Chapter 1050: Red-clothed Killer

The earliest traceable serial murder case in Dongzhou City dates back to 15 years ago.

These cases caused a huge sensation back then, as a murderous demon appeared in Dongzhou City 15 years ago.

This murderer specifically targeted women in red dresses during holidays.

Fifteen years ago, four cases occurred consecutively, one each on the nights of New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Double Ninth Festival, characterized by similar methods and victims with the same features.

Due to the extreme cruelty of the perpetrator and his pattern of exclusively targeting women in red dresses at night, Dongzhou City was gripped by fear for a while.

For a long period, no woman in Dongzhou City dared to wear a red dress anymore.

Despite four consecutive crimes, the suspect was never found.

It was initially thought that the perpetrator had disappeared, but unexpectedly, he resurfaced 12 years ago.

During the Spring Festival of that year, Dongzhou City witnessed two more female victims, both attacked at night while wearing red dresses.

The perpetrator’s exceptionally brutal methods were strikingly similar to those from 15 years earlier, with both victims killed at night while dressed in red. Dongzhou City criminal investigators concluded it was the same perpetrator.

A few similar cases occurred in the following years, making the Dongzhou City serial murder case a focus for departmental oversight.

However, after so many years, there are still no clues regarding the suspect.

Lu Chuan studied these cases specifically during his time in police academy and has some familiarity with them.

He was surprised when the serious crime task force reassembled for this Spring Festival because of the Dongzhou City serial murder case.

Others were clearly aware too; the task was the serial murder case in Tongzhou City, placing a psychological burden on everyone. Inside the meeting room, people smoked and drank tea in silence, lost in thought.

Within half an hour, two other task force members finally arrived, and Li Donglin straightened up.

"All right, with the task force fully assembled, let me describe the specifics of the case."

Li Donglin instructed an assistant to turn on the projector.

"On February 13th this year, which was the second day of the Lunar New Year, Dongzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team received a report; someone found a finger in a trash bin."

The projector displayed the photo of the trash bin at the time and the piece of finger that was found.

"Dongzhou City’s Public Security Bureau took this seriously, forming a task force in the Criminal Investigation Team to fully solve the case, but after three days, there were no discoveries."

The projector’s photos continued to flicker, showing an outline map of a suburb.

"And just three days later, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Dongzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team received another report, discovering a female corpse in red clothes near a North Suburb landfill."

The photo switched to the scene where the corpse was discovered.

"According to forensic analysis, the victim was killed on the second day of the Lunar New Year, the same day Dongzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team received the report of the finger found in the trash bin."

"The perpetrator’s methods were exceptionally cruel; both hands of the victim were amputated."

"Meanwhile, there were cuts on the torso, a knife slit the throat, and signs of sexual assault on the lower body."

"If the methods were deemed cruel, they mirror the techniques of the suspect in the Dengzhou City serial murder case from 15 years ago."

Li Donglin spoke heavily: "Upon reaching this judgment, Dongzhou City’s Criminal Investigation Team immediately reported the related cases to the provincial department. In recent days, provincial criminal experts have reviewed this case, but there haven’t been significant breakthroughs."

Li Donglin had dealt with the Dongzhou City serial murder case before, but it was unsolved at the time, so provincial department leaders decided to hand the case over to the serious crime task force for investigation this time.

After summarizing the case, Li Donglin stood up and surveyed the room.

"Everyone, you must have heard of the Dongzhou serial murder case. Starting from 15 years ago, there have been 11 victims, including the woman killed on the second day of the Lunar New Year!"

"You’re probably familiar with the difficulty in investigating these cases. Whether our task force can solve this case and apprehend the suspect is uncertain, but..."

Li Donglin was under enormous pressure.

The reappearance of the Dongzhou City serial murder case’s perpetrator put immense pressure on the police system.

The Dongzhou serial murder cases have been a disgrace to the province’s public security system, with 11 killings over more than ten years, yet no progress on the case.

Many experts failed before these cases.

Therefore, even now, it’s unknown whether these cases can finally be solved. Despite departmental interventions at the time, the unsolved nature attests to the suspect’s cunning and precise, meticulous murderous methods.

"But I hope everyone will go all out and manage to solve this case, which has gone unsolved for 15 years, and capture this Red-clothed Killer!"

On the table were the case files related to incidents from 15 years ago. Over the past days, Li Donglin had already asked people to compile copies of all the files.

Though the personnel present had heard of these cases, and even studied some of them, the detailed case specifics—the investigative ideas, thoughts, and deductions at the time—weren’t accessible to detectives not involved in the case’s investigation. Hence, this was Lu Chuan’s first time reading the detailed actual case files.

Judging by the suspect’s methods, the perpetrator was exceedingly cruel.

Four victims killed 15 years ago shared the following characteristics.

The victims had missing body parts, were mostly assaulted, and experienced lethal neck wounds, all caused by a single throat-slitting knife strike.

Moreover, the crime scenes held numerous traces, such as fingerprints and footprints.

All 11 crime scenes produced valuable footprints and fingerprints, yet each person they pointed to had an alibi.

Additionally, the owners of the fingerprints and footprints belonged to different individuals.

The Red-clothed Killer seemed like a ghost, capable of impersonating different people’s appearances to commit crimes. He left many traces at the scene, but only traces of impersonated individuals were found, never his own.

The latest murder incident in Dongzhou City shared this characteristic: the suspect left clear footprints and fingerprints at the scene, but when police tracked the suspects, the person turned out to be an 82-year-old elderly man.

Having lived in a nursing home for 10 years, it was naturally impossible for him to have the energy or time to commit the murder.

This exemplifies the difficulty of solving this case!