A teenager was shocked to be told that his adopted dad had allegedly kidnapped him as an infant and murdered his parents because he thought the lad was “cute”.
The shocking story came to light when cops decided to carry out a cold case review using modern technology of the horrific murder of a couple carried out 18 years ago in their home in Shangfengshan village in China’s Henan province in 2001.
Police found that as well as the couple being murdered, their infant son had vanished without trace.
At the time, DNA testing was not carried out on the murdered couple, and when the cold case review team requested permission to examine the bodies in the hope the DNA might find a match with the missing boy, it was refused because his relatives did not believe he would ever be found.
But they did agree to provide samples themselves in May last year, which proved that they were actually the relatives of an 18-year-old who had also been DNA tested.
Shangcheng County investigator Chen Congjun: “At the end of the day, they didn’t believe we could find this child.
“But we reiterated our stance: We never gave up on this case, and that we are determined to crack this case. If not this year, then the next. We had to take advantage of the technology available to us.”
The cold case detectives had identified children in other cities and provinces whose parents were unknown, and it turned out the teenager had been adopted by a man who was a doctor in the area where the murders were carried out in 2001.
He revealed that he knew he was adopted, but that his adopted father, later convicted for people trafficking, told him that he had purchased him off the street and had no idea who his real parents were.
Police quizzed the adopted father, currently in jail over his conviction for trafficking women, and he has reportedly confessed to the killing. He said that he had originally planned to simply kidnap the boy, but in a conversation with the boy’s father, he had mistakenly revealed his hometown, which led to him allegedly murdering both parents in order to cover up his tracks.
The suspect, a doctor identified only by his surname Zhang, said that he thought the boy was ‘cute’ and wanted him for himself. His disappearance from the area immediately after the killing had not been linked with the murders.
The DNA match has been made 18 years later, and the teenager has been living with the family of his adopted father in the town of Kaifeng in Henan province.
He has now been returned to his real family, and his adopted father is now awaiting trial for murder.
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Story By:Â Alex Cope;Â Sub-Editor:Â Joseph Golder;Â Agency:Â Asia Wire Report;
