End to grisly three-decade mystery? Chinese police arrest suspected serial killer accused of murder and rape of 11 women and girls
The youngest of the victims killed over a 14-year period was eight years old
An alleged serial killer accused of raping and murdering nearly a dozen women and girls – one as young as eight, has been arrested in China’s northwest Gansu province, solving a terrifying mystery that has gripped the city of Baiyin for 28 years, according to police.
In a statement on the weekend, the Ministry of Public Security said Gao Chengyong, 52, a married father of two, was detained after a tip-off at a grocery store at the Baiyin Industrial School on Friday morning and admitted killing a total of 11 people in Baiyin and Baotou, in neighbouring Inner Mongolia, between 1988 and 2002.
The Beijing News said some key information related to Gao emerged earlier this year. Without elaborating, the report said officers examined Gao’s DNA and fingerprints and found they were identical to the killer’s.
The first victim, a 23-year-old woman, was killed in her home in Baiyin on May 26, 1988, and was found with 26 wounds to her body.
The subsequent murders followed a similar pattern – the killer targeted young women who lived alone, pursuing them to their homes before raping and killing them, according to earlier media reports.