Zhang Yongming was a farmer in Nanmen Village, in Jincheng Town, Jinning County, part of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China. In July 2012 the Kunming Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to death for the intentional homicide of 11 men killed near his home between 2008 and 2012. It was his second death sentence. In 1979 a court had sentenced him to death with a two-year reprieve for an earlier homicide; that sentence was reduced several times, and he was released in 1997.
The case became known in China not because the police found the killings but because the families of missing young people made it known. For years parents in Jincheng had reported sons who walked out of the house and never came back. The reports led nowhere. When a 19-year-old student vanished in April 2012, his family found that others had gone missing in the same area, newspapers took up the story, and in early May a special police task force was set up. Zhang was detained days later. After he was sentenced, Chinese authorities dismissed or disciplined 12 police officers, including two police chiefs, for failing in their duties.
Reporters who went to Nanmen in May 2012 described Zhang as a 56-year-old bachelor who lived alone. The Shanghai paper Oriental Morning Post and the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily both described him from the accounts of the village secretary and dozens of villagers: he farmed his plot, kept dogs, played Chinese chess and seldom greeted his neighbors. People's Daily Online, reporting the verdict, also described him as living single and alone. Neighbors quoted by the South China Morning Post called him a small man who grew vegetables and kept to himself.
Villagers told reporters that he had been in trouble early. According to the accounts gathered by the Oriental Morning Post and the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, in 1974 he attacked people with a knife at night, was publicly criticized in the village and was sent for six months of reeducation through labor. Those papers relied on villagers for this episode, and no court record of it has been reported.
Zhang's first homicide conviction came in 1979. People's Daily Online, in its report on the 2012 verdict, said that in 1979 he was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for intentional homicide, that he received several reductions of sentence, and that he was released in 1997 and returned to his home in Jinning. State media cited by the German agency dpa, and the Associated Press, gave the same outline: a 1979 conviction for murder, a death sentence that was suspended or reduced, and release in 1997.
The village accounts differ in their details. Villagers told the Oriental Morning Post and the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily that police took him away in December 1978 on suspicion of murder and that he was sentenced to life imprisonment, and that he came back to the village in June or July 1997. Neighbors told the South China Morning Post he had been jailed for life for murder in the late 1970s and released after 20 years. AFP said he had served almost 20 years in prison. The official account, given by People's Daily Online, is a 1979 sentence of death with reprieve.
The victim of that earlier killing was not named in the reports.
The court found that Zhang began killing again in 2008. In the four years that followed, young people in the area around Nanmen went missing one after another.
Families at first did not suspect a killer. AFP reported in May 2012 that many of them believed their sons had been kidnapped and forced to work in illegal brick kilns.
The police did little. The Oriental Morning Post reported that, apart from one 12-year-old, all the missing were over 16, and that police had not opened criminal cases because the families could not point to a scene showing clear signs of a crime. Relatives told reporters that the police ignored their pleas for help and stopped them from speaking to the media, according to the Associated Press. Some told the South China Morning Post that reports they had filed as long as five years earlier had never led to any action.
One of the earliest families was that of a 12-year-old boy who disappeared in 2007. The Oriental Morning Post reported that the family had told police of their suspicions about Zhang, but that the police did not investigate for lack of evidence. The boy's disappearance falls before the period covered by Zhang's 2012 conviction, and the reports do not say whether he was one of the 11 victims.
On December 1, 2011, a 17-year-old student was attacked near his own home. Both the Oriental Morning Post and the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported the attack, the second paper drawing on the boy's father. Neighbors caught Zhang and called the police. He said he had only been playing with the boy, and because the boy had not been injured, the matter was dropped. The boy survived. He was not among the victims named in the court case.
Han Yao was 19 and a first-year university student, according to the South China Morning Post and the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily. He disappeared on April 25, 2012, near Nanmen Village.
In looking for him, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported, his family found that eight other young people had already gone missing in the same area. The disappearances clustered in a small area the press came to call the "trapezoid zone" near the village.
The case drew attention only after newspapers and the internet spread it, the South China Morning Post reported. On May 3, 2012, the Kunming Public Security Bureau and the Jinning County Public Security Bureau set up a joint special task force, led by a deputy police chief, according to the Oriental Morning Post. The Kunming paper Chuncheng Evening News reported at about that time that there were eight possible victims, all male, aged 12 to 19, the South China Morning Post said. Families gave blood samples to the police for DNA comparison.
Villagers said police took Zhang from his home on the morning of May 7, 2012. On May 6 a Kunming police spokesman, Yao Zhihong, had confirmed the investigation. At 9 p.m. on May 9 the Kunming police announced that Zhang was a major suspect and that he had been placed under criminal detention. They said they had found Han Yao's mobile phone with its SIM card, his bank card and his identity documents at Zhang's home, and that forensic evidence showed Han Yao was dead. Police cordoned off his home.
After the May 9 announcement no further official updates were released for some time, the Oriental Morning Post reported. The Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported that some relatives doubted that one man of 56 could have overpowered young men and suspected accomplices, or hoped that some of the missing were still alive. Police repeatedly asked them to wait for official conclusions. On May 20 Yao Zhihong said only that the case was complex and that information would be released promptly.
As the story spread, the count of missing grew. By May 21 families had reported 17 people missing in Jincheng, the Oriental Morning Post said, up from five in the first reports. The oldest was 80. Three had disappeared outside the zone where most of the cases were concentrated. Nine of the newly added cases came from families who said they had reported to police but had no receipts, so their reports could not be confirmed. The Shanghai paper's count of 17 was also cited by the South China Morning Post and AsiaNews.
Speculation ran far ahead of the evidence. Internet users guessed at 20 to 50 victims, and microblog posts claimed that dozens of pairs of shoes had been found and that Zhang had confessed to more than 20 murders, the South China Morning Post reported; none of those claims was confirmed. AsiaNews likewise noted that none of the competing figures had been confirmed.
The case reached Beijing. The Ministry of Public Security and the Yunnan provincial police joined the investigation, and the ministry's experts arrived in Kunming, according to the Oriental Morning Post. The South China Morning Post reported that the ministry sent a senior officer to lead the inquiry, and People's Daily Online later said that the ministry and Yunnan authorities ordered an investigation that included a review of who was responsible for the failures.
On May 24, 2012, two local officials, Da Qiming and Zhao Huiyun, were suspended for failing to act on the case, Xinhua reported, according to the South China Morning Post. The SCMP described Da as chief of the county public security bureau.
On Sunday, May 27, the Ministry of Public Security issued a statement that Zhang had been arrested on murder charges. It said he was suspected of attacking male victims walking alone on a quiet road near his home, and that a large amount of physical evidence and DNA comparisons showed he had killed 11 males, according to the Associated Press. Police said that he had been charged with killing 11 young men, and that six other young men reported missing in the area remained unaccounted for, according to dpa.
From the first days the case drew rumors of cannibalism, and they gave Zhang the nickname that the foreign press repeated. A senior Jinning County police official, Wu Huayong, told dpa by telephone in May 2012 that the police had no evidence that Zhang had eaten human flesh. The charges and the conviction were for intentional homicide. No report of the court's findings included the cannibalism stories.
On June 9, 2012, state media reported that 12 police officers had been fired or disciplined for failing to meet their responsibilities, according to the Associated Press. A statement on the Yunnan police website identified the two sacked chiefs as Da Qiming, the Jinning County police chief, and Zhao Huiyun, the Jincheng township police chief. The Yunnan Daily reported that three more officers lost their jobs and that the remaining seven received administrative sanctions. dpa reported that the county police chief and the head of the nearest police station had been sacked for negligence.
The Associated Press noted that Chinese authorities commonly remove or demote officials after major incidents that cause public anger.
The Kunming Intermediate People's Court held a public hearing on July 28, 2012, about two months after the case was solved. People's Daily Online said the speed was meant to give the victims' families an accounting and the public the truth.
The court found that since 2008 Zhang had attacked lone pedestrians on sparsely traveled roads, taking them by surprise, and that he had then destroyed the evidence by disposing of the bodies. Xinhua reported that he strangled his victims. All 11 victims were men. The court convicted him of intentional homicide and, at first instance, sentenced him to death with deprivation of political rights for life.
He showed no remorse in court, Xinhua reported, according to the Associated Press.
In January 2013 Xinhua reported that Zhang had been taken to an execution ground and executed on a Thursday. AFP carried the report on January 10, 2013, giving his age as 57. Any appeal, and the review of the death sentence by a higher court, went unreported. China does not publish statistics on its executions; AFP cited an estimate by the Dui Hua Foundation that about 4,000 people were executed in China in 2011.
Number of victims. The court convicted Zhang of 11 killings between 2008 and 2012. Families reported 17 people missing; online claims went as high as 50. Only the 11 were proven.
The 2007 disappearance. A 12-year-old boy went missing in 2007, and his family suspected Zhang. The disappearance predates the period of the conviction, and no report links it to the court's findings.
Cannibalism. Widely reported in May 2012 from villagers' accounts, Hong Kong newspaper reports and internet rumors. A Jinning police official said there was no evidence Zhang ate human flesh. It was not part of the charge.
The earlier sentence. Villagers said he was taken in December 1978 and sentenced to life; the official account is a 1979 death sentence with a two-year reprieve.
The 1974 knife attack. Known only from villagers' accounts to reporters.
Date of arrest. Villagers said police took him on May 7, 2012; police announced his detention on May 9 and the ministry announced his arrest on May 27.
1974: According to villagers, Zhang attacks people with a knife at night and is sent for six months of reeducation through labor.
1979: Sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for intentional homicide (official account); the sentence is reduced several times.
1997: Released; returns to Nanmen Village.
2007: A 12-year-old boy goes missing; his family's suspicions about Zhang are not investigated.
2008: The period of the convicted killings begins.
December 1, 2011: A 17-year-old is attacked near his home; Zhang says he was playing, and the matter is dropped.
April 25, 2012: Han Yao, 19, disappears near Nanmen Village.
May 3, 2012: Kunming and Jinning police set up a special task force.
May 7, 2012: Villagers say police take Zhang from his home.
May 9, 2012: Police announce Han Yao is dead and Zhang is under criminal detention.
May 21, 2012: Families' count of missing reaches 17.
May 24, 2012: Two local officials, Da Qiming and Zhao Huiyun, suspended (Xinhua).
May 27, 2012: Ministry of Public Security announces Zhang's arrest and says evidence ties him to the deaths of 11 males.
June 9, 2012: State media report 12 police officers dismissed or disciplined.
July 28, 2012: Kunming Intermediate People's Court sentences Zhang to death for intentional homicide.
January 2013: Xinhua reports Zhang has been executed (AFP report dated January 10, 2013).