SHEN Changyin & SHEN Changping
Classification: Serial killers
Characteristics: Robberies - Dismemberment - Cannibalism (ate the livers)
Number of victims: 12
Date of murders: 1999 - 2004
Date of arrest: August 2004
Date of birth: 1975 (Changyin) - 1983 (Changping)
Victims profile: 11 women (prostitutes) and one man
Method of murder: Strangulation - Stabbing with knife
Location: Henan/Gansu/Shanxi/Anhui/Inner Mongolia/Hebei, China
Status: Sentenced to death on September 2, 2005. Executed
Shen Changyin (born 1975) and Shen Changping (born 1983) are Chinese serial killer, cannibal brothers who murdered and ate the livers of 11 prostitutes between June 2003 and August 2004 with Li Chunling and three other female accomplices.
Murders
In June 2003, the Shen brothers began murdering prostitutes in Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Their first victim was Yao Fang, whom they lured to a house and tied up. After forcing her to provide her bank account PIN, they strangled and dismembered her.
In late November 2003, the Shens robbed Li Chunling in the same manner as Yao; however, they decided against killing her when she offered to bring them more victims. When Li brought them a prostitute several days later, the brothers robbed her then forced Li to kill her. Then they removed her kidney, burned her body with sulphuric acid, and flushed it down the toilet.
After murdering three more women in this manner, the Shens and Li moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi in April 2004. There they lured Zhao Meiying and forced her to bring a prostitute to their home. The Shens then forced Zhao to stab the woman and put the body in a meat processor before flushing the chemical-dipped pieces down the toilet.
After Zhao surrendered to police and Li was caught, the Shens continued to murder women in Hefei, Anhui; Baotou, Inner Mongolia; and Shijiazhuang, Hebei.
Arrest and sentencing
In August 2004, the Shens and an accomplice, Du Surong, were caught in a Shijiazhuang apartment while trying to douse the dismembered body of a victim with acid.
The Shens confessed to robbing and killing 11 women. They had plotted the murders after they lost money when their Lanzhou auto parts business failed. Shen Changyin also confessed to murdering a man in their hometown of Nanwu, Henan in 1999, after which the brothers fled in 2000.
The Shens and Li were sentenced to death in September 2005. Three other female accomplices were sentenced to three to 20 years in prison.
Wikipedia.org
Killer duo gets death
Ji Mi/Shanghai Daily news
September 3, 2005
A Gansu Province court on Thursday sentenced two brothers to death for killing 11 sex workers and eating some of the victims' kidneys during a two-year romp across the country.
Li Chunling, a 23-year-old sex worker, also got the death sentence for killing at least one of the victims, and three other females, aged 16-26, were jailed for three to 20 years for their role in the killing spree, a paper based in the provincial capital, Lanzhou, reported yesterday.
The Henan Province duo robbed the four sex workers after luring them from hair salons and then forced them into becoming accomplices, said the Lanzhou Morning Newspaper.
One of the brothers Shen Changyin, 30, also stabbed a man to death at his hometown in Henan's Huojia County in September 1999.
The report said Shen Changyin and his brother Shen Changping, 22, plotted the murders after they lost money in the auto parts business in Lanzhou.
The serial murders started in the city in June 2003.
They allegedly lured a prostitute, Yao Fang, to a house, tied her up and took away her room key. They found her bankbook in her room and forced out the pin number. After confirming the number was right, they strangled her to death and dismembered her body.
In late November 2003, they robbed Li Chunling the same way. They planned to kill her but changed their mind when Li promised to find them more sex workers. Days later, Li found a prostitute. After robbing her, they forced Li to kill her. They took out her kidney and burned the body with sulfuric acid before flushing it down the toilet.
After killing three more young women this way, the trio moved to Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, in April 2004.
They lured Zhao Meiying, 26, to their rented residence and forced her to join them.
Soon Zhao lured a woman to a residential area and tied her up. The Shens forced Zhao to stab the woman to death and crush the body in a meat processor before flushing the chemical-dipped pieces into the toilet.
The brothers' crime spree continued in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province; Baotou, Inner Mon-golia Autonomous Region; and Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, after Zhao surrendered to police, who then caught Li.
The brothers were caught in August in Shijiazhuang while trying to douse the dismembered body of a victim with acid.
Brothers 'confess' to butchering 11 women: report
The Sydney Morning Herald
September 3, 2004
Two brothers suspected of killing and dismembering 11 women have been arrested in China.
Police in Hebei province in the north raided an apartment rented by Shen Changyin, Shen Changping and their female accomplice, Du Surong, on August 31 after a tip-off, the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.
Officers found the dismembered corpse of a woman, along with tools, more than a dozen stolen bank cards, cash and jewellery, Xinhua said.
The agency said the brothers, aged 21 and 29, and Du, 23, confessed to robbing and killing the 11 women, who worked at nightclubs and bath houses in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital.
All the bodies had been "brutally dismembered," Xinhua said.
The trio also stole a total of 120,000 yuan (A20,000) in cash, it said.
The report did not say why they killed the women or provide any other details of the case.
Shen Changyin, the elder brother, also confessed to killing a man in 1999 in the central province of Henan, Xinhua said.
The brothers had been farmers in Henan before moving to Hebei, it said. Du is from the south-western province of Sichuan. It was not immediately clear how she met them.
