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墨書 Inktalez
This is a case referred to as “One of China's Ten Major Unsolved Cases.” The mystery lies in identifying the murderer, which was primarily deduced through the step-by-step reasoning of criminal investigation experts.
The case spans a duration of ten years, during which the evidence at the crime scene has been damaged or lost, making it difficult to collect. If it weren't for the killer's poor psychological state leading them to confess their crime, it is likely that, based on the principle of Presumption of Innocence, they could not have been convicted.
What is shocking is that a dismembered body was hidden in an attic for ten years, and the homeowner's family never discovered it. Moreover, the deceased had been missing for ten years, yet his parents continued to believe a woman's lies.
Even more incomprehensible is that a woman who was involved with two men would cruelly dismember her current boyfriend just to marry another man. It’s no wonder that people in the past sought relationships without breakups, while nowadays, they wish for relationships without dismemberment.
Date of Incident: March 7, 2006.
Location: Cixi City, Zhejiang Province.
On this day, Liao, who lived in a three-story building in a village on Xushan Street, decided to clean the attic on the third floor. Since her daughter got married ten years ago, no one had gone up there to tidy it up.
As Liao climbed into the attic, she found it filled with cobwebs and all sorts of clutter covered in thick dust. A strong foul odor permeated the air.
Thinking there might be dead mice in the attic, she began sweeping away the cobwebs while moving aside the clutter to find the source of the smell. Suddenly, she noticed a Snake Skin Bag beneath a pile of foam that wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she pulled.
Out of curiosity, she opened the bag and discovered a box inside, which seemed to be emitting the foul odor. The box had a combination lock on it, and after several attempts to open it without success, she decided to bring it downstairs to wait for her husband Xu and son to return home.
Unexpectedly, when her husband and son returned around noon and pried open the box with tools, they were met with an extremely horrifying sight. As soon as the box opened, a stronger stench escaped, revealing several large bones inside that unmistakably looked like human thighs.
After repeated confirmation from Xu’s son that these were indeed Human Bones, the family suspected someone had secretly placed a corpse in their attic to frame them and immediately called the police.
Upon receiving the report, the criminal investigation team from Cixi Public Security Bureau rushed to the scene.
After investigation, technicians discovered that there was more than one Snake Skin Bag containing skeletal remains. In the southwest corner of the attic, they found two bags filled with bones—one contained upper limb bones and the other contained torso bones. In the northeast corner, they discovered another bag containing a skull wrapped in a pillowcase.
Upon piecing together the remains, forensic experts determined that these Human Bones belonged to a complete individual who had been dismembered while still clothed since each piece bore tattered clothing. Although the exact cause of death could not be determined, it was initially judged that the deceased had been dead for at least ten years.
Meanwhile, police also found a blurry identification card and business card inside the box with the thigh bones, along with a large meat cleaver and a piece of Telephone Line. Upon examination, they identified that the name on the business card was Hu.
The officers immediately asked this family if they recognized this person. To their surprise, all three reacted with astonishment upon hearing this name because Hu had once been their daughter’s boyfriend but had gone missing ten years ago.
It turned out that Xu's daughter, Xu Moudan, was in a relationship with Hu while simultaneously maintaining a romantic connection with another man, with plans to marry him. When Hu learned of this, he urged Xu Moudan to make a choice. Under his pressure, she hastily married the other man.
Hu's parents had nothing to say about this situation and believed their son had wronged Xu Moudan. From that point on, Xu Moudan would occasionally bring news about Hu, and his parents could only confirm their son's survival through her messages.
Although the police found Hu's parents' behavior baffling, they conducted a DNA test to verify the identity of the deceased. The results confirmed that the remains found in the attic of the Xu family belonged to Hu, who had been missing for ten years.
This meant that Xu Moudan had been lying to Hu's parents all along, making her the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. However, due to the passage of time, much evidence had been lost. Even if Xu Moudan appeared suspicious, there was no way to prove she had killed Hu.
Moreover, many villagers reported that Xu Moudan had a gentle personality and never argued with anyone. Such a character could not possibly be a murderer, especially considering her petite stature; it seemed implausible that she could silently kill someone as large as Hu.
After several interrogations, the police found no abnormalities in Xu Moudan's behavior and reluctantly released her according to protocol. However, the media coverage of the case created a huge uproar in the local community, leading to extremely negative repercussions and rampant rumors.
Behind this case lay significant dark secrets that severely damaged the police's reputation. In light of this situation, the Cixi police quickly called in criminal investigation expert Lao Cui to solve the case. As a renowned detective in Zhejiang, Lao Cui meticulously examined the scene multiple times and soon discovered several clues.
First, there was a distinct mark on the attic floor that appeared to be formed by body fluids. This mark was remarkably intact and showed no signs of disturbance, indicating that the Snake Skin Bag containing the remains had not been moved for ten years.
From this evidence, it could be inferred that the killer was someone from the Xu family. After ruling out Xu Moudan's parents and brother as suspects, she became the only possible perpetrator.
Second, Lao Cui analyzed that while the attic was indeed part of the scene, it was not where the murder and dismemberment occurred. Given that Xu Moudan's parents and brother were unaware of anything amiss, it was likely that the murder took place in Xu Moudan's former bedroom.
As expected, in a corner of the room where Xu Moudan had once lived, Lao Cui discovered tiny red dots covered with a layer of varnish. Upon examination, these were confirmed to be splattered bloodstains belonging to Hu.
The killer had applied varnish over these stains in an apparent attempt to conceal them; however, this layer inadvertently preserved them for ten years.
While these bloodstains almost proved that whoever lived in that room was the murderer, this alone was insufficient to definitively identify Xu Moudan as guilty. However, Lao Cui later uncovered crucial information from the autopsy report: it indicated that Hu had been killed while clothed and without any resistance.
Although the exact cause of death could not be determined, numerous chop marks on the bones suggested that whoever dismembered him possessed relatively little strength and acted alone.
Given that some bones bore over a dozen chop marks—considering that a large axe used for dismemberment weighs around 0.6 kilograms—it would be unlikely for an average man wielding such an axe to inflict so many cuts. This suggested that the killer was likely a woman, with Xu Moudan being the prime suspect.
Additionally, a Telephone Line found in a box indicated that it was highly probable that it was used by the killer to strangle Hu. The reason Hu did not resist might have been due to intoxication or being incapacitated by drugs.
In reality, based on these clues alone, as long as Xu Moudan maintained her innocence, there was little legal recourse available for law enforcement against her.
The identification of Xu Moudan as the murderer primarily stemmed from Lao Cui’s reconstruction of events at the scene. However, when police confronted Xu Moudan with this evidence during another interrogation, she confessed to killing Hu out of guilt and provided details about her crime that corroborated Lao Cui’s findings.
After extensive discussions, the relevant authorities concluded that even in the absence of direct evidence such as fingerprints, other evidence could still prove that the murderer was Xu Moudan. In other words, Xu Moudan's confession corroborated with this evidence, forming a complete chain of evidence.
On November 30, 2006, the Zhejiang Provincial High Court conducted a second trial of the case, sentencing Xu Moudan to death with a two-year reprieve.
So why did Xu Moudan kill Hu? It turned out that one day in 1996, Hu inadvertently learned that Xu Moudan had been taking wedding photos with another man, revealing that she had been leading a double life.
That night, on December 18, 1996, after attending her cousin's wedding, Hu proactively confronted Xu Moudan about it. However, having drunk heavily at the wedding, Hu ended up falling asleep during their heated argument.
At that moment, Xu Moudan feared that once Hu woke up, she would expose her double life. The thought of her reputation being ruined and her inability to marry her current boyfriend terrified her.
In a panic, she took out some sleeping pills she had previously purchased and forced them down Hu's throat. Worried that the dosage might not be enough to kill Hu, she then used a telephone line to strangle the sleeping Hu.
After committing the crime, Xu Moudan went out to buy a snake skin bag, a box, and an axe. Taking advantage of her family's absence, she dismembered Hu's body and hid it in the attic of her home.
Thus, the truth of the case was revealed.
Now the questions arise: First, why did her family not discover the body hidden in the attic for ten years? Did Xu Moudan really manage to deceive them with various excuses as claimed online?
Second, why did Hu's parents continue to believe Xu Moudan's words despite their son's disappearance for ten years? Was it truly just because Xu Moudan was the woman their son loved?
Third, why did Xu Moudan never dispose of the remains over all those years while living her life without guilt? Perhaps this is why this case is considered one of the top ten unsolved mysteries—because there are too many unanswered questions.
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