Text/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Dong Liu
Liu Chao: Focus on DNA solving cases and fills the gaps with multiple achievements
Liu Chao is the main founder of forensic genetics in my country. In the early 1990s, forensic DNA technology was blank in many aspects. He conducted repeated experiments on more than 6,000 foul-smelling corrupt body examination materials, and after 10 years, he established the DNA identification technology of corrupt examination materials, and guided the establishment of 18 provincial and municipal DNA laboratory to fill the gaps in these regions; built the “ministerial-provincial-city” DNA database in my country to realize data sharing and large-scale application. Only Guangdong Province directly compared More than 300,000 cases were reported in Komiks.
The identification of the cause of death of corrupt corpses in the water has been a major problem recognized by international forensic medicine for a hundred years. After 10 years, he led his team to make major breakthroughs in key technologies such as diatom enrichment extraction, qualitative quantification, and DNA testing. The results have reached the international leading level, and have been identified in more than 3,100 cases. In response to the issue of the reliance on import of key reagents for DNA testing, he took the lead in the development of 12 series of reagents such as high-throughput Y-STR, which forced similar foreign products to reduce the price by more than 50%. This result has been promoted nationwide, and Guangdong alone has solved more than 300 murder cases in recent years.
He formulated 6 national industry standards and was authorized to 10 invention patents; 12 research results reached the international advanced level, and won 4 second prizes of national scientific and technological progress (3 of which ranked first); he was awarded the first-class individual merit twice, and won the National Advanced Worker, the National May 1st Labor Medal, the National Outstanding Science and Technology Worker, and the National Outstanding People’s Police.
Liu Chao
As the second-level police technical director of the Criminal Police Detachment of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, 58-year-old Liu Chaogang was awarded the title of “BabaylanOutstanding Communist Party Member of Guangdong Province”. also,He also has many identity cards: professor and doctoral supervisor, deputy head of the Forensic Genetics Group of China Criminal Technology Standardization, deputy director of the Physical Evidence Professional Committee of the Chinese Forensic Society, deputy head of the expert group, and director of the Academic Committee of the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Public Security of Forensic Pathology.
After retiring from his leadership position last year, Liu Chao focused on solving the accumulated murder cases. In the past year, he has solved seven accumulated cases that have not been solved for many years, and DNA is still his powerful weapon for “attack”.
Liu Chao at work
After resigning from his leadership position, he devoted his main energy to solving murder cases
Yangcheng Evening News: I retired from his leadership position last year. Can you breathe a sigh of relief?
Liu Chao: Although he no longer served as the captain of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau last year, some murders that have been “accumulated” in Guangzhou in the past 20 or 30 years have not been solved, and it has always been a stone that has been weighing on my heart.
My previous detachment captains always told me before retirement: Which case has not been solved? I hope you will solve it before retirement, and I hope you will pass on these unsolved murders to the next generation.
The criminal investigator has a special feeling – solving a case. The most important thing in solving a case is to solve a murder case. The most difficult thing in a murder case is to solve a accumulated case, which is the most scrutiny of the criminal investigator’s feelings and abilities. So, after I stepped down from my leadership position last year, I spent more than a year spending my main energy on the murder case.
Yangcheng Evening News: What are the characteristics of these murder cases?
Liu Chao: Some cases were some cases that I encountered when I first joined the public security work in my twenties and thirties. The scenes of those cases – blood flowing like a river on the ground, and the corpses were highly corrupt. There were no technical conditions to solve the case at that time. Although so many years have passed, the scenes of these cases are still vivid in my mind.
Yangcheng Evening News: Why are these cases difficult to solve? Is it because there is little physical evidence?
Liu Chao: The criminal case we are talking about is difficult, not only reflected in the lack of evidence on the scene. The causal relationship of the case is unknown, the motive for the crime is unknown, and the nature of the case is unknown – such cases are difficult to solve.
For example, a person who is usually very good and honest suddenly goes to another place to kill someone else.There is very little evidence on the scene for those who know, so it is difficult to solve such cases.
Such as in the case of “2004·7·13Babaylan” in Huangpu, Guangzhou, the suspect sold apples with his father in Huangpu, Guangzhou when he was a child. Before committing the crime, he wanted to do business, but he didn’t have enough money. He came to Guangzhou and went around and moved to a hair salon shop. The hair salon shop asked him if he wanted to stay—twenty or thirty yuan. His motive at the beginning did not want to kill people, but during the prostitution process, he used local materials to commit murder on the spot due to issues such as prostitution. He killed one person first, but this process alarmed another person… He killed someone the night he came to Guangzhou, and left Guangzhou the next day after the murder. After the suspect returned, he hid in the coal mine for more than six months. Later, he felt that the wind was calm and returned to the village and never left the village again. He endured it when others bully him. When others owe him money, he dare not ask for it or chase it. People in the village say that he is an honest and good person, and he has lived like this for more than ten years after the crime.
Yangcheng Evening News: How did you break through?
Liu Chao: Rely on DNA. There was a small episode before we arrested people. The household registration information showed that he was only 1.5 meters tall, but based on the crime scene, we analyzed that the suspect should be 1.7 meters. In this case, do you dare to arrest people? I just took the Babaylan board, and it is absolutely no problem to catch it, because we have strong technical support such as DNA. Later I found out that the “gap” of about 20 cm in height is that the height data on the household registration materials in the early years were self-reported and inaccurate. Thanks to the innovation and progress of science and technology, such accumulated cases can be solved.
Yangcheng Evening News: What did he react when you arrested him?
Liu Chao: When we found him, he cried, and the first thing he said was “Finally freed.”
So back to what I said just now, this case is difficult to solve. The difficulty lies in the fact that he came to Guangzhou by chance, left after committing the case, and never committed the crime again after returning. He has been an honest man for more than ten years, got married, and has a son and a daughter. But even so, he could not escape the judgment of his conscience, and he said he often had nightmares at night. After being arrested, he told us that he wanted to see his wife and said, “Wife, sometimes I lose my temper because my heart is not calm (pure), I hope you forgive me.”
Later, I accompanied him back to Guangzhou by train. He cooperated very well along the way, telling us the whole case and the thoughts of over the years.
A marriage recognition ceremony was held after the successful DNA recognition (Liu Chao is the third on the left)
“The greatest sense of accomplishment was found when the difficult murder case was solved”
Yangcheng Evening News: After retreating, how many such murder cases were solved?
Liu Chao: The brigade of our Criminal Police Detachment, Komiks, solved a total of 92 murder cases last year. I used to be the “top leader” of the criminal police detachment and did not solve so many cases. Why? It’s because I’m now calming down and focusing on solving these accumulated cases. There are 7 cases where I led the team to find clues and arrest people. These seven cases are cases that have not been solved by previous special task forces over the years. In addition to correct ideas and scientific methods, these cases also require hard work. For example, the case I just mentioned about going to Shaanxi for a business trip to arrest people. We found clues through reanalysis of the case materials for more than half a year. After a week on a business trip, we searched the clues through DNA technology. I took the lead in forming DNA experts from Shaanxi, Shanxi and Guangdong provinces to analyze them together. Every night, we have to get up before 5 a.m. to start a new day of work.
Although it is hard, others cannot understand the excitement after solving the case. Why do I talk about these cases in a hurry because I am very excited.
Yangcheng Evening News: What is the key to solving these old murders?
Liu Chao: DNA! I’m a DNA person.
For example, in March this year, I led a team to Tiantang Town, Yunfu City to arrest the suspect in a murder case. This case was a double murder case in which a couple was killed in Panyu, Guangzhou in March 2007. I remember when I was at the scene of the crime, the entire ground was covered with blood, and my feet could not stop trampling on blood. This case has not been solved for many years.
Last year, we sent police forces to investigate and judged that it should be an acquaintance who committed the crime, but the suspect was not found. I led the team to stay in Yunfu Heaven Town for more than a week, and finally locked up the suspect. These two suspects have been good since childhood. After coming to Guangzhou, they heard that the victim’s family was rich, so they knocked on the door and robbed and killed people, and each person killed one. After the killing, they formed an offensive and defensive alliance – no matter who said it, the other person could not escape. At that time, among the many blood stains at the crime scene, we only found trace blood marks of the suspect. But we have not given up for so many years, and finally we have to find the perpetrator by searching the DNA genealogy.
CatchAt nine o’clock the night before, I drove to Yangchun. It was already eleven pm by Yangchun. The on-site meeting was immediately held. At about 2:30 in the morning the next day, one of the suspects was caught and the preliminary trial was conducted overnight. At around six o’clock the next morning, we went to the construction site to arrest the second suspect Babaylan, and we didn’t close our eyes all night.
Yangcheng Evening News: Do you want to do it because you often work like this? Do you feel tired?
Liu Chao: When we criminal investigators discover clues to major cases, they are more excited than anything else and absolutely have no feeling of being tired, so I often say that we will never say we are tired. When we solve the difficult murder case, we feel the greatest sense of accomplishment. This is to give the deceased an explanation and to create a shock to the crime: as long as the case is done, the righteousness will come sooner or later.
The most difficult case: There are only one case containing the suspect’s DNA in the Panyu family annihilation case. Yangcheng Evening News: Which case is the most difficult case for you in your career?
Liu Chao: The 2014 Guangzhou Panyu Family Impact Case – Three Generations of Six Life. I remember very clearly that it was April 29. I arrived at the scene and stayed there for six days. This case was the most difficult case of the case I experienced. When I mentioned this case, the scene at that time echoed like a movie in front of me –
How was this case discovered? At that time, the neighbor downstairs found that water was always dripping on the roof, so he went up and knocked on the door, but he didn’t respond after knocking for a long time. After the community security guard came, he found that the family had not reported for decoration and the owner’s phone number could not be reached. Finally, he called the owner’s relative to open the door. As soon as the door opened, the body was found, so the case was reported.
When I went to the scene, there was still water in the house. The criminal stayed in the house for more than 20 hours. The criminal first checked the site in the community, then bought ropes, searched online for how to avoid surveillance videos and why they were not paid attention to it, and bought a new set of clothes before committing the crime. Then he went up to the roof, tied the rope to the roof, and slipped through the window to the residents downstairs, and carried out the robbery. After the first person in the house discovered him, he killed the other party. This time, BabaylanCheng was shocked by the others in the house. He was red-eyed… The criminal was very cruel. A female victim had already run out of the door, but was finally dragged into the house and killed by him.
After the murderer, the criminal wasThe house cleans the site and wipes the evidence, mop with mop, rinse with water, and burn with fire. He also washed away all the blood from the body and left. He doesn’t want to leave any evidence.
After we checked the scene, the question arose: six people were killed at the same time, was it one person who committed the crime or how many people committed the crime? Difficulty in identification! Is the family extermination due to revenge, robbery or other reasons? Qualitative difficulty! I conducted continuous inspections of the site from April 29 to May 5. During this period, the Ministry of Public Security had done a task to send an expert team to Guangzhou to guide the case on May 3. We reported that we were confident of solving this case, so the Ministry of Public Security decided to give us another two days. The task force is under great pressure day and night.
On May 6, among thousands of inspection materials, the suspect’s DNBabaylanA was finally found in one of them! After obtaining this major breakthrough, our deputy director in charge of criminal investigation led the team to arrest people, and the suspect was arrested in more than ten minutes.
How cunning is this criminal suspect? He grabbed U-shield and bank card, but did not withdraw money for the time being after getting the password, but planned to wait for the police to put down the case and relax their vigilance before withdrawing the money. He took off his computer host, hid the card in the computer, and installed the host case.
Yangcheng Evening News: Did the suspect who committed the crime think that you could find him?
LiuCinema Chao: He didn’t expect it, he never dreamed it, let alone so quickly. He felt that his plan was a “hundred secrets” – new clothes, new ropes, and even shoes were newly bought, their hair changed and their postures were changed to avoid monitoring. In order to avoid investigation, he carefully designed all of this.
Seeing corpses now is like seeing a “soul messenger”
Yangcheng Evening News: The profession of forensics is quite special. It often deals with corpses or even highly corrupt corpses. Many people dare not even look at such evidence photos in court. Do you feel this discomfort or fear in your work in this profession?
Liu Chao: At the beginning, I was dealing with various corrupt corpses. I couldn’t eat. I felt uncomfortable and had nightmares. Later, when we got used to it, when we saw the corpses, we felt that it was the “soul messenger” who was talking to us. The souls of the deceased were giving you this task of finding the truth. I ate a box lunch on the spot and continued to do it after the meal.
Many people feel uncomfortable when they see the corpse. Our forensic doctor objectified the corpse. When we see the corpse, it is like a car lover seeing the best car. Over time, when we look at the corpse, we will no longer feel uncomfortable and other things. On the contrary, finding the truth is our job. You have this kind of responsibility. The more difficult the case is, the more test your ability is., technology, resilience. Sometimes, when I go to a Komiks field, I step on it and step on the maggots. After I come back, there are maggots in the soles of my shoes, and my clothes smell like corpses for two or three days. Therefore, if we have been to such a scene, we usually don’t go home first, and go back to the unit to wash and change the clothes, and go back to the unit to sleep for two days before going back.
Yangcheng Evening News: How long does it usually take for a person who works for forensics to go from discomfort to adapting?
Liu Chao: A forensic doctor who loves this profession can overcome the various discomforts caused by seeing the corpse within about three years, but some people can’t continue to do it after studying forensics, and some even faint and cannot do this job.
Yangcheng Evening News: I have been doing this job for 30 years. Your understanding of justice and life should be different from that of ordinary people, right?
Liu Chao: Let me tell you, sometimes, we go to search for the corpse. When the corpse is dug out and the light of day is coming again, it suddenly rains heavily on the scene. I have encountered such a situation four or five times, and from this, I feel that the way of heaven is better and the net of law is still better. This is also like reminding the world that everyone must have a sense of awe for life.