bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Mark O'Neill

Wu Hongke had murdered four members of one family and got away with it. The police had lost the trail - until he made a fatal mistake last Boxing Day.

 He called the daughter-in-law of one of his victims and asked her: 'Do you want to know the name of the killer?  'If you want to know, you must first pay me one million yuan [about HK$934,700].'  This call, recorded by the police, led to Wu Hongke's capture on January 18, ending a manhunt which involved hundreds of officers.

 Among his victims was Wu Shijie, vice-president of Hong Kong-listed Hengan International, one of the mainland's biggest makers of sanitary napkins and disposable nappies.

 On Thursday, the company presented the police with a reward of one million yuan for its work in finding the killer.

 'Wu was one of the founders of the firm in 1985,' a company spokesman said.

 'He made a very great contribution. But our production and sales are operating normally.'  Investors like Hengan. In a recent research report, Merrill Lynch rated it 'a long-term accumulate'.

 Hengan has a share of more than 20 per cent of the mainland sanitary napkin market and more than 10 per cent for nappies.

 It has 17 plants and 3,500 distributors and a strong presence in the rural market, which accounts for two thirds of total consumption.

 The death of Wu Shijie and his family members was the result of a security lapse. Along with other executives, he lived in a company compound with a single entrance that had a 24-hour guard.

 'Our security methods are good,' the company spokesman said.

 'On the day of the murder a new gate was being built and the air-conditioning was being installed. The assassin took the opportunity to enter at a moment when the guards were distracted.'  Murderer Wu lived just 100 metres away and was a classmate of Wu Shijie's son. His motive was robbery, not murder. He made his original plan for August 7, but that day saw too many people at the Wu house, many of them mahjong partners of the family, so he stayed away.

 He went back two days later and knocked on the door. Wu Shijie's wife opened it and he demanded money.

 She refused and ran to the window, screaming for help. He punched her to the floor and bound her hands with tape. She continued to resist and then spoke the words that cost her life: 'I recognise you, Wu Hongke.'  Terrified, Wu Hongke strangled her with a towel and rushed for the door. Just at the moment, the woman's two teenage daughters came down the stairs. Fearful they would see their mother's body, Wu Hongke tied them up in their parents' bedroom.

 Wu Shijie then arrived home and the two men started to fight. The businessman was stabbed through the chest. The killer then strangled Wu Shijie's daughters before cutting the gas pipe, hoping to cause an explosion, before fleeing. His booty was a small amount of cash, two mobile telephones and jewellery which he sold for a total of 10,000 yuan.

 After the bodies were discovered, Hengan gave the police one million yuan towards the cost of the investigation, but they had no leads.

 Wu lived quietly until his nerve broke in early December. He suddenly moved away with his wife, arousing suspicion, but there was no solid evidence against him.

 It was the telephone call that brought him down. He spoke in the Fujian dialect, narrowing the list of suspects to a native of the area.

 Police were recording all calls made to the murdered businessman's home and traced Wu Hongke's call to the office of a trading firm in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, 1,500km to the north.

 Inquiries at the company found that a relative of Wu Hongke's wife had done business there. Police then discovered that Wu Hongke and his wife had rented a small apartment under an assumed name in the city.

 On the night of January 18, five officers burst in the apartment and arrested him. He confessed to the murders.

 Wu Shijie had no bodyguard like the majority of mainland company executives. Even if he had, it might not have saved him, because it was an 'inside' job, committed by someone known to the family.



Hengan boss killer made fatal mistake