This happened a few days ago at the university where I used to teach English (article):

 

Two NCEPU Students Robbed and Killed off Campus – Police Close Case within 9 Hours

13 April 2009 

 

On the afternoon of the 11th two bodies were discovered in the small forest to the west of North China Electric Power University, Beijing (NCEPU). The bodies were identified as those of two freshmen in Electronics Class 08-1 of NCEPU’s School of Electrical Engineering. The students were romantically involved, and disappeared on the evening of the 8th. After the incident the school held an emergency meeting and arranged for counselors to help students deal with the situation. Yesterday afternoon the Beijing Public Security Bureau News Office confirmed that within nine hours of the crime the police captured all four suspects in Haicheng, Liaoning and Handan, Hebei. 

Freshmen lovers suddenly disappear

One Electronics Class student said that the students were in Electronics Class 08-1 of the School of Electrical Engineering, and that the two lovers had participated in a class outing just a few days ago. After 9 PM on the 8th, the two went out of the campus front gate and did not return. On the morning of the 9th, the league branch secretary and class monitor reported this to the school. 

The school then contacted the parents and friends of the missing students, but they could not provide any valuable information. The school then organized students and staff to search the campus and neighboring areas.

Yesterday a staff member of a local hotel said that a few days earlier a teacher had come to the hotel with a notice of a missing male and female student. One construction worker at the school named Lu said that around 11 AM of the 11th a dozen school security guards came to the construction site looking for the missing students. At 6 PM later that day police arrived and asked for a roll call of the workers.

 

Bodies found in off-campus forest

Around this time the students’ parents and classmates discovered their bodies in a small forest to the west of the campus. That night a dozen police cars were parked by the roadside near the forest, and police holding flashlights and police dogs combed the area, taking evidence from the crime scene. They also brought in a lighting car because it was so dark at the time. Yesterday at 12:50 AM the two bodies were taken from the scene.

Yesterday morning the lime sprinkled during the investigation could still be seen, and some evidence bags and caution tape were left at the scene. In a thicket of bushes running east to west along the campus wall this reporter saw a pile of dirt that had been overturned with two spots of blood on it. 

Huang Xing (name has been changed) has a little shop that is near the crime scene. Yesterday at 2 AM police knocked on his door and asked him if anyone had come to his store to buy anything from 9-3 on the night of the 8th. 

The shop owner usually closes at 10 PM, and Huang Xin said he did not see any suspicious people around the construction site. He said that the forest is very quiet and people seldom enter it. 

 

Police leave Beijing to capture the criminals

Yesterday afternoon the Beijing Public Security Bureau News Office confirmed that within nine hours of the crime the police captured all four suspects in Haicheng, Liaoning and Handan, Hebei.

They said that on the 10th around 6 PM after the police received the report and inspected the crime scene, they immediately formed a special case unit from the head Municipal Public Security Bureau Crime Squad and its Changping branch. That night they determined that the prime suspects were Teng Xianhe from Anshan Liaoning and Yao Wenkai from Handan, Hebei, and discovered that they had already fled to Haicheng, Liaoning. 

Yesterday morning at 3:30 AM, investigators caught the two suspects in an internet bar in Haicheng. Apparently on the night of 8 April they and two accomplices robbed at knifepoint and killed two university students in the forest outside of NCEPU. 

Yesterday afternoon at 3 PM with the assistance of Hebei police, the special case unit caught the two suspects Cao Hao and Cao Haifeng in Handan. 

 

University offers counseling

The two students were from Electronics Class 08-1 of the School of Electrical Engineering. Apparently the male student had an outgoing personality and loved to play soccer, while his girlfriend was the English class representative of her class. One student said that “the two had been together since last semester and got along quite well. When they were last seen by our classmates around 9 PM on the 8th they were walking out of the school gate hand in hand.” When the students learned of their unfortunate end, they mourned the couple in internet posts.

Zhao Xiuguo, head of the president’s office at NCEPU said that since this incident occurred off campus, the police have made this a criminal case. After the crime, the school held an emergency meeting, and assistants and psychology instructors began counseling students. They also reminded students to stay alert while on campus, and not to linger off campus. The parents of the students have already come to Beijing to deal with the matter.

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