The mystery of ＂Mei Yi＂： four years after being confessed, the identity is unknown, and four of the nine abducted children have not yet been found.
There is a character named "Mei Yi" in the movie "Yangcheng Anshao", whose identity is mysterious and deeply hidden. Finally, it is found out that she is a female spy chief. Nowadays, the name of "Mei Yi" has been circulated in Guangdong and other places — — She is considered to be a "human trafficker" involved in the trafficking of nine boys.
On March 26, 2021, nine child trafficking cases involved in "Mei Yi" were heard by the Guangdong High Court. During the trial, "Mei Yi" was mentioned many times. Zhang Weiping, one of the principal criminals in this case, said that all the nine abducted boys contacted the buyers through "Mei Yi". He said in court that the simulated portrait drawn by the police before was "unlike" Mei Yi himself.
After the trial on March 26th, Shen Junliang was interviewed by the media. Unless otherwise indicated, the pictures in this article are all taken by The Paper reporter Zhu Yuanxiang.
"Please ask the procuratorial organs to strengthen supervision and the public security departments to strengthen investigation," said Shen Junliang, plaintiff in the incidental civil action of the original trial on the 26th. "We must catch Mei Yi and get the other four children back."
Who is the mysterious "Mei Yi"? Four years after Zhang Weiping gave her up, the mystery remains unsolved.
On the afternoon of March 26th, the staff of the command center of Zengcheng Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that the case-handling department of the bureau was still investigating "Mei Yi", and there was no new breakthrough at present. "If there is a result, it will be announced to the public as soon as possible".
Four defendants at the trial site apologized and the case will be reported to the trial Committee.
On March 26th, the second trial was held, and the Guangdong High Court chose the venue in Zengcheng District Court of Guangzhou. Affected by epidemic prevention and other factors, the trial took the form of remote video, and five defendants in the original trial received remote trial at Zengcheng District Detention Center.
The Guangdong Higher People’s Court conducted the second trial of this case in Zengcheng District Court.
Two years ago, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court found out in the first instance that from September 2003 to December 2005, the defendant Zhang Weiping committed 9 crimes and participated in the abduction of 9 children. The other four defendants, Zhou Rongping, Yang Chaoping, Liu Zhenghong and Chen Shoubi, participated in one of the cases and abducted a child — — Shen Cong, son of Shen Junliang.
In December 2018, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court made a first-instance judgment, and all five defendants were found guilty of crime of trafficking in children. Zhang Weiping and Zhou Rongping were sentenced to death, Yang Chaoping and Liu Zhenghong were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Chen Shoubi was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Shen Junliang and his wife’s claim for incidental civil action was rejected by the court.
After the verdict was pronounced in the first instance, both the five defendants and Shen Junliang appealed.
Some parents show photos of abducted children.
After the trial, The Paper interviewed the parents of the abducted children, including Li Shuquan, Zhong Dingyou, Shen Junliang and their attorney, Liu Chang, to learn about the general process of the trial.
The defendant in the original trial stated the reasons for the appeal in court. The four defendants except Zhang Weiping all claimed that the trial was too heavy, and hoped that the court would consider the circumstances of pleading guilty and repenting. Only Zhang Weiping said that he had no objection to the first-instance judgment. "I didn’t appeal." Zhang Weiping said that he appealed because he listened to his lawyer. "I now withdraw my appeal." Because Zhang Weiping was sentenced to death in the first instance, the trial on that day was still conducted according to his appeal procedure.
In court, all four defendants except Zhang Weiping apologized to the victim’s family. "I apologize to Shen Junliang. Sorry, I made a mistake. " Defendant Zhou Rongping said. Another defendant, Liu Zhenghong, said that he realized that child trafficking hurt both the victim and his family. "In recent years, I have lived in pain every day."
During the trial, five defendants accepted inquiries and answered questions about related cases. The defense lawyer did not provide new evidence. The evidence presented by the court includes the bill of 200,000 yuan for compensation submitted to the court by the family of the defendant Zhou Rongping.
The prosecutor in court expressed the hope that the court of second instance would uphold the judgment of first instance.
In the trial of incidental civil action, Shen Junliang and his wife demanded that the defendants compensate them for the cost of finding a child for 15 years, as well as the lost time, schizophrenia treatment and mental comfort, totaling more than 4.81 million yuan.
According to Liu Chang, Shen Junliang’s attorney, before the end of the trial, the presiding judge said that the case would be submitted to the Judicial Committee of the Guangdong Higher People’s Court for discussion and finalization, and then the verdict would be pronounced on an optional basis.
This case was called "Mei Yi" by many media, because the defendant claimed that all the nine abducted children completed the transaction through her. However, she is not on the list of defendants in the case — — The true identity of "Mei Yi" is still an unsolved mystery.
Shen Junliang printed the portrait of "Mei Yi" on the reward searching for you.
Zhang Weiping insisted that "Mei Yi" existed, and the victim’s family called for "catching her".
In the trial on March 26th, when asked, Zhang Weiping said that clues such as "Mei Yi" in his confession were true. "I can’t draw." He said that the police showed him a simulated portrait of "Mei Yi", "unlike that person".
Zhang Weiping, born in 1971, is from Suiyang, Guizhou, and a recidivist of abducting and selling children.
According to the first-instance judgment of Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, from 2003 to 2005, Zhang Weiping abducted nine children in Zengcheng District, Huangpu District, Guangzhou, and Boluo County, Huizhou City.
According to Zhang Weiping, before committing the crime, he would "step on the spot" around the rented house where the migrant workers lived, looking for a suitable boy. After locking the target, he will contact "Mei Yi" first, and "Mei Yi" will find a good buyer, and then he will start work and take the child away when the adults are not paying attention.
Zhang Weiping said that after abducting the child, he would send the child to Mei Yi as soon as possible. According to him, the place where he met with "Mei Yi" was "the slope next to Zengcheng No.10 motorcade" for many times. Sometimes he will go to Zijin County, Heyuan City, with his children in his arms, and trade with buyers there.
Zijin county is located in the southeast of Heyuan city. More than a decade ago, influenced by the feudal concept of son preference, some local couples with limited fertility often "adopted" foreign boys. In fact, Zhang Weiping claimed that seven of the nine boys he and Mei Yi and others had trafficked were sold to Zijin County, and the other two were sold to Wuhua County, Meizhou City, and Huidong County, Huizhou City, near Zijin.
According to Zhang Weiping, for each transaction, the buyer will pay about 12,000 yuan as "maintenance fee", from which he will pay 1000 yuan as "introduction fee" to "Mei Yi". Zhang Weiping said that in those years, sometimes "Mei Yi" would take the initiative to contact him and ask him if he had any children.
In the trial of the Guangdong Higher People’s Court, Zhang Weiping’s defense lawyer believed that "Mei Yi", who has not been brought to justice so far, mainly played a role in trading abducted children, and "Mei Yi was one of the principal offenders in this case".
Five of the nine children abducted and trafficked by Zhang Weiping and Mei Yi fifteen years ago have been recovered, and four others are still missing.
As the fathers of abducted children, Li Shuquan, Zhong Dingyou and Shen Junliang all believe that catching "Mei Yi" is the key to completely solving the mystery of the case. "So I’m here to ask the judicial organs to pay attention to this matter," Shen Junliang said in court. "Please ask the procuratorial organs to strengthen supervision and the public security departments to strengthen investigation, and we must catch Mei Yi and get the other four children back."
Li Shuquan and Zhong Dingyou, who haven’t found their sons yet, believe that Zhang Weiping’s long-term dealings with Mei Yi will be an important witness to identify Mei Yi. If the court of second instance maintains Zhang Weiping’s death sentence, it is best to "save his life" and not execute it immediately.
"If he dies, Mei Yi will be even harder to find." Li Shuquan sighed.
Who is "Aunt Mei"? After being confessed for 4 years, the police have no breakthrough.
How did Zhang Weiping and "Mei Yi" get to know each other and become accomplices in child trafficking?
In March 2016, Zhang Weiping, who had absconded for many years, was arrested by the police in Guiyang. In January 2017, the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department took the lead in organizing public security organs in Guangzhou, Dongguan and Huizhou to set up a task force on Zhang Weiping’s child abduction series.
In the face of police interrogation, Zhang Weiping initially confessed that the children he abducted were sold through a woman who was the "aunt of the mahjong hall near Xiangjiang West Road" in Zengcheng, Guangzhou. However, through investigation, the police did not find the "aunt" mentioned by Zhang Weiping.
Later, after several rounds of interrogation, after being arrested for one year, Zhang Weiping gave up "Mei Yi". According to him, in 2003, "Mei Yi" was nearly 50 years old, over 1.5 meters tall, with short hair and could speak vernacular.
Zhang Weiping said that after he was released from prison in 2003 — — Previously, crime of trafficking in children was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, and he rented in Shitan Town, Zengcheng. Introduced by an old man of 70 or 80 years old in Gangbei Village, he met a "bachelor" in Nanqi Village in his 40 s, and then introduced "Mei Yi" through "bachelor". "Bachelor" told him that "Aunt Mei" was a matchmaker.
The police conducted an investigation in Shitan Town, Zengcheng and other places. However, because the identity information of the "old man and bachelor" provided by Zhang Weiping was unknown, little progress was made at the moment. In November 2017, the police handling the case in Zengcheng Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau told The Paper that the police had taken Zhang Weiping to find two old people who introduced him to "Mei Yi" that year. One of them had passed away, and the other was in a state of senile dementia, so he could not recall the personnel of that year.
Zhang Weiping remembers that he met with "Mei Yi" several times, and "Mei Yi" came out of the slope at the intersection of No.10 motorcade in Zengcheng, so he estimated that "Mei Yi" lived in Hewu Village. In addition, from the analysis of the call between "Mei Yi" and others, her hometown should be Xinfeng County, Shaoguan City.
Legend has it that "Mei Yi" boyfriend lives in Huangsha Village. The Paper reporter Zhong Xiaomei photo
Later, Zhang Weiping provided a clue that when he and Mei Yi were selling children in Zijin County, Heyuan City, they had been to her boyfriend’s house with her — — In a village called "Huangsha".
Therefore, the police asked Zhang Weiping to lead the way to Huangsha Village, Shuidun Town, Zijin County. Here, the police found Peng, a suspected "Mei Yi" boyfriend — — This old man, who is nearly sixty years old, is usually engaged in farming and doing "muddy work". Many years ago, he had a relationship with a woman named "Fan Dongmei".
According to Peng’s memory, around 2005, when his wife had died for many years, he was introduced to "Fan Dongmei". In his impression, "Fan Dongmei" was about 50 years old at that time, with a height of less than 1.6 meters and a bit fat; The hair is short, the face is "a little square", and the face has slightly convex cheekbones. Peng still remembers that "Fan Dongmei" spoke Hakka, "but not local Hakka in Zijin".
"She said that her name is Fan Dongmei. I haven’t seen her ID card. I don’t know if it is her real name." Peng recalled that "Fan Dongmei" said that she was from Guangzhou and her husband died in a car accident.
Peng and "Fan Dongmei" have been in contact for three or four years. "I have been to my house for more than a dozen times, and I have stayed for one or two nights every time." Peng said that after three or four years of contact, "Fan Dongmei" left, never came to his house again, and could not be contacted.
The police investigating the case inquired about "Fan Dongmei" on the public security information network, but did not find a name that met the age of "Mei Yi".
In June 2017, Zengcheng Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau published a simulated portrait of "Mei Yi" to collect clues from the society. According to the circular, the woman nicknamed "Mei Yi" was involved in many trafficking cases, and her real name was unknown. She is about 65 years old, 1.5 meters tall, speaks Cantonese and Hakka, and has been active in Zengcheng and Shaoguan Xinfeng for a long time.
Later, Lin Yuhui, an expert on simulated portraits in Shandong, also painted a portrait of "Mei Yi".
On March 7, 2020, Li Guangri, deputy director of Zengcheng Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, introduced that the clues of "Mei Yi" reported by many people in China in the past three years were all excluded after verification.
"At present, there is no evidence to directly prove that Mei Yi exists." Li Guangri said at the time.
"The statement of the police is also rigorous. The existing evidence about Mei Lan is indeed indirect evidence. " Liu Chang, the attorney entrusted by the victim’s father, Shen Junliang, told The Paper that after consulting the case file and participating in the trial, he felt that Zhang Weiping, Peng Mou and others’ descriptions of "Mei Yi" could confirm each other with many situations in this series of child abduction cases. "I personally believe that ‘ Mei yi ’ It is real. "
A simulated portrait of "Aunt Mei". Guangzhou Zengcheng police map
On March 25th, a policeman involved in handling a series of cases of Zhang Weiping abducting and selling children told Shen Junliang that the search for "Mei Yi" was still "following", but no clues were found for the time being.
On March 26th, after the second trial of nine children abducted, The Paper contacted the command center of Zengcheng Branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau to learn about the progress of "Mei Yi" case.
"We have been investigating, and there is no new breakthrough in the case handling department for the time being." The staff of Zengcheng Public Security Bureau said that if the case makes progress, it will be announced to the public in time.