Incident time: December 2015
Summary of the case: He Xiaoyu, a 12-year-old sixth grade student at Chengnan Primary School, went missing on his way to school.
In the security surveillance footage of the intersection that is necessary for going to school, it was found that Xiaoyu left with a man wearing a dark sports jacket.
Who is the man? Where did they go?
When the police feel something's wrong, many things really aren't right, "Wang Mas said to me when recalling that case.
At the end of 2015, as someone who had already changed into a winter duty uniform, I saw the same message in several WeChat groups:
He Xiaoyu, a sixth grade student at Chengnan Elementary School, went missing on her way to school this morning. Wearing a blue and white school uniform when lost, please inform or call the police promptly if you see kind-hearted people.
Below are the contact numbers of the parents and a photo of a little girl wearing a blue and white school uniform standing in the middle of the lawn with a smile on her face.
Wang Mas found me in the office, pushed his phone in front of me, continued scrolling, and said more than ten things in a row. Just three hours ago, this little girl named Xiaoyu disappeared.
Our relatives and friends in our social circle, even colleagues from the police force, are reposting.
I realized the seriousness of the situation, looked up and met Wang Mas' eyes. Suddenly, my heart skipped a beat: I am a forensic expert, and he came to find me at this moment. Has the little girl already been killed?
In my 18 year career as a forensic expert, although I have not been involved in many missing persons cases, I have some experience.
Firstly, the disappearance case is like a race, where we must race against time to find the parties involved, as even a minute's delay could lead to major events; Secondly, if the missing person is a child, we have to 'run' even faster. The child has no resistance ability, and if kidnapped by criminals, it can be said that they will definitely be harmed.
Wang Mas seemed to sense my concern and said, 'I haven't heard from the girl yet, I just found some clues and I want you to take a look together.'"
At the beginning of the case, there was no clue, so it was comforting for Wang Mas to have someone else to help.
Actually, I can understand Wang Mas' anxiety, not only because both of us have daughters, but mainly because we have experienced a more urgent child kidnapping case together. When the police arrested the suspect, they opened his cupboard and a little boy holding his neck walked out. The boy's neck was cut open, his trachea was broken, but his artery was not. When he saw us, he was very quiet because he couldn't speak
The rescue was timely and the boy survived. But this incident also left a psychological shadow on me and Wang Mas. The child has gone missing, and we really can't wait. Every minute and second we grab, maybe we can exchange for the child's life.
It has been 4 hours since Xiaoyu went missing.
The fermentation of case heat is much faster than we imagined.
At that time, the movie "Dear" with the theme of "anti trafficking" was in full swing, and Xiaoyu's missing person notice went viral in various local WeChat groups like a real-time movie.
Students, parents, and teachers from Chengnan Elementary School quickly forwarded the message, and within just one morning, they could click on any local WeChat group to see the news of Xiaoyu's disappearance. As noon approached, local media's follow-up reports further confirmed the authenticity of the news.
Everyone's reaction is reminiscent of the fierce "Changchun Baby Defense War" two years ago.
In 2013, there was a case of a missing baby in Changchun, where a car thief stole the baby along with the car. After the case occurred, many citizens angrily shared it on social media platforms, and the media also followed up and reported on it in the first place. With the efforts of the whole city, the perpetrator eventually surrendered to the public security bureau under pressure.
The large-scale spread of the news alarmed the leaders, and on the day of Xiaoyu's disappearance at noon, Wang Mas was called into the captain's office.
Isn't finding a child always handled by the police station? "Wang Mas had just returned from a business trip and was planning to take a vacation this afternoon to accompany his wife.
Now the whole city is forwarding this message, and the director has come to ask. You can take the lead first, "the captain advised." I'll give you two more days off later
Wang Mas immediately picked up the car keys. This kind of case cannot wait.
When Wang Mas arrived at the local police station, Director Liu was scolding his subordinates. The slow response of the police station has resulted in no progress in the case from receiving the call until now, but the impact of the incident continues to expand, to the point where the director personally came to inquire. For a moment, the police station turned into ants on the hot pot.
A primary school student went missing on his way to school. Prior to his disappearance, he had no arguments with his family, no past grievances, and no debt disputes. Although the disappearance time is not long, the anxious parents repeatedly promised that their daughter would be obedient and not wander around, and the teacher also agreed with this. The traffic police team and hospital have also confirmed that there was no traffic accident on the road where Xiaoyu went to school that morning.
On the surface, there is really no place to start in the case.
The director dispatched half of the staff from the entire school, riding motorcycles, to inquire along Xiaoyu's route to school. Wang Mas and the remaining five or six brothers from the police station were flipping through surveillance videos on their computers.
Soon, they made a discovery.
In a security surveillance video at an intersection, at around 7am, Xiaoyu, wearing a blue and white school uniform, appeared in the picture with a man wearing a dark sports jacket. The direction in which the two left was completely opposite to the direction in which Xiaoyu went to school.
After obtaining new clues, Wang Mas rushed back to the office, and it had been 9 hours since the girl went missing.
Quickly, the office door was pushed open and Wang Mas walked straight towards me.
He sent me the video without a beginning or end, and I watched Xiaoyu leave with someone, feeling a bit at a loss.
I have contacted Xiaoyu's parents, but none of them know this man, "Wang Mas stopped and waited for my response.
Nine and a half hours after Xiaoyu went missing. Wang Mas and I rushed to the intersection where Xiaoyu got lost in the video, and compared the location in the video, I stood over.
This is an ordinary intersection, and the security surveillance is facing the zebra crossing at the intersection. The suspect took Xiaoyu from the place under my feet.
The green light on the pedestrian crossing came on, and all the cars at the intersection stopped. I clicked on the stopwatch on my phone, imagining the suspect's appearance and simulating it with a hint of haste.
One step, two steps, three steps... He took 21 seconds and walked back and forth twice at a 20 meter wide intersection, for a total of 32 steps.
He is very similar in height and physique to me, and his steps are basically the same.
I watched it several times and noticed that the man in the video stopped at the intersection and even bent over. I don't know if he was talking to Xiaoyu or confirming if Xiaoyu was obediently following me.
I tried to search for possible cigarette butts, phlegm, or other things left by him on the roadside, but the morning sprinkler and sweeper had already taken away all traces.
At the end of the video, they left the surveillance range along the sidewalk by the roadside, and I looked up in that direction, which made my heart tighten.
That leads to an urban village.
Although I don't want to admit it, walking with a little girl is impossible to go too far. Right now, that's the most likely place for them to stay.
What we are facing is another challenge, which is the most chaotic and least monitored place in the city, with not many accessible videos.
There is not much time left for us.
Wang Mas was worried about scaring the snake with grass, so the video recording Xiaoyu's last appearance was not reported to the public. He hopes to locate the suspect's activity location in further video investigation.
That night, the police building was brightly lit, and the brothers in the team who did not have urgent tasks were doing the same thing as me - searching for the whereabouts of the little girl and the suspect frame by frame in hundreds of hours of video.
It's already winter and the north wind is howling outside, but in the office, you can only hear the sound of clicking the mouse. The constantly accumulating cigarette butts in the ashtray make the air even more turbid, and everyone has strong tea at hand.
Until late at night, the efforts of more than 200 people in the team only brought a little progress: at the intersection of entering the urban village, the traces of the suspect and the little girl were discovered.
After watching the video, Wang Mas put on his warm jacket and plunged into the urban village lined with rental buildings.
The night is deep, and the alleys and alleys in the city are crisscrossing. The street lights are dim, and some homeless people gather here. These homeless people squeeze into rental houses one by one, waking up or falling asleep to see the sun tomorrow. We don't know each other's names and don't care.
Wang Mas tried to find out Xiaoyu's whereabouts from the mouths of one shop owner after another, and stopped the men and women who were wandering around the streets, hoping they would know something.
But no one provided any clues.
At this time, it has been a full 17 hours since Xiaoyu went missing, which is the golden rescue time for the missing case.
Wang Mas looked at the prominent signs deep in the city village from afar, and it was certain that this was the final race track between us and the suspect.
The rental building in the alley, like a silent monster in the pitch black night, opened its bloody mouth and swallowed up the suspect and Xiaoyu who had broken into it.
Now, we also need to step into its territory.
After entering the urban village, time became our biggest enemy.
In the 26th hour since Xiaoyu's disappearance, the news is still spreading, and colleagues from neighboring cities are calling me to ask if it is true.
On the other hand, I am also working urgently. Xiaoyu's parents were called to collect DNA samples for subsequent testing.
This is the first time I have seen them, both with red eyes and tired faces, walking in step by step.
Xiaoyu's mother couldn't help but ask me, have the police found any clues now. When it comes to her daughter, tears can't stop flowing down her face. Xiaoyu has never disappointed her parents, and they have always regarded her as the apple of their eyes, doing their best to send her to the best Chengnan Elementary School nearby. But now my daughter has been missing for more than 24 hours and there is still no news.
When Xiaoyu's father said goodbye to me, he handed me a missing person notice flyer for Xiaoyu. Above that, I saw the little girl wearing a blue and white school uniform again, standing in the middle of the lawn with a smile on her face.
And what I didn't tell him was that the police currently have all the clues, only the suspect's profile can be seen from afar in the video.
Time is passing by minute by minute, and Wang Mas is also searching for new breakthroughs.
Throughout the day, we mobilized over 200 police officers from nearby police stations to question every person entering the urban village. The security personnel held a map and checked every alley and every rental building one by one.
Wang Mas and his brothers changed into plainclothes, with loaded pistols at their waists, and plunged into the alley, where they had to walk to the front of the main army. If those large-scale inspections are considered to startle the snake, they have to hit it seven inches when the stick startles it.
There are not many people in the urban village, and most of the residents work outside. Only a few people stay in their rooms to catch up after night shifts.
After a day of effort, over 200 police officers knocked on more than two-thirds of the rental houses in the entire area.
Some people feel that victory is within reach, while more and more people feel that hope is becoming increasingly elusive. Because no one knows whether behind those unbreakable doors are people or "monsters" hiding.
Wang Mas could even imagine that behind an unopened door, at a window with curtains drawn, there was a figure silently watching everything.
In the 43rd hour of Xiaoyu's disappearance, the situation gradually became severe and everyone's physical strength was about to fall behind.
Since yesterday, the first round of urban village investigation has lasted for 17 hours. Wang Mas is tired and hungry, but he still insists on shuttling through the spider web like alleys to get close to those grocery store owners and gather information from the laborers he meets.
Apart from occasional night shift pedestrians, there are only drunken drunkards in the alley. Those who usually live in the gray area have already smelled an unusual scent and quickly hid in darker corners.
After checking another reckless and hurried ghost, Wang Mas crawled into an inconspicuous dark alley next to him. The street lamp was broken, and halfway through with his flashlight, a large piece of newly demolished wasteland appeared in his eyes without warning. In the thick darkness, it looked like a monster with a face and fangs, silently watching and squatting, silently but making people tremble with fear. At the end of the alley, a dilapidated three story small building could be faintly seen protruding.
Perhaps sensing someone approaching, or perhaps startled by Wang Mas' shaking flashlight, two large mice darted out of the wasteland and plunged into the sewer at his feet.
Wang Mas was startled, he couldn't say for sure, but he just felt that this alley, or the building in front of him, was a bit strange.
Suddenly, the vibration of his phone came from his pocket, and Wang Mas cursed inwardly. He picked up the phone and the captain called everyone back to the station for a meeting.
When he turned around and left, Wang Mas turned back to look at the lonely small building at the end of the alley and secretly noted down its location.
This place is a bit suspicious, he plans to start investigating from here next time.
Wang Mas didn't know that the "monster" he had been searching for was now less than 30 meters away from him. That night was the closest he had come to changing the ending.
At 6:30 am on the third day, Wang Mas, who had only slept for over 4 hours, crawled into the urban village again. To block the people inside, you have to wake up earlier than most people
He once again turned into the alley where he didn't have time to check last night.
Although there was only one profile, Wang Mas had already drawn that half of the face millions of times in his mind, and he guessed that the guy might be nearby.
During the day, the alley was deserted with no pedestrians. The barren land we passed through last night was filled with rocks, and wild weeds sprouted from the cracks, leaving behind various types of garbage.
Wang Mas stood in front of the three story building again and looked at it from top to bottom, this time seeing it very clearly. Just as he was about to knock on the door, it suddenly opened
A man is holding a black plastic bag in his hand, preparing to go out. When he saw Wang Mas, he was clearly stunned, as if he hadn't expected to bump into a stranger at the door early in the morning.
Wang Mas stared at the man in dark sportswear in front of him, his heart stirred, and the hand knocking on the door slowly dropped, touching his waist - there was a loaded handgun.