'I have achieved my mission in life': Chinese woman's 17-year search for husband's killers ends as police nab final suspect
Yet Li Guiying, who is in her 60s, says news bittersweet as neighbours in home village in Henan province had refused to talk to police after stabbing in 1998 and help to catch culprits earlier
A Chinese woman who spent 17 years travelling the country in search of five people who killed her husband has finally ended her hunt after police caught the last suspect.
Yet Li Guiying, who is in her 60s, and had her one-woman crusade widely reported by mainland media in November, said on Friday the news was bittersweet.
“The news is a mixed blessing,” Li told The Beijing News, which last month reported that she had successfully tracked down four of the culprits who had stabbed and bludgeoned to death her husband, Qi Yuande.
“I am glad that the police have finally caught the last suspect and I have achieved my mission in life.
“But I am also sad because I have spent the past 17 years looking for my enemies, and yet it took less than 17 days for them to catch the last one after the media reports about my quest.
The newspaper’s earlier report about her search received national attention and helped track down the remaining fugitive.
Police arrested the final suspect, Qi Kuojun, in a residential area of Shawan county in the north of the western region of Xinjiang at midnight on Thursday, mainland media reported.
Qi reportedly told police that he spent the past six years living in fear of being caught in Xinjiang.
Li said: “I am grateful for the efforts of Xinjiang police, but I cannot be happy because I didn’t get what I wanted,” Li said.
“I’ll be satisfied only after people who helped to change the suspects’ identities [over the years] and delayed the case being solved are also punished.”
Li could appeal to a higher public security authority or the procuratorate to take action against the local police for failing in their duties to capture the suspects earlier, said Liu Xiaoyuan, a Chinese human rights lawyer.
Liu also said it was up to the local government to decide if Li should receive any compensation for her years of searching.
Li, began her one-woman crusade in 1998 after she and her husband were stabbed during a dispute with five other people in their home village in Henan province, mainland media reported.
She was stabbed in the legs and abdomen three times, while her husband bled to death after suffering head and neck wounds.
Two of the fugitives were caught in 1998 and 1999 and both were jailed for 15 years. Another suspect was caught in 2011, while the fourth was detained in November.
One of the suspects told mainland media that the attacks had been carried out as revenge after the couple had told authorities the five villagers had violated the mainland’s one-child policy.
However, public records showed that the claim made against the couple had been false.
Li told The Beijing News last month that she had visited more than 10 provinces to find the fugitives during the past 17 years.
“I was like a crazy person,” she said. “Whatever tips people gave me I followed them up, without thinking if they were solid leads.”
In an interview with state-run CCTV, police from Li’s hometown said that they had not arrested the suspects soon after the killing because other villagers had refused to help them with their inquiries.
