Brothers given life sentence for murder in 1997

Two brothers from Jiangsu province have been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a woman while robbing her family's tobacco store in Baoshan district 16 years ago, local media reported Tuesday.

The sentencing closed the book on a case that went unsolved for more than a decade until an anonymous tipster gave police the name of two potential suspects, according to a report in the Shanghai Evening Post.

The break came when Shanghai police got word of an anonymous tip that their counterparts in Jiangsu province received about an unsolved murder in the city from more than 10 years ago, the report said. The tipster pointed police to two brothers surnamed Heng who lived in Jiangsu province.

Police put Heng Deli, a miner, and his younger brother, Heng Dejun, who earned a living recycling garbage, into an eight-person lineup, where witnesses to the crime, including the victim's daughter, identified them as the perpetrators.

The Heng brothers came to Shanghai in the early 1990s. They tried to make a living selling vegetables, but business was poor. They admitted that they came up with a plan to rob the tobacco store in 1997 after the younger Heng got married and needed extra money to start a family, the report said. The store was run by a woman surnamed Zhang and her husband.

Police said the Hengs were the two men who entered the store on the night of the murder in July 1997 as Zhang was about to close for the day. One of the men repeatedly stabbed Zhang, while the other grabbed Zhang's daughter, who was 8 years old at the time, and choked her until she passed out.

Zhang's husband, who was out purchasing tobacco, returned to find his wife dead and his daughter injured, but alive. He reported that more than 10,000 yuan ($1,641) in cash had been stolen from the store, along with the jewelry his wife was wearing at the time.

Zhang's daughter and other witnesses were able to describe the two men, but police failed to track them down. At the time, police lacked the technology to collect fingerprints and there were no surveillance cameras to provide them with video of the incident, the report said.

The Hengs later admitted that the younger brother was the one who stabbed Zhang to death, the report said. Both men believed her daughter was dead when they fled the store that night.

Police have not identified the source of the anonymous tip that led them to the two brothers. The Hengs said that they received a blackmail letter several years ago that demanded they pay 100,000 yuan or the sender would report them to police, the report said. They never answered the letter.

A Baoshan district police detective surnamed Tang, who followed the case, received an anonymous call from outside the city several years ago. The caller asked for 100,000 yuan in exchange for the names of the people involved in Zhang's murder. However, police were unable to locate the caller, according to the report.