Gong Runbo (宫润伯) was executed in China on December 31, 2006. He was 33. Five months earlier the Jiamusi Intermediate People's Court, in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, had sentenced him to death for the murders of six children and teenagers, aged 9 to 16, killed in Jiamusi between March 2005 and February 2006, with other charges. According to Xinhua, the state news agency, those charges also covered five more children, aged 12 and 13, whom he lured to his home in the same way and then let go.
The case came to light at the end of February 2006. Sing Tao Headline, the Hong Kong newspaper, wrote in a 2025 retrospective that a boy who escaped from him became the key to solving it, and on February 28, 2006, police found the bodies of four missing boys, China Daily later reported. Within weeks the case had become a national story about police failure. Families had been reporting children missing in Jiamusi since early 2005, and no public warning had been given. In April 2006 Wu Heping, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, admitted that police mistakes may have raised the death toll. "Sadly, six kids may have died because of our failings," he said, as quoted by Shanghai Daily in a report carried by China Daily.
Gong was born in 1973 in Jiamusi, Sing Tao Headline reported. The paper wrote that the family of three lost their jobs in the 1990s and got by selling popsicles and collecting scrap.
Xinhua dated his imprisonment to October 1996 and said he was released after serving eight years. Sing Tao Headline gave 2003 as the year of his release.
After his release, Xinhua reported, he did not register at the police station near his former home. Instead he rented in a shanty district, which kept him out of police sight, and he spent most of his time playing computer games in internet cafes, as many unemployed people in China did.
Between March 2005 and February 2006, according to Xinhua's report of the verdict, Gong killed six children aged 9 to 16 in Jiamusi. Most of the victims came from families in which the parents worked long hours and had little time to supervise their children, investigators told Xinhua.
Wang Shengli was 10, her grandfather told the South China Morning Post in March 2006, and she did not come home from school in March 2005.
China Daily named the four boys whose bodies were found on February 28, 2006: Wu Shutian, 10; Ma Qianli, 10; Bai Jinlong, 15; and Jiang Fuyuan, 12. The name of the sixth victim was not reported.
Jiamusi police began receiving reports of missing children in early 2005 but never issued a public warning, China Daily reported in April 2006. The local police bureau said it had not wanted to cause panic before the case was solved. Sing Tao Headline wrote that from the second half of 2005 the Xiangyang district public security bureau received repeated reports from families whose children had gone missing, and that the cases made no progress for lack of evidence.
Wang Shengli's grandfather told the South China Morning Post that he had reported her missing to the local police station, and that officers did nothing until local media reported her disappearance. He said a police dog was then brought in and followed her scent to Gong's home, but officers only looked around and left. Police did not confirm his account at the time.
Over the same months Gong repeatedly took children in and out of an internet cafe without anyone stepping in or telling the police, Wu Heping said later, even though the government barred minors from internet bars.
The South China Morning Post reported the week after his arrest that police said Gong, then 32, was suspected of killing five teenagers, and that the families of five children planned to sue the local police for dereliction of duty, saying officers had failed to investigate thoroughly much sooner.
The case drew wide criticism in China. In April 2006 China Daily, carrying a report from Shanghai Daily, said that Gong, then 33, had been charged and that Wu Heping, the ministry spokesman, had acknowledged that police mistakes before and during the investigation may have increased the death toll. Wu said police at every level should pay closer attention to reports of missing children and respond faster in similar cases.
Wu also said the case exposed failures across several institutions. Schools, he said, needed to react more quickly when students were absent without explanation, and corrections authorities needed to supervise former prisoners more closely. Local police said they had taken "serious action" over their shortcomings. The provincial police chief ordered intensive inspections of rented housing, migrant populations and missing-persons cases, and a review of school security was under way. Victims' families demanded compensation.
The Jiamusi Intermediate People's Court tried Gong on July 13, 2006, in a hearing closed to the public that lasted more than three hours, Sing Tao Headline reported. He did not dispute the prosecution's account. Xinhua reported that he pleaded guilty and said he would not appeal.
The court convicted him of intentional homicide, with other charges, and sentenced him to death with lifelong deprivation of political rights, according to Sing Tao Headline. Xinhua reported the sentence on July 14, 2006. Sing Tao Headline put the total awarded to the civil plaintiffs at more than 660,000 yuan.
Gong was executed by firing squad on December 31, 2006, at the age of 33, Sing Tao Headline wrote. Hands Off Cain, the Italian campaign group against the death penalty, recorded the execution the same day, citing the Press Trust of India.
The number of victims. The court and the Ministry of Public Security put the number of dead at six. In April 2006 some parents told reporters they feared that dozens of children might have been killed over the years, China Daily reported. Parents taken to identify their children's belongings said they saw at least 28 pairs of children's shoes; police did not confirm that figure and said DNA tests on clothing indicated no more than six victims. Wu Heping, for the ministry, rejected reports that more than six children had died, Xinhua reported in July 2006. Sing Tao Headline wrote in 2025 that 32 pairs of children's shoes were found and that an unconfirmed rumor held that 28 missing children from Jiamusi had been killed; no official confirmed either figure. No killing beyond the six was charged, and none was announced by police.
His release from prison. Sing Tao Headline gave 2003 as the year of his release. Xinhua said he was released after serving eight years of a prison term it dated to October 1996.
The trial date. Sing Tao Headline dated the trial and sentence to July 13, 2006. Xinhua's report appeared on July 14.
1973: Gong Runbo is born in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang.
1990s: His family loses their jobs and lives on odd work.
October 1996: He is imprisoned.
2003: He is released from prison, according to Sing Tao Headline.
Early 2005: Jiamusi police begin receiving reports of missing children.
March 2005: Wang Shengli does not come home from school.
Second half of 2005: The Xiangyang district public security bureau receives repeated reports of missing children.
February 2006: A boy escapes from Gong, and Gong is arrested.
February 28, 2006: Police find the bodies of four boys in Jiamusi.
Early March 2006: Victims' families announce plans to sue the local police.
April 2006: Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping admits police failures may have raised the death toll.
July 13, 2006: The Jiamusi Intermediate People's Court tries him in a closed hearing and sentences him to death for intentional homicide, with other charges.
July 14, 2006: Xinhua reports the death sentence.
December 31, 2006: He is executed by firing squad, aged 33.