Gong RUNBO
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Child molester
Number of victims: 6
Date of murders: 2005 - 2006
Date of arrest: February 28, 2006
Date of birth: 1973
Victims profile: Children between the ages of 9 and 16
Method of murder: ???
Location: Heilongjiang Province, China
Status: Executed by shot in the head on December 20, 2006
Gong Runbo was a Chinese serial killer who, between March 2005 and February 2006, murdered six children between the ages of 9 and 16.
Gong was imprisoned in October 1996 for raping a young girl. He was released in 2004 after serving an eight-year sentence. He sexually assaulted and murdered six children in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. He also lured and molested five others aged 12 and 13.
Gong was arrested on February 28, 2006 when a boy escaped from his apartment and called the police. The police captured Gong in a nearby Internet cafe and found four decomposing bodies and children's clothes in his apartment. He was executed in January 2007.
Chinese serial killer may have killed over 20 children
March 6, 2006
The police in the northeast in China have detained a 32-year-old man suspected of sexually assaulting and killing more than 20 children, state media reported today.
Gong Runbo is believed to have lured the children to his apartment in Jiamusi city in Heilongjiang province where he carried out the killings and often left the bodies to decompose, the Beijing News said.
He was only stopped on February 28, when a boy escaped from the killer and managed to alert the police, according to the paper.
Officers sent to search Gong's apartment came across a gruesome scenery of rotting bodies and scattered bones, it said.
Four of the corpses were still in a somewhat intact state and showed signs of having been sexually abused prior to their deaths, according to the paper.
Forensic evidence led police to conclude that perhaps more than 20 children had been killed in the apartment, it said.
Notorious serial killer sentenced to death in NE. China
July 14, 2006
A 33-year-old man who murdered six children after sexually assaulting them in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has been sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Jiamusi City.
Gong Runbo, who had been previously convicted of rape, killed the six children aged between 9 and 16 after luring them from street and Internet cafe to his rented apartment in Jiamusi between March 2005 and February 2006.
He also lured and molested five others aged between 12 and 13.
He was arrested on February 28, when a boy managed to escape from the apartment and called police. The police captured Gong in a nearby Internet cafe and found four decomposing bodies and children's clothes in his apartment.
Wu Heping, spokesman for China's Ministry of Public Security, dismissed reports that more than six children might have died after they ran DNA tests on the clothes. Gong pleaded guilty at the court and said he would not appeal.
He was put into prison in October 1996 for raping a young girl and released after he served an imprisonment of eight years. Then he chose to rent an apartment in a residential area of shanties instead of returning to his former residence and reporting to the police station there, thus successfully shunned attention from police. He spent most of time playing computer games at an Internet cafe, the same as many of the jobless in China.
Investigators said Gong took some victims to an Internet cafe without being stopped, despite rules limiting children's access to such sites. Most of the victims came from families where parents were busy making a living all day long and had no time to take care of children, said an earlier report.
Local police officers in Jiamusi have been criticized for their slow response to missing children reports as the murder spree lasted for nearly a year. Wu Heping acknowledged slowness in investigation might have prolonged the killing. "Sadly, six dead kids may have died because of our failings," he said.
The provincial police chief had ordered intensive inspections of rented houses, migrant populations, and cases of missing people after Gong's case.
A 33-year-old man who murdered six children after sexually assaulting them in northeast China was executed
December 31, 2006
Gong Runbo had been convicted at the Intermediate People's Court of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang province, of rape and the murders of the six children aged nine to 16.
The court heard he lured the children off street and from Internet cafe to his rented apartment in Jiamusi from March 2005 to February 2006. He also lured and molested five others aged 12 and 13.
He was arrested on February 28, when a boy managed to escape from the apartment and called the police. Gong was sentenced to death on July 13 and was ordered to pay 661,840 yuan (84,743 U.S. dollars) to the victims.
He had pleaded guilty and said he would not appeal. The victims appealed to the court to seek compensation from the Internet cafe and apartment owners. The Heilongjiang Provincial Higher People's Court rejected the appeals and upheld the verdict on December 20.
From January 1, 2007, the Supreme People's Court will reassume authority over the approval of death penalties for the first time since it was devolved to provincial higher courts during a crackdown on crime in the early 1980s.
