{"id":7964,"date":"2024-07-12T14:43:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zrp.gov.zw\/?p=7964"},"modified":"2024-07-12T14:43:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:43:50","slug":"police-finally-unearth-the-chinese-couple-mysterious-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zrp.gov.zw\/?p=7964","title":{"rendered":"Police finally unearth the Chinese couple mysterious disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Zvidza and Shepard Ngwaru.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

A three-year murder case of two Chinese nationals, Lei Ding (35) and his wife Chi Lifen (30) is finally taking shape after the arrest of three Chinese nationals \u00a0Chen Long residing in Avondale, Harare, as well his accomplices, \u00a0Xu Lin Lin and Luo Yengshen who were arrested by Chinese Police in the People\u2019s Republic of China. The three are being charged with the murder of their fellow Chinese couple. They also face kidnapping charges.<\/p>\n

The deceased couple went missing on Valentine\u2019s Day in 2020 after visiting a friend in Highlands, Harare.<\/p>\n

It is believed that the couple went to one of the accused, Lin\u2019s residence driving in a white Mercedes Benz ML. However, the couple was never to be seen alive again. Their car was later recovered by Mabvuku Police the next day, dumped along Acturus Road, east of Harare with keys on the ignition.<\/p>\n

A report was made at the CID Vehicle Theft Squad in Southerton and upon searching the car, police found the \u00a0male victim\u2019s firearm certificate.<\/p>\n

For the past years, the police could not find a breakthrough to the mysterious case despite a reward of US$1 million being dangled by the couple\u2019s family and friends for any information leading to the victims\u2019 finding.<\/p>\n

But all hope was not lost as police had to find other means of getting to the bottom of the matter. ZRP \u00a0engaged INTERPOL and the Chinese authorities as they widened their investigations to establish the whereabouts of the two. This culminated in the Chinese Government sending a team of eight investigators to work with the local Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Homicide in trying to find some clues into the mysterious disappearance of the Chinese couple.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough came following investigations conducted by a joint team of Zimbabwean and Chinese police which led to the recovery of an iPhone, which was being used by the couple prior to their disappearance.<\/p>\n

The cellphone was taken to\u00a0China where it was restored all the data and hence forth police pursued investigations leading to the arrest of Xu Lin Lin and Luo Yengshen in China. The two confessed that they fatally assaulted the couple, and dumped their bodies into an unknown dam in Eastview Phase 15, Harare. \u00a0The duo who had been in Zimbabwe previously also implicated Long, whom they had left there, to have been involved in the gruesome killing and subsequent concealment of the bodies.<\/p>\n

Long was then arrested in Harare and\u00a0on 27 September 2023 he led detectives to a disused mine dam\u00a0in Eastview, where he and his accomplices dumped the bodies of the missing persons. He further revealed that they had killed Ding after he had duped them large sums of money on the pretext of investing in business. The wife, Lifen was a victim of circumstances as her demise came as a way to try and conceal the heinous crime she had witnessed. Everything began to fall into line.<\/p>\n

Detectives then engaged the services of ZRP Sub Aqua Unit who searched in the dam and retrieved two sealed blue plastic 210litre drums and upon opening they found human remains at an advanced state of decomposition.<\/p>\n

The joint team continued the search at the dam, hoping to find the male deceased\u2019s pistol which the accused claimed they threw into the same dam. The team mobilised the community and got a water pump to suck all the water out of the dam, an arduous operation which took five days before the recovery of the firearm in the mud after all the water was flushed out.<\/p>\n

Few days later, Long appeared before Harare Magistrate, Dennis Mangosi who remanded him in custody pending finalisation of investigations. His accomplices are set to be extradited back to Zimbabwe to face trial while police are awaiting postmortem report to establish the cause of victims\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Chinese investigators paid a courtesy call on the Commissioner General of Police Cde Tandabantu Godwin Matanga at Police General Headquarters in Harare to give an update on the progress of the investigations.<\/p>\n

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Junfang Rao of Hubei, Provincial Public Security Department, Chinese Police who is the leader of the Chinese investigators seconded to work with ZRP \u00a0said his team is satisfied with the progress in the investigation as well as cooperation between them and the CID Homicide Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very much satisfied with the progress made in the case so far, we greatly appreciate the level of cooperation exhibited by the detectives from CID Homicide and we look forward to have other joint operations in the future. It is also gratifying to know that Zimbabwean Government is concerned with the welfare of Chinese nationals who live in Zimbabwe\u201d, Junfang said.<\/p>\n

He also revealed that the postmortem report indicated that the cause of death for the two was asphyxia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Zvidza and Shepard Ngwaru. A three-year murder case of two Chinese nationals, Lei Ding (35) and his wife Chi Lifen (30) is finally taking shape after the arrest of three Chinese nationals \u00a0Chen Long residing in Avondale, Harare, as well his accomplices, \u00a0Xu Lin Lin and Luo Yengshen who were arrested by Chinese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-significant-arrests"],"yoast_head":"\nPolice finally unearth the Chinese couple mysterious disappearance - Zimbabwe Republic Police<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zrp.gov.zw\/?p=7964\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police finally unearth the Chinese couple mysterious disappearance - Zimbabwe Republic Police\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robert Zvidza and Shepard Ngwaru. 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