Text/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Dong Liu
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 repeatedly implemented more than 6,000 corrupt body examination materials with bad smell. After 10 years, he established DNA identification technology for corrupt body examination materials, guided the establishment of 18 provincial and municipal DNA laboratories to fill these regional gaps; built the “Ministry-Provincial-Provincial-Civilian” DNA database in my country to realize data sharing and large-scale application. Guangdong Province only directly reported more than 300,000 cases.
The identification of the cause of death of corrupt corpses in the water has been a major problem recognized by international forensic science for a hundred years. 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 have reached the international leading level, with more than 3,100 cases being identified. In response to the issue of the reliance on imports of key reagents for DNA testing, he took the lead in the development of 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. In recent years, Guangdong alone has investigated more than 300 murder cases.
He formulated 6 national industry standards and was authorized to 10 invention patents; 12 research results reached the international advanced level, and won 4 second prizes of National Science and Technology Progress Awards (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.
Liu Chao
As the second-level police technical director of the Criminal Police Detachment of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, Liu Chaogang, 58, was awarded the title of “Outstanding Communist Party Member of Guangdong Province”. In addition, he has a lotMulti-identity business card: 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 leadership position last year, Liu Chao focused on solving difficult murder cases. In the past year, he has solved seven difficult and unsolved cases that have not been solved for many years, and DNA is still his powerful weapon for “attack”.
Liu Chao at work
After resigning from his leadership position, he devoted his main energy to solving murder cases
Yangcheng Evening News: Last year, he stepped down from his leadership position. Can you 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 stone that has been weighing on my heart.
My previous detachment captains always told me before Babaylan retired: Which case has not been solved? I hope you will solve it before retirement, and I hope you will pass on these unsolved murders to the next generation.
The criminal investigator has a special feeling – solving the case, the most important thing in solving the case is to solve the murder case. The most difficult thing in the murder case is to solve the accumulated case, which is the most scrutiny of the criminal investigator’s feelings and abilities. 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 accumulated cases of lifeBabaylan?
Liu Chao: Some cases were some cases that I encountered when I first joined the public security work in my twenties and thirties. The scenes of those cases – blood flowing like a river on the ground, and the corpses were highly corrupt. There were no technical conditions 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?
LiuChao: 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, Guangzhou 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 moved to a hair salon shop. The hair salon shop asked him if he wanted to stay for 20 or 30 yuan. His motive at the beginning did not want to kill people, but during the prostitution process, due to prostitution funds and other issues, he used local materials to commit the crime. He killed one person first, but this process alarmed another person… He killed someone the night he came to Guangzhou, and left Guangzhou the next day after the murder. After the suspect returned, 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 endured it when others bully him. When others owe him money, he dare not ask for it or chase it. The villagers all 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 you 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 based on the crime scene, we analyzed that the suspect should be 1.7 meters. In this case, do you dare to arrest people? I made the decision and it is absolutely fine to catch it, because we have strong technical support such as 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. He has been an honest man for more than ten years, got married, and has 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 thoughts of over the years.
Absent the marriage recognition ceremony held after successful DNA recognition (Liu Chao on the left)
“The greatest sense of accomplishment was found when the difficult murder case was solved”
Yangcheng Evening News: After retreating, how many such murder cases were solved?
LiuBabaylanCho: The brigade of our criminal police detachment solved a total of 92 murder cases last year. I used to be the “top leader” of the criminal police detachment, but I didn’t solve so many cases, for What? It’s because I’m so immersed in my heart and focused on solving these accumulated cases. There are 7 cases in which I led my team to find clues and arrest people. These seven cases have been unsolved by previous task forces over the years. In addition to correct ideas and scientific methods, these cases also require hard work. For example, the case I just mentioned was a case of arresting people on a business trip in Shaanxi. We found clues through more than half a year of reanalysis of the case materials. We went on a week on a business trip and searched through DNA technology. I took the lead in forming DNA experts from Shaanxi, Shanxi and Guangdong provinces to analyze them together. Every night, after two o’clock, I had to get up before five o’clock in the morning to start a new day’s work.
Although hard, the excitement after solving the case, othersCinema cannot understand. Why do I talk about these cases? Because Komiks is very excited.
Yangcheng Evening News: Break these old lives<a What is the key to the case of Cinema?
Liu Chao: DNA! I am a DNA man.
For example, in March this year, I led a team to Tiantang Town, Yunfu City to arrest a 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, the entire ground was covered with blood, and my feet could not step on the 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 Cinema just couldn’t find the suspect. I led the team to stay in Yunfu Tiantang Town for more than a week, and finally locked up the suspect. These two suspects have been good since childhood. After coming to Guangzhou, I heard that the victim’s family was rich, so I knocked on the door and robbed and killed people, and each person killed one. After the killing, the attack was initiated.Keep the alliance – no matter who speaks out, the other person cannot 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 finally we have to find the perpetrator by searching the DNA genealogy.
At nine o’clock the night before the arrest, I drove to Yangchun. It was already eleven 10:30 in the evening. I immediately held a live meeting. At about 2:30 in the morning the next day, one of the suspects was arrested 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 no longer 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 not only an explanation for the deceased, but also a shock to crime: as long as the case is done, justice will come sooner or later.
The most difficult case: There are only one case containing the suspect DNA in the Panyu family annihilation case. 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 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 case I experienced. When I mentioned this case, the scene at that time echoed like a movie in front of me –
How was this case discovered? At that time, the neighbor downstairs found that water was always dripping on the roof, so he went up and knocked on the door, but he didn’t respond after knocking for a long time. After the community security guard came, he found that the family had not reported for decoration and the owner’s phone number could not be reached. Finally, he called the owner’s relative 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, searched online for how to avoid surveillance videos and why they were not paid attention to it, and bought a new set of clothes before committing the crime. Then he went up to the roof, tied the rope to the roof, and slipped through the window to the residents downstairs, and carried out the robbery. After the first person in the house discovered him, he killed the other party. This process alarmed the others in the house. He was so angry… The criminal was very cruel. A female victim had already run out of the door, but was finally dragged into the house and killed by him.
After the murderer, the criminal was in the houseClean the site and wipe away the evidence, mop with mop, rinse with water, and burn with Cinema. He also washed away all the blood from the body and left. He doesn’t want to leave any evidence.
After we checked the scene, the question arose: six people were killed at the same time, was it one person who committed the crime or how many people committed the crime? Difficulty in identification! Is the family extermination due to revenge, robbery or other reasons? Qualitative difficulty! I conducted continuous inspections of the site from April 29 to May 5. During this period, the Ministry of Public Security has made it possible to send an expert team to Guangzhou to guide the case on May 3. We reported that we were confident of solving the case, so the Ministry of Public Security decided to give us two more days. The task force is under great pressure day and night.
On May 6, among thousands of samples, the DNA of the suspect was finally found in one of them! After obtaining this major breakthrough, our deputy director in charge of criminal investigation led the team to arrest people, and the suspect was arrested in more than ten minutes.
How cunning is this suspect? He grabbed U-shield and bank card, but 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 installed the host case.
Yangcheng Evening News: Did the suspect who committed the crime think that you could find him?
Liu Chao: He didn’t expect it, he never dreamed it, let alone so quickly. He felt that his plan was a “hundred secrets” – new clothes, new ropes, and even shoes were newly bought, their hair changed and their postures were changed to avoid monitoring. 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 this discomfort or fear in your work in this profession?
Liu Chao: When we first started doing this job, we dealt with various corrupt corpses, and couldn’t eat. We felt uncomfortable and had nightmares. Later, when we got used to it, when we saw the corpse, we felt that it was the “soul messenger” who was talking to us. The souls of the deceased were giving you this task of finding the truth. We took a box lunch on the spot and continued to do it after eating.
Many people feel uncomfortable when they see the corpse. Our forensic doctor objectified the corpse. We see the corpse, just like a car lover seeing the best Babaylan is like a car. Over time, when we look at the corpse, we will no longer feel uncomfortable, on the contrary, finding the truth is our job. You have this responsibility. The more difficult the case is, the more test your ability, technology, and resilience.
Sometimes, when you go to a scene, step on it, step on the maggots and slap them. After you come back, there are maggots in the soles of your shoes, and the clothes smell like corpses for two or three days. Therefore, if you have been to such a scene, we usually don’t go home first, wash and replace the clothes, and go back to the unit to sleep for two days before going back.
Yangcheng Evening News: How long does it usually take for a person who works for forensics to go from being uncomfortable to being adapted?
Liu Chao: A forensic doctor who loves this profession can overcome the discomfort caused by seeing the corpse within about three years, but some people can’t continue to study forensics, and some even faint and can’t do this job.
Yangcheng Evening News: You 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: I tell you that sometimes, when we go to search for corpses, when the corpse is dug out and the light of day is coming 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 better and the net of law is still vast. This is also like reminding the world: everyone must have a sense of awe for life.