Society

Suspect arrested in family slaying

By Chen Xin and Liu Ce (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-16 07:55

ANSHAN, Liaoning - A man suspected of murdering his wife, son, father and seven other people was arrested on Friday, one day after the killing spree had occurred, police say.

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Police said Zhou Yuxin, 33, was arrested in the afternoon when he fled to Yingkou city, in Northeast China's Liaoning province. They said the suspect tried to escape in a motor vehicle.

The 10 dead bodies left behind by the rampage, which took place between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, were found in a bathhouse and a nearby car wash. Both places belonged to Zhou and were in Ertaizi village, in Liaoning's Anshan city, according to local police.

Among the victims were Zhou's wife, son and father, along with a female bathhouse worker, three family members of Zhou's landlord and three car wash workers.

Police said Zhou has confessed to the murder and the case is still under investigation.

An earlier report by Xinhua quoted police as saying the killing spree may be connected in some way to extra-marital affairs.

Police sources said a letter from the suspect was found at the crime site and declined to discuss its contents.

The weapon used in the killings was likely a blunt object like a hammer, the source said.

Police cordoned off the bathhouse and car wash, as well as several nearby vacant stores.

At one point, a woman in her 40s arrived at the scene in a police car. Stepping out, she said her sister-in-law was among those who were killed.

Other relatives of victims expressed bewilderment.

"I don't know why he killed so many people," said a man in his 50s. "We have to wait until he is caught to learn the reasons."

Dong Zhilan, a resident in Dayangqi village, who had been a neighbor of Zhou Yuxin for 30 years, said Zhou's grandmother and mother had both suffered from mental diseases.

"His mother disappeared when he was little," the 75-year-old Dong told China Daily. "But Zhou behaves normally just like other folks."

The suspect took in a large sum of money after the local government in 2008 demolished a factory building he had owned. He then moved in with his father-in-law and started several businesses. But they failed and he fell into debt.

Dong said Zhou does not enjoy a good relationship with his father and father-in-law and that the suspect moved out of his father-in-law's house and went to Ertaizi village in late 2010. Dong said Zhou opened the bathhouse and car wash early this year.

A woman surnamed Lin, a supermarket owner whose shop was about 100 meters away from the suspect's bathhouse, said she had never seen Zhou Yuxin. Zhou's wife, though, regularly came to the shop with her 10-year-old son and a 17-year-old female bathhouse worker and bought things.

Zhou's bathhouse is new and has few clients, she said.

"His bathhouse is in such a remote area, where there are only a few buildings nearby, that if there were cries from the bathhouse that night, no one could hear them," she said.

Zhou is the latest man to draw attention throughout China after being accused of murdering his family.

Last year, a 37-year-old villager named Zhu Caifa, in Southwest China's Guizhou province, murdered his wife, three children - who were between the ages of one and seven - and three other relatives using a kitchen knife and an axe. He later surrendered himself to police.

In November 2009, Li Lei, 29, a Beijing restaurant owner, killed his parents, wife, sister and two children. He told police he carried out the killings because he had felt hostility for a long time toward his strict parents and "controlling" wife.