Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

As Chen Gang listened to Zhang Hui's words, he lowered his head even further, tears streaming down his face and dripping onto the cold ground: "It was me... I was too ruthless. I thought that since I had already started, I had to kill him, otherwise he would definitely not let me go when he woke up."

"What did you do after he collapsed?" Zhang Hui pressed, his eyes glued to Chen Gang's every move, afraid of missing any detail. Chen Gang raised his hand, wiped the tears from his face, and slowly said, "After he fell to the ground, I stood there stunned for several minutes, my mind blank, until I heard his body twitch a few times before I came to my senses. I knelt down, checked his breath with my fingers, and felt his carotid artery. After confirming that he was dead, I started to panic. I didn't know what to do; I just wanted to cover it up as quickly as possible."

“I first threw the iron rod aside, then started turning him over and took his cell phone and canvas bag,” Chen Gang said, pointing to a mark on the ground. “His cell phone was in his shirt pocket, and the canvas bag was on his back, containing his ledger from collecting recyclables and some loose change. I knew these things might expose his identity, and I was also afraid there might be some records related to me in the ledger, so I took them all, intending to find a place to throw them away later.” During the on-site investigation, the technical department did find slight drag marks at that location, consistent with Chen Gang’s confession of “searching for personal belongings.” Furthermore, no of Li Baochun’s cell phone or canvas bag was found at the scene, further corroborating his confession.

Chen Gang paused, then continued, "After getting his belongings, I saw a lot of blood flowing from under his head, soaking the dust on the ground. Afraid that too much blood would leave a mark, I found a tattered canvas in a corner of the factory and covered his head with it. Then I kicked over some weeds and pebbles to simply cover the blood. Looking back now, I was really panicked at the time; all that covering up was just self-deception." The technical staff did indeed find a tattered canvas stained with blood under that spot. Testing confirmed the blood belonged to Li Baochun, and Chen Gang's fingerprints were also found on the canvas—the very tool he used to cover the blood.

"Then you disposed of the murder weapon and the marks on your body?" Zhang Hui asked. Chen Gang nodded: "I put the bloodstained iron rod and hemp rope into a black plastic bag I had prepared beforehand, and then took off my leather shoes—the soles and uppers of these shoes were stained with blood and dirt from the scene, so I didn't dare leave them on my body and put them into another plastic bag as well. I was wearing a black coat at the time, and there was some blood on the cuffs, so I wiped it off with dust from the factory. Although it didn't completely remove it, that was all I could do." During the on-site investigation, the technical department found a small amount of bloodstains in a corner of the factory. After comparison, it was determined that the bloodstains belonged to Li Baochun and were speculated to have been dripped by Chen Gang when he disposed of the iron rod, which perfectly matched his confession.

After confessing to the crime inside the factory, Chen Gang, escorted by police officers, walked out of the factory again and along the west-side path to where he had parked his car. There, he began to recount the details of disposing of the body. "I put the plastic bag containing the iron bar, rope, and leather shoes into the trunk of the car, and then I put Li Baochun's cell phone and a canvas bag into the glove compartment. Then I drove away," Chen Gang said, pointing to where his car had been parked. "It was around 10:20 p.m. It was very dark, and there weren't many cars on the road. I drove along the path, feeling very confused, not knowing where to dispose of the body."

“I drove around the suburbs for about an hour, and finally thought of the abandoned brick kiln to the south,” Chen Gang said in a low voice. “That brick kiln had been closed down long ago, and few people went there. It was filled with discarded bricks and debris, and it was very well hidden. I figured that if I dumped the body there, no one would find it. So I drove towards the brick kiln and arrived at it around 11:30 a.m..” Zhang Hui had already arranged for his team members to go to the abandoned brick kiln in advance to investigate. Sure enough, they found a pit covered by weeds deep inside the brick kiln. There were obvious digging marks around the pit, which was consistent with Chen Gang’s subsequent confession.

“I parked the car at the entrance of the brick kiln, and then took out a shovel from the trunk—I had put this shovel in the car beforehand, specifically for disposing of the body,” Chen Gang continued. “I took the shovel and went deep into the brick kiln, found a relatively secluded spot, and started digging a pit. The place was full of soil and gravel, making it very difficult to dig. I dug for about half an hour before I had dug a pit about one meter deep and half a meter wide, and I was covered in sweat.” The technical staff found Chen Gang’s footprints around the pit, which matched the footprints on the leather shoes he wore when he committed the crime. They also found his fingerprints on the shovel handle, and the shovel was covered in soil that matched the soil composition of the pit.

“After digging the pit, I went back to the car to try and lift Li Baochun’s body out,” Chen Gang said with a hint of difficulty. “Li Baochun wasn’t fat, but it was still very difficult for me to lift him by myself. I could only drag him from the factory to the car and put him in the trunk. While dragging him, his clothes were torn by the gravel on the ground, and his body was covered in mud. You found these things later when you investigated, right?” Zhang Hui nodded. The autopsy report clearly stated that Li Baochun’s clothes had multiple tears and there were minor abrasions on his body, all of which were caused during the dragging process, which completely matched Chen Gang’s confession.

“I took the body out of the trunk and threw it into the pit I had dug. Then I used a shovel to fill it back in with the soil I had dug out earlier. I also found some weeds and discarded bricks to cover the pit, trying to make it look like the surrounding environment so that no one would find it,” Chen Gang said. “After filling it in, I stomped around it a few times to compact the soil. Then I took the shovel back to the car and drove away from the brick kiln. It was already past 1 a.m., and there were still no people on the road. I breathed a slight sigh of relief, but then I started to worry that things would be exposed. I was restless the whole way.”

Zhang Hui pressed, "Where did you go after leaving the brick kiln? What happened to the tools used in the crime and Li Baochun's belongings?" Chen Gang sighed and said, "I drove back to the company because I didn't dare go home, afraid my wife would notice something was wrong. I parked the car in front of the company warehouse, then took all the plastic bags from the trunk into the warehouse and hid them in the innermost corner, covering them with some building materials. I was thinking of burning them or throwing them into the river when things calmed down. I put Li Baochun's cell phone and canvas bag in a drawer in the company office, intending to throw them away the next day, but before I could, you found me." (End of Chapter)