Chinese murderer caught hours after dumped suitcase reveals body parts

But Nguyen Khanh’s curiosity got the better of him and he steered the boat that he and his wife were sailing in towards the foot of the Tran Thi Ly Bridge in Da Nang City.

It was 4 a.m. Friday.

Khanh got the suitcase and opened it. His gut churned and he turned cold with fear. Inside were several parts of a human body. The terrified couple had no choice but to take the suitcase ashore and inform the authorities.

The Da Nang Police got the information at around 7 a.m. Colonel Tran Muu, deputy director of the city’s police department, took up the case.

Quickly concluding that this was a murder case with the body dumped, he requested the crime branch to join the investigation because there was no head in the suitcase and the body had to be identified.

Looking at the water flow when standing at the foot of the bridge, the colonel felt that the culprit could have thrown the suitcase from the Tuyen Son Bridge, a kilometer away.

A team was sent by boat to search the area between the two bridges. They found a bag covered with tape. Inside was a human head and feet.

Colonel Muu suspected that the victim was a Chinese woman. He ordered an autopsy and also had the city’s immigration office work on ID verification.

Soon after, the victim was identified as a Chinese woman named Bao DanPing, 30. She’d entered Vietnam on December 4 last year and was a frequent visitor at a casino in Ngu Hanh Son District.

Police teams were then sent to stake out the house the victim had rented - 14 Truong Van Hien Street – in the same district.

At 11 a.m., they saw a man on a motorbike stopping in front of the house and rushing to the third floor. Their suspicions aroused, the police officers called superiors for further directions.

Major general Vu Xuan Vien, director of the city’s police department, gave the nod for police to detain the man.

Half an hour later, the team raided the house and caught the man, Xiao Guiping, 27, a Chinese national.

"Criminals usually have a look that betrays them," Colonel Muu said.

At the police station, Guiping admitted to the crime, it stemmed from a quarrel with DanPing from whom he’d borrowed money to gamble at the Crowne Plaza casino.

Guiping is a native of China’s Guizhou Province. He arrived in Vietnam on December 23 last year as a tourist, but his main aim was to gamble at the casino.

In Da Nang, he moved into a rented house on Truong Van Hien Street with his Chinese girlfriend, a close friend of the victim, DanPing.

On Learning that Guiping was good at gambling, DanPing decided to allow him to gamble with her money, the agreement being that they would split the proceeds or losses equally.

On December 26, Guiping won $34,000 and the sum was split as agreed.

On February 4 and 5, DanPing gave Guiping $61,000 to gamble, but he lost. Upset, DanPing demanded her entire money back, instead of splitting the loss equally, as agreed, Guiping told the police.

Last Thursday afternoon, DanPing came to Guiping’s place and demanded the money and the ensuing dispute escalated to the point that Guiping ended up killing her. Police did not reveal how she was killed.

After killing her, Guiping proceeded to cut her body in several parts, some of which he put in a suitcase. He carried it on a motorbike to Hoi An Town, some 30 km away. Unable to find a suitable place to dump the suitcase, he returned to Da Nang and threw it into the Han River at the Tran Thi Ly Bridge.

The other body parts he put into a bag and dumped it into the river at Tuyen Son Bridge.

Da Nang police have detained Guiping’s girlfriend as well. The two will be investigated and dealt with under Vietnamese regulations.

"They will not be sent back to China for this," colonel Muu said.

Da Nang authorities have rewarded the police department VND100 million ($4,300) for solving a murder case just hours after it happened.