Chinese Drifter Yang Xinhai Confesses to 65 Killings in Four Provinces After Arrest in Hebei
Police checking entertainment venues in Cangzhou picked him up on November 3. He told them he had attacked 22 rural households, often killing entire families as they slept.
Published
In August 2003, China's Ministry of Public Security made a string of nighttime killings of rural families its top case of the year. In mid-November, Chinese media revealed that a suspect had already been caught and had confessed to 65 killings.
Police in Cangzhou, Hebei province, arrested Yang Xinhai, 35, on November 3 while checking entertainment venues, after he aroused their suspicion. On the evening of November 5 he gave his first account. He said that over about two years he had carried out 22 attacks in Anhui, Henan, Shandong and Hebei, killing 65 people, seriously injuring 5 and raping 23. Seventeen of the attacks were in Henan, where he was born in Zhengyang county, Zhumadian. Many were killings of whole families in their homes at night. Of the 18 cases the ministry had merged in August, police had confirmed 17 as his work.
Yang, a slight man with a junior-high education, had earlier served sentences for theft and rape. Police and villagers said he traveled by bicycle and sometimes watched a village for days before choosing a house. The killings attributed to him included those of Sun Shengjun, his wife, Li Shuzhi, and their 15-year-old daughter, Sun Yuanyuan, found dead in their home in Xingtai county, Hebei, on August 5, 2003; their son survived because he was sleeping elsewhere. Three days later, Wei Xianzeng, his wife, Fan Yuhua, and their three children were killed in a village outside Shijiazhuang. In December 2002, Liu Zhanwei and four members of his family were killed in Xiping county, Henan.
An early report said two people had been killed by Yang in Shijiazhuang, while The Beijing News described the killing of a family of five there.
Sources
- 杨新海流窜4省杀65人强奸23人案件调查公布, The Beijing News (新京报) via Sina
- 杀人狂魔3年杀死65人强奸23人 多为灭门案件, Chongqing Evening News (citing Beijing Youth Daily) via Sina
- Drifter says he killed 65 people with axes, shovels, Taipei Times (AFP)
Related News
- February 14, 2004: China Executes Yang Xinhai, the Drifter Convicted of Murdering 67 People