Unknown Gender History: Ma Yanhong, Serial Killer Who Dismembered Her Victims

FULL TEXT (translated from Chinese; slightly edited):

~ Character introduction ~

In the 1990s, a cruel female killer appeared in Northeast my country, who killed 4 people with a knife. Her name is Ma Yanhong. She was born in 1967 as a farmer in Huachuan County, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang. She divorced in 1993 and lived alone in Jiashi renting a house. In 1994, Glamorous and vicious Ma Yanhong killed a family of three, including a child, who had lent her money to her landlord, and then mutilated and discarded the bodies.

In 1995, Dong Daqing, who lived with her, was killed. Later, she was arrested by the police while preparing to continue committing such crimes. In 1998, Ma Yanhong was sentenced to death for conclusive evidence. People called her the "Devil of the Northeast."

~ First case ~

In 1993, after Ma Yanhong got divorced, she packed up and went to Jiashi to mess around. After that, she started a small business and lost her money due to the bad situation and poor management.

In 1994, Ma Yanhong called herself Wang Lan in Jiashi and rented a house with the victim's Xu family. She fabricated a miserable experience to get the sympathy of Xu Xueli and his wife. Not only did they reduce the rent of the house, but also lent her money. But it didn't make her feel contented, so a "farmer and the snake" story came to develop.

On August 26, Ma Yanhong met for a meal in the name of seeing off the Xu family when she was away. Before eating, she put "Li Mian Ning" sleeping pill powder in the wine and food, making Xu Xueli, his wife, and children groggy. After she had collected all their money, she killed and mutilated all three with a kitchen knife, and then took advantage of the darkness to drive their car and threw the corpses in rice fields, ditches, under bridges and other places.

Afterwards, Ma Yanhong assumed that nothing happened, and used the robbed money to rent a house with better conditions in the urban area, and used the name "Ren Xiu'e" to register for marriage-matching at the dating agency of the "Aesthetic Information Department".

~ Commit the crime again ~

Through the matchmaking agency of the "Aesthetic Information Department", Ma Yanhong met Dong Daqing, who worked as a police officer. Later, based on Ma Yanhong's well-honed manipulative skills, she took Dong Daqing in one fell swoop and moved in with him. Later, Ma Yanhong learned that Dong Daqing had more than 20,000 Renminbi in bank deposits, so, once again, she hatched a plot.

On June 2, 1995, Ma Yanhong cooked and added the drugs to the food and wine. Once her lover had passed out, she found his bank passbook. Then killed and dismembered him with a kitchen knife. She packed the pieces in plastic bags and discarded them in various places. Body parts was found in many places, such as the rice field irrigation ditch near the Agricultural Research Institute on the south side of Jiashi and near the Sanhe Bridge in Jiaxi. When a colleague of Dong Daqing asked about her lover’s whereabouts, she told him "Dong Daqing drank too much.”

~ Case investigation ~

Later, Dong Daqing's father reported to the police that he hadn't seen his son for a long time, and he could not be reached on the phone. The police went to Dong's residence to conduct an investigation and found bloodstains. It was preliminarily determined by the blood stains and laboratory tests that Dong Daqing had been murdered.

After investigation, the police learned that Ma Yanhong and Dong Daqing had met at the dating agency and simulated a portrait of "Ren Xiu'e" based on the description of the staff. Later, an old man recognized that the person in the portrait was Ma Yanhong from his village. Later, the police learned that missing man's passbook was missing, so they staked out various bank branches and one afternoon captured Ma Yanhong who had come to withdraw money.

~ Case outcome ~

The police interrogated Ma Yanhong, and Ma Yanhong truthfully confessed the facts of the crime once the evidence was complete, admitting that she had murdered four persons. Ma Yanhong was sentenced to death based on cruel methods she employed in committing the crimes. However, before being shot, Ma Yanhong said that she was instigated by a certain "Wang", a claim that required investigation, so she lived three more years. At the end of 1998, Ma Yanhong was finally sentenced to death and executed.

The mode of execution used was a single gunshot in the head.

[“A review of the Chinese female serial killer case: "The Devil Head" planned to commit a crime and killed 4 people in succession for Money!” ( 中国女连环杀手案件回顾：“女魔头”预谋作案，为财接连杀害4人！), Tencent News (China), Jun. 21, 2020]

https://xw.qq.com/partner/vivoscreen/20200621A05BF200?vivorcdmark=1&vivoRcdMark=1

***

FULL TEXT:

~ Major historical case: Ma Yanhong, a rare serial female killer in the country, the "snake and venomous girl" – China’s first female serial killer, with a glamorous appearance, she killed four people with her own power, smashed and threw corpses: the ‘Northeast She-devil Ma Yanhong serial murder case; The secrets of the strange case ~

In September 1994, it was reported to the police station on Jianguo Road, Jiamusi City, that two packages containing of human thighs were found in the grass on the east bank of the Songhua River. Almost at the same time, the suburban police branch and the Yonghong police branch received a report of bags containing human body parts. Coroners assembled the heads and limbs, and found the remains of a man, a woman and a child. There was no evidence pointing to the place the killings occurred or the identity of the victims. The remains were distributed in various locations and so the investigation could not move forward.

In June 1995, dismembered bodies in plastic bags were successively found in the rice field ditch of the Agricultural Research Institute on the south side of Jiashi and near the Jiaxi Sanhe Bridge. The city of Jiashi was shaken. Rumors flew everywhere. Wu Jixue, the director of public security could not sit still. He pounded the table and ordered the criminal police team to solve the case promptly: giving the team one month to find out the identity of the deceased, two months to identify the murderer, and three months to solve the case.

After assembling and integrating the newly discovered fragments, there was only two-thirds of a corpse missing the head and the left side of the chest. Except that it was a male, nothing was known.

Criminal police and forensic were invited to examine the remains at Public Security Bureau. It was noted that stained fingernails indicated a smoker that the slightly curved spine and buttocks suggested a sedentary job. The age was estimated at 32 and 35 years, The height at 1.78-1.80 meters. After descriptive data were input to a computer, a human body portrait was produced, which confirmed these estimations. But there was still no head – no face. Nevertheless, police used this limited information to launch an investigation.

The following day, police issued a falsified police report in order to attract attention of the public in order to identify the victim. The local TV station gave the description, but claimed the victim was an unidentified injured man (unconscious, one would assume) in hospital. Viewers were asked to help. The description included an important detail: a scar on the left wrist.

This report alarmed an old man named Dong. His son, Dong Daqing, hadn't seen him for several days, and could not be reached at home or work. He called the phone number listed by the TV station.

The son, 33-year-old Dong Daqing, was a police officer, living alone following divorce. The father said that the last time he saw him was in late May [1995]. He told police he heard that Daqing had recently gotten a girlfriend named Ren whom he had never met. I have a partner recently, surnamed Ren, but I have never met. The scar on his wrist was came from an accident pulling a cork from a bottle of wine.

Investigators immediately went to Dong Daqing's residence. A neighbor said that he hadn’t seen him for many days, not since the evening of Children's Day on June 1st, when he saw Daqing he and his girlfriend arrive home together. He heard Daqing calling the woman, who was attractive, by the name of Xiu'e.

With the father's consent, the investigators entered the house and were shocked by the chaos they found. The kitchen and living room were spattered with blood stains, over walls and objects. Small pieces of bone and flesh were discovered. Forensic tests showed the blood type matched Dong Daqing's.

Ren Xiu'e was the key to solving the case. Police believed that Dong likely met the woman through a matchmaking service. They canvassed nearly two hundred marriage matchmaker services in the city. This led to the discovery of the names of Dong Daqing and Ren Xiue in the register a matchmaking service named "Aestheticism."

According to the descriptions of Dong's neighbors and the staff of the Ministry of Information, the Technical Section of the Public Security Bureau quickly painted a portrait of Ren Xiu'e. In the Dongfeng District, an old lady who came to Jiajia from Huachuan looked at the portrait and blurted out: Isn't this the third girl from the Lao Ma's family in my village? At this point, the mystery of the killer’s identity was solved.

[“China’s first female serial killer, with a glamorous appearance, she killed four people with her own power, smashed and threw corpses: the Northeast female devil Ma Yanhong serial murder case,” Zhuanlan Zhihu (China), Date?; 中国第一女连环杀手，长相美艳，曾凭一己之力杀害四人，碎尸抛尸：东北女魔头马艳红连环杀人案 ]

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/123840871

***

CHRONOLOGY

Ma Yanhong; alias “Ren Xiue,”; “Wang Lan”; “The Poison Snake Woman.” “The Devil Head”; “She-Devil of the Northeast.”

1967 – born to a farming family in Huachuan County, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang.

1993 – Ma Yanhong divorces; moves to Jiashi. After that, she started a small business which failed.

Sep. 1994 –alias Wang Lan; Xu Xueli family murders; Dismembered remains found on bank of Songhua River, delivered to Jianguo Road, Jiamusi City; other parts found and delivered to the suburban police dept. and the Yonghong police dept. After integrating the missing head and limbs, it can be seen that it is a man, a woman, two adults and a child. sleeping pill "Li Mian Ning"

Jun. 2, 1995 – Dong Daqing, male, (33) police officer, Jiamusi City, identified as one of the dismembered victims; dismembered bodies in plastic bags were successively found in the rice field ditch of the Agricultural Research Institute on the south side of Jiashi and near the Jiaxi Sanhe Bridge.

1995 – In the Dongfeng District, an old lady who came to Jiajia from Huachuan looked at the portrait of “Ren Xiue,” and identified her as the 3rd daughter Lao Ma in her village in Huachuan: Ma Yanhong.

1995 – capture the police learned that Dong Daqing's passbook was missing, so they guarded various financial units and finally captured Ma Yanhong who had come to withdraw money one afternoon.

1998 – Ma Yanhong sentenced to death and executed.

***

Ma Yanhong - 马艳红

***