A Chinese woman who allegedly killed seven people, including a girl, and then spent 20 years on the blade was finally transported to court this week.
Lao Rongzhi appeared for the start of his trial in the Nanchang Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangxi Province and apologized to the victims’ families, offering them how little money he had in his bank account as compensation, Yahoo News reported.
The 46-year-old claimed that she did not intend to hurt anyone, but was caught in an abusive relationship with her then-boyfriend, Fa Ziying, who forced her to commit crimes, the press said.
“Fa Ziying often beat me, suffocated me and tortured me,” Yahoo News reported, citing local media. “My family threatened me if we broke up … I didn’t want to kill anyone. I just wanted to live. “
Lao added that while she was with the Fa, she had four abortions and was beaten by him, the press reported, citing local news.
Lao – who lived under a different name and worked in strange jobs for decades – was arrested in November 2019 in a mall in Xiamen, where she sold watches, after a police database helped her. Be identified as the fugitive they were looking for.
She is charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery for allegedly bringing businessman Xiong Qiyi – whom she met in a nightclub – to a rented apartment in 1996, where he was killed. Lao and Fa allegedly robbed his house and killed his wife and daughter, the press reported.
She is also accused of her alleged involvement a year later in the murder and robbery of nightclub workers Liang Xiaochun and Liu Suqing, according to the report.
In July 1996, Lao and Fa allegedly killed two more men in an attempt to obtain ransom money from one of them, Yin Jianhua – another businessman whom Lao met in a nightclub and allegedly lured until his death, the press reported.
In July 1999, Fa was executed for murder, kidnapping and robbery after being caught trying to collect ransom money from Yin’s wife, who managed to call the police when the duo thought she was receiving money, reported the news site.
Yin was found dead in an apartment after a neighbor reported an odor, but it was unclear whether he was killed or starved to death because the Fa repeatedly turned his story over to police, media reported.
Fa – who met Lao in 1993 when she was an elementary school teacher – helped Lao escape after lying to police when he was arrested.
The widow of another victim, carpenter Lu Zhongmin, was in the courtroom on Monday, Yahoo News reported.
The widow’s lawyer, Liu Jingjie, said in court that “the carpenter’s mother cried so much that she went blind.
“Crimes have changed the family’s destiny. The three children were very bright, but none of them could finish school, “said the lawyer, according to Yahoo News.