only all thousand-some people in the small
Qinling village, but also their cats, dogs, and livestock all had left without a trace.
The story goes that various people had spotted Unidentified Flying Objects above the village
– a story that was later banned by the Chinese Communist authorities, who codenamed the incident
"the Night Cat Incident" (夜狸貓事件). Some say the incident related to a top-secret
affair, for which the villagers were displaced and told not to disclose the classified information
to others. This corresponds with an older nearby villager quoted by NDTV who said there
were army troops in the vicinity that night, allegedly to transfer people to other places.
In the end, it is unclear what is true and what is not true about this story, almost
turning it into a folktale of which the facts are unclear. According to tanling.com, the
village is still abandoned to this day.
● 4: The Thallium High School Murder Case
This well-known incident is about the suspected attempted murder on female student Zhu Ling
(朱令), which occurred in 1994/1995 at the Department of Chemistry of Beijing's Tsinghua
University, which is one of China's most renowned universities.
Zhu Ling was a talented student at Tsinghua since 1992, who began developing strange and
debilitating symptoms at the end of 1994 when she started to experience acute stomach pain
and extensive hair loss. Although her symptoms initially improved after a hospitalization,
Zhu became gravely ill again in March 1995.
Her case received worldwide attention when one of Zhu's friends at Peking University
turned to the online community of the discussion platform 'Usenet' for help in diagnosing
her symptoms. About 1,500 doctors from around the world weighed in to the case.
With help of the online medical community, Zhu was eventually diagnosed with poisoning
by the highly toxic thallium chemical. She was saved through an antidote, the dye Prussian
Blue, but still remained partially paralyzed, blind, and unable to breathe on her own. She
eventually came to have the mental capacity of a six-year-old.
One of Zhu's roommates, Sun Wei, was a main suspect in the case – she was the only undergraduate
student with official access to thallium for her experiments. After a police investigation,
however, Sun was let go and never charged. Some believe the case was closed due to Sun's
family's powerful political connections. She is now living in the States.
The case became a trending topic again on Chinese social media in 2013, when a Fudan
University student named Huang Yang died of drinking from a poisoned water cooler; a fellow
medical student and roommate who had trivial conflicts with the victim had purposely spiked
the dispenser with the toxic chemical N-nitrosodimethylamine. Although that roommate was convicted and executed
for his crime in 2015, Zhu Ling's case remains unsolved.
● 3: 1996 Nanjing Murder Mystery (刁爱青案/南大碎尸案)
The murder of Diao Aiqing (刁爱青, 1976) is one of the most notorious unsolved crime
cases in China, occurring in January 1996. Diao was a Nanjing University freshman who
went missing after leaving her dorm on January 10.
On the night of January 10, Diao allegedly left her Nanjing campus in anger. She was
the dorm leader, and because one of her roommates had broken the dorm rules by using electrical
appliances, Diao was also punished for it. After she left the dorm, she never came back.
Nine days after her disappearance, after Nanjing had seen some snowfall, a female road cleaner
found a bag with what she thought were 'meat slices' in it, which she took home to clean.
When she discovered three human fingers there, she alerted the police. Diao's other remains
were then also discovered by police in two other places.
Particularly gruesome about this murder was that Diao was severely cut and dismembered
and that her limbs and head were boiled. Her body was cut into more than 2000 pieces.
The case also became known as the Nanjing 1.19 Dismemberment Case (南京"1·19"碎尸案).
There are still extremely gruesome photos lingering around the internet and social media
of this murder case when searching for this search term (although we definitely do not
recommend doing so). Despite extensive police research, there have
been no leads to the murderer. On Weibo, the case is still discussed to this day.
● 2. Baiyin's "Jack the Ripper" (白银连环杀人案)
Although this case is no longer unsolved, it is on this list because it drew intense
attention as a renowned mystery for years – and still does – before finally being
solved. It concerns the murders of 11 females over a 16-year period, from 1988 to 2002,
in the city of Baiyin, Gansu province. The first murder took place in May of 1988,
when a 23-year-old woman was followed back to her home, and was killed by 23 stab wounds.
It was the first of a total of 11 gruesome murders in the years to follow. The youngest
victim was only eight years old. Baiyin's serial killer targeted young women
dressed in red and followed them home, where he would rape and kill them, and mutilate
their bodies. In 2016, three decades after the first murder
took place, advanced forensic technology – that included the analysis of 230,000 sets of fingerprints
– finally exposed the killer and led to the arrest of Gao Chengyong (高承勇).
Gao, also dubbed China's "Jack the Ripper", was a 54-year-old local shopkeeper with a
wife and two children. His first child was born in the same year Gao committed his first
murder. He was sentenced to death on March 30 of this
year for homicide, rape, robbery, and mutilation of corpses. The death sentence drew wide attention
on Chinese social media.
● 1. The Chongqing Boy in Red
This case, also known as the "Red Cloths Boy," is one that is still discussed a lot
in China to this day because it is so disturbing. There is a lot of online information on this
case, from Wikipedia (in Chinese) to various Chinese news articles, but Reddit user Mulcully
has posted a clear write-up of the case here as well (in English).
On November 5 of 2009, a 13-year-old boy named Kuang Zhijun (匡志均), the only son in
his family, was found dead hanging from the roof at his home, dressed in his cousin's
swimsuit and red dress. The body was hanging from the wooden beam, with both hands and
feet tied firmly, a weight tied around his feet. Photos of the murder scene were published
online (viewer's discretion advised). Zhijun was found dead by his own father Kuang
Jilu (匡纪绿), a migrant worker who had returned to the family home in a village in
Chongqing to look for his son, who attended a local boarding school. Zhijun's parents
had become very worried about their son when they could not reach him and learned that
the boy had already not attended school for four days. More than 30 students did not attend
class that week because of a flu epidemic. Because the boy, days before, had told his
parents he would go to their house to do some chores, the father immediately went to their
old house, where he found that the front door and side door were locked but that the back
door was open. Police investigated the scene and found no
signs of property theft. The boy had 32 yuan in his pocket and his cell phone was still
in his school bag. In December of 2009, Chongqing police said
they ruled out the possibility of murder or suicide after an investigation. Kuang Zhijun
was reportedly "definitely determined to have been killed accidentally." They allegedly
told the father that his son was accidentally killed in some kind of game involving superstition,
which did not constitute a crime. Some bizarre details in this case include
that the boy had a small hole in his forehead when his body was found, and that the rope
around his hands and feet was tied professionally with 12 loops. Medical examiners ruled that
the boy had died on November 3 or 4 due to asphyxia.
There are many theories and speculations online regarding this case. A majority of people
say that the boy's death was caused by some kind of sinister superstitious rite. Others
connect it to a dream the mother told reporters she previously had (before she knew about
her son's death), about a tall man wearing a hat and carrying a bag, going into the back
door of their old house. A villager later said they had seen a stranger in the area
with a hat and large bag. The 'Chongqing Boy in Red' by now has
become almost an urban myth of Chinese popular culture – although, unfortunately, the story
is very real.
For more infomation >> '쇄골라인' 드러나는 드레스 입고 '여신 자태' 뽐낸 손예진 - Duration: 2:24. 
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