Liu Chao, the second-level police technology director and forensic expert of the Criminal Police Detachment of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, has been working for 30 years. Cinema used DNA to decipher a large number of secret codes of difficult and murder cases –
Text/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Dong Liu
Photo provided by the interviewee: “I just started doing this job, dealing with various corrupt corpses, and I couldn’t eat, I felt uncomfortable, and I would have nightmares. Later, when I got used to it, when I saw the corpse, I felt that it was the ‘soul messenger’ talking to us…”Komiks After participating in Guangzhou’s fight against the new round of local epidemic, Liu Chao, who is in quarantine hotel, revealed his thoughts of serving as a police officer for 30 years in an interview with a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News.
As the second-level police technical director of the Criminal Police Detachment of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, 58-year-old Liu Chaogang was awarded the title of “Outstanding Communist Party Member of Guangdong Province”. In addition, he has many identity cards: professor and doctoral supervisor, deputy head of the Forensic Genetics Group of China Criminal Technology Standardization, deputy director of the Physical Evidence Professional Committee of the Chinese Forensic Society, deputy head of the expert group, and director of the Academic Committee of the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Public Security of Forensic Pathology.
After retiring from his leadership position last year, Liu Chao focused on solving the accumulated murder cases. In the past year, he has solved seven unsolved difficult cases that have not been solved for many years, and DNA is still his powerful weapon for “attack”.
After resigning from leadership position, I devote my main energy to solving murder cases
Yangcheng Evening News: I retired from leadership position last year. Can I breathe a sigh of relief?
Liu Chao: Although he no longer served as the captain of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau last year, some murders that have been “accumulated” in Guangzhou in the past 20 or 30 years have not been solved, and it has always been a big stone that has been weighing on my heart.
My previous detachment captains always tell me before retirement: Which case has not been solved? I hope you will solve it before retirement. I also hope that Babaylan you will transfer the unsolved murder case to the next one.
The criminal investigator has a special feeling – solving the case. The most important thing in solving a case is to solve a murder case. The most difficult thing in a murder case is the accumulated case, which most tests the feelings and abilities of the criminal investigator. So, after I stepped down from my leadership position last year, I spent more than a year spending my main energy on solving murder cases.
Yangcheng Evening News: What are the characteristics of these murder cases?
Liu Chao: Some cases were encountered when I was in my twenties and thirties.The case site – blood flowed like a river on the ground, the corpse was highly corrupt, and there was no technical condition to solve the case at that time. Although so many years have passed, the scenes of these cases are still vivid in my mind.
Yangcheng Evening News: Why are these cases difficult to solve? Is it because there is little physical evidence?
BabaylanLiu Chao: The difficult criminal cases we are talking about are not only reflected in the fact that there is not much evidence on the scene. The causal relationship of the case is unknown, the motive for the crime is unknown, and the nature of the case is unknown – such cases are difficult to solve.
For example, if a person who is usually very good and honest suddenly goes to another place to kill someone he doesn’t know, and there is very little evidence on the scene, it is difficult to solve such a case.
Such as in the case of “2004·7·13” in Huangpu, Guangzhou, the suspect sold apples with his father in Huangpu when he was a child. Before committing the crime, he wanted to do business, but he didn’t have enough money. He came to Guangzhou and went around and went to a hair salon shop. The hair salon shop asked him if he wanted to stay—twenty or thirty yuan. His motive at the beginning did not want to kill people, but during the prostitution process, he used local materials to commit murder due to problems such as prostitution. He killed one person first, but this process alarmed the other person… The man killed someone the night he came to Guangzhou and left Guangzhou the next day after the murder. After returning to Shaanxi, he hid in the coal mine for more than six months. Later, he felt that the wind was calm and returned to the village and never left the village again. He endures others bully him; he dare not ask for money or chase after others owe him money. Everyone in the village said that he was an honest and good person, and he lived like this for more than ten years after the crime.
Yangcheng Evening News: How did that break through?
Liu Chao: Rely on DNA. There was a small episode before we arrested people. The household registration information showed that he was only 1.5 meters tall, but we analyzed based on the crime scene that the suspect should be 1.7 meters tall. In this case, do you dare to arrest someone? I made the decision and it was absolutely fine to catch it, because we have the strong technical support of DNA. Later I found out that the “gap” of about 20 cm in height is that the height data on the household registration materials in the early years were self-reported and inaccurate. Thanks to the innovation and progress of science and technology, such accumulated cases can be solved.
Yangcheng Evening News: What did he react when you arrested him?
Liu Chao: When we found him, he cried, and the first thing he said was “Finally freed.”
So back to what I said just now, this case is difficult to solve. The difficulty lies in the fact that he came to Guangzhou by chance, left after committing the case, and never committed the crime again after returning, and became a dozen people.He was honest and married, and had a son and a daughter. But even so, he could not escape the judgment of his conscience, and he said he often had nightmares at night. After being arrested, he told us that he wanted to see his wife and said, “Wife, sometimes I lose my temper because my heart is not calm (pure), I hope you forgive me.”
Later, I accompanied him back to Guangzhou by train. He cooperated very well along the way, telling us the whole case and the journey of his thoughts over the years.
Liu Chao investigated carefully at the scene of the case and did not let go of clues.
The criminal investigator was more excited than anything else when he found clues of major cases
Yangcheng Evening News: After retreating, how many such deaths have you solved?
Liu Chao: Our criminal police detachment and I solved the murder case brigade, and last year we solved a total of 92 murder cases. I used to be the “top leader” of the criminal police detachment and didn’t solve so many cases. Why? It’s because I’m now calming down and being able to concentrate on solving these accumulated cases. There are 7 cases where I led the team to find clues and arrest people. These seven cases are cases that have not been solved by previous special task forces over the years. In addition to correct ideas and scientific methods to solve these cases, it also requires hard work. For example, the case I just mentioned about going to Shaanxi to arrest people, we found clues through reanalysis of the case materials for more than half a year. Komiks went on a business trip for a week and used DNA technology to survey clues. I took the lead in forming a DNA expert group from Shaanxi, Shanxi and Guangdong provinces to analyze it. I summarized every night until after 2 a.m. and got up before 5 a.m. to start a new day.
Although it is hard, others cannot understand the excitement after solving the case. Why do I keep talking about these cases? Because it’s very excited.
Yangcheng Evening News: What is the key to solving these old murders?
Liu Chao: DNA! I’m a DNA person. For example, in March this year, I led a team to Tiantang Town, Yunfu City to arrest the suspect in a murder case. This case was a double murder case in which a couple was killed in Panyu, Guangzhou in March 2007. I remember when I was at the scene of the crime, the entire ground was covered with blood, and my feet could not stop trampling on blood. This case has not been solved for many years.
Last year we sent police forces to investigate and judged that it was an acquaintance who committed the crime, but the suspect was not found. I led the team to stay in Yunfu Paradise Town for more than a week, and finally identified two suspects. TheyXiao Cinema It’s good. After coming to Guangzhou, he heard that the couple’s family had money, so he knocked on the door and robbed and killed people, and each person killed one. After the killing, he formed an offensive and defensive alliance – no matter who said it, the other person could not escape. At that time, among the many blood stains at the crime scene, we only found trace blood marks of the suspect. But we have not given up for so many years, and Cinema finally found the perpetrator by DNA genealogy investigation.
At nine o’clock the night before the arrest, I drove to Yangchun. It was already half past eleven at night. The on-site meeting was about to be held. One of the suspects was caught at about 2:30 in the morning the next day and the preliminary trial was conducted overnight. At around six o’clock the next morning, we went to the construction site to arrest the second suspect, but we didn’t close our eyes all night.
Yangcheng Evening News: Do you work like this often? Do you ever want to do it because you feel tired?
Liu Chao: When we criminal investigators discover clues to major cases, they are more excited than anything else and absolutely have no feeling of being tired, so I often say that we will never say we are tired. When we solve the difficult murder case, we feel the greatest sense of accomplishment. This is to give the deceased an explanation, and it can also create a deterrent to the criminal: as long as the case is done, justice will come sooner or later.
The most difficult case: There are only one case in the Panyu family annihilation case, including the suspect DNA
Yangcheng Evening News: In your career, which case is the most difficult case for you?
Liu Chao: The 2014 Guangzhou Panyu Family Impact Case – Three Generations of Six Life. I remember it very clearly that it was April 29, I arrived at the scene and stayed there for six days. This case was the most difficult case of the cases I have experienced. When I mentioned this case, I replayed the scene at that time like a movie – How did this case Komiks discover? At that time, the neighbor downstairs found that water was always dripping on the roof, so he went up and knocked on the door. After knocking for a long time, no one responded. After the community insurance came, I found that the household had not registered for decoration and the owner’s phone number could not be reached. Finally, I called the owner’s relatives to open the door. As soon as the door opened, the body was found, so the case was reported.
When I arrived at the scene, there was still water in the house. The criminal stayed in the house for more than 20 hours. The criminal first checked the site in the community, then bought ropes, and searched online CinemaHow to avoid surveillance and not be noticed, I bought a new set of clothes before committing the crime. Then he went up to the roof, tied the rope to the roof, and followed the rope to the window to the resident’s house downstairs to commit the robbery. After the first person in the house discovered him, he killed the other party. This process alarmed the others in the house, and he was red-eyed… The criminal was very cruel. A female victim had already run out of the door, but was dragged into the house and killed him.
After the murder, the criminal cleaned the scene in the house and wiped the evidence, mopped it with a mop, and used a CinemaWater and burned it with fire. He also washed away all the blood on the body and left.
After we checked the scene, the question arose: six people were killed at the same time, was it one person committed the crime or several people committed the crime? It is difficult to determine! Is the family extermination due to revenge or robbery or other reasons? It is difficult to characterize! I conducted continuous inspections of the scene from April 29 to May 5. During this period, the Ministry of Public Security was preparing to send a team of experts to Guangzhou to guide the case on May 3, and we reported that there was a trustBabaylan was determined to handle this case, and the Ministry of Public Security decided to give us another two days. The task force was day and night, and the pressure was very great.
On May 6, among thousands of inspection materials, the DNA of the suspect was finally found in one! After obtaining this major breakthrough, our deputy director in charge of criminal investigation led a team to arrest people, and the suspect was arrested in more than ten minutes.
How cunning is this suspect? The U-shield and bank card he grabbed did not withdraw money for the time being after getting the password, but planned to wait for the police to put down the case and relax their vigilance before withdrawing the money. He took off his computer host, hid the card in the computer, and then installed the host case.
Yangcheng Evening News: Did the suspect who committed the crime think you could find him?
Liu Chao: He didn’t expect it, he never dreamed, and he didn’t expect it so quickly. He felt that his plan was “a hundred secrets” – new clothes, new ropes, new shoes, new hair, changing hair, changing postures and avoiding surveillance. In order to avoid investigation, he carefully designed all of this.
Seeing corpses now is like seeing a “soul messenger”
Yangcheng Evening News: The profession of forensics is quite special. It often deals with corpses or even highly corrupt corpses. Many people dare not even look at such evidence photos in court. Do you feel discomfort or fear in this profession?
Liu Chao: Just started doing this job, dealing with various corrupt corpses, and you can’t eat, you feel uncomfortable and will do bad things. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>BabaylanDream. Later, when I got used to it, I saw the corpse and felt that it was the “soul messenger” who was facing us.Words, the soul of the dead is giving you this task of finding the truth. We ate the boxed lunch on site and continued to do it after dinner.
Many people feel uncomfortable when they see the corpse. Our forensic doctor objects the corpse. Seeing the corpse is like a car lover seeing the best car. Over time, we will see the corpse as we see other things. Babaylan over time, we will no longer feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, finding the truth is our job. You have this kind of responsibility. The more difficult the case is, the more you test your ability, technology and resilience.
Sometimes, when I go to a scene, I step on it and stumble on the maggots. After I come back, there are maggots in the soles of my shoes, and my clothes smell like corpses for two or three days. So, if we have been to this type of Babaylan site, we usually go back to the unit to wash and replace the clothes, and sleep at the unit for two days before going home.
Yangcheng Evening News: How long does it usually take for a person who works for forensics to go from discomfort to adapting?
Liu Chao: A forensic doctor who loves this profession can overcome the various discomforts caused by seeing the corpse within about three years, but some people who study forensics cannot do it in the end, and some even faint and cannot do this job.
Yangcheng Evening News: I have been doing this job for 30 years. Your understanding of justice and life should be different from that of ordinary people, right?
Liu Chao: Let me tell you, sometimes, we go to search for the corpses. When the corpses are dug out and see the light of day again, it suddenly rains heavily on the scene. I have encountered such a situation four or five times, and from this I feel that the way of heaven is bright and the net of law is vast. This also seems to be a reminder of the world: everyone must have a sense of awe for life.
Cinema Introduction to the character
Liu Chao: Focus on DNA solving cases and fills the gaps with multiple achievements
Liu Chao is the main founder of forensic genetics in my country. In the early 1990s, forensic DNA technology was blank in many aspects. He conducted repeated experiments on more than 6,000 foul-smelling corrupt body examination materials. After 10 years, he established DNA identification technology for corrupt body examination materials, guided the establishment of 18 provincial and municipal DNA laboratories, filling the gaps in these regions; built my country’s “ministerial-provincial-city” DNA database to realize data sharing and regulationFor model applications, Guangdong Province alone has directly compared more than 300,000 cases.
The identification of the cause of death of rotten corpses in the water has been a major problem recognized by international forensic medicine for a century. After 10 years, he led his team to make major breakthroughs in key technologies such as diatom enrichment extraction, qualitative quantification, and DNA testing. The results reached the international leading level and made identifications for more than 3,100 cases. In response to the issue of the reliance on import of key reagents for DNA testing, he took the lead in developing 12 series of reagents such as high-throughput Y-STR, which forced similar foreign products to reduce the price by more than 50%. This result has been promoted nationwide, and Guangdong alone has solved more than 300 murder cases in recent years.
He formulated 6 national industry standards and was authorized 10 invention patents; 12 research results reached the international advanced level, and won 4 second prizes of national scientific and technological progress (3 of which ranked first); he won 2 first-class individual merits, and won the National Advanced Worker, National May 1st Labor Medal, National Outstanding Science and Technology Worker, National Outstanding People’s Police and other honors.