eurekapd Chapter 1492 Ex-wife Tian Yajuan
Chapter 1492 Ex-wife Tian Yajuan
Tian Yajuan and Zheng Guobin were from the same hometown. When they were young, they came to the city together to make a living. Initially, they relied on selling vegetables at a stall to survive, living a very poor life. Later, thanks to his quick wit and hard work, Zheng Guobin gradually accumulated some capital and opened a small supermarket. As the supermarket business improved, Zheng Guobin's mentality changed; he became restless and selfish, and his attitude towards Tian Yajuan became increasingly cold.
“After he got rich, he became a different person.” Tian Yajuan’s voice choked with sobs. “He used to consult me about everything, but later he made all the decisions himself and stopped giving me his earnings. I advised him to work hard, but he said I was narrow-minded and couldn’t keep up with him. Later, I found out that he was getting close to Zhang Guilan, a cashier at the supermarket, and that their relationship was ambiguous. When I confronted him, he not only denied it but also verbally abused me.”
According to Tian Yajuan, her conflict with Zheng Guobin fully erupted ten years ago. At that time, Zheng Guobin's supermarket expanded its operations, purchasing new stores and warehouses, resulting in a significant increase in his assets. Tian Yajuan requested to add her name to the supermarket and property deed, but Zheng Guobin firmly refused. Zheng Guobin stated that the supermarket and assets were all built by him and had nothing to do with Tian Yajuan; he even proposed a divorce, demanding that Tian Yajuan leave with nothing.
“I’ve suffered with him for so many years, and now that he’s successful, he wants to kick me out. Of course, I won’t agree to that,” Tian Yajuan said. “We’ve argued about this countless times, and even fought. He not only hit me, but also threatened me, saying that if I didn’t sign the divorce papers, he would be rude to my family. When my younger brother, Tian Liang, found out, he came to confront him, but he was also beaten up and humiliated by him.”
In a battle for assets, Tian Yajuan and Zheng Guobin fought a year-long divorce lawsuit. Ultimately, because Zheng Guobin had transferred some assets beforehand, and a witness, a supermarket employee, testified that their relationship had broken down, the court granted the divorce, and Tian Yajuan received only a small amount of property, far less than her rightful share. Meanwhile, Zhang Guilan, shortly after the divorce, registered her marriage with Zheng Guobin, moved into his house, and became the supermarket owner.
“That divorce case completely broke my heart,” Tian Yajuan said. “My younger brother, Tian Liang, has harbored resentment towards Zheng Guobin because of this incident, and for many years he has been looking for an opportunity to take revenge on him. I have advised him more than once to let bygones be bygones and not to do anything foolish, but he simply wouldn’t listen and said that he would definitely make Zheng Guobin pay the price.”
Tian Yajuan's words brought Tian Liang into the police's sights. Xiao Zhou immediately pressed for details about Tian Liang, learning that he was 38 years old, 179 cm tall, and of slender build. He worked as a carpenter at a decoration company, doing manual labor for many years, and had a volatile, impulsive, and easily angered personality. More importantly, Tian Liang's shoe size was 43, perfectly matching the size of the male diamond-patterned rubber-soled shoe footprints found at the scene. Furthermore, his long-term carpentry work and proficiency with various knives matched the characteristics of a perpetrator using a single-edged sharp weapon.
"Where is Tian Liang now? Has he been acting strangely lately?" Xiao Zhou asked hurriedly. Tian Yajuan said that Tian Liang rents an apartment alone in a village in the city's Donghu District and rarely goes home. The two only contact each other occasionally. "A few days ago, I called him, and his tone was very strange. He said he had 'finally gotten his revenge.' I asked him what he meant, but he wouldn't say more and told me not to interfere in his affairs," Tian Yajuan recalled. "At the time, I didn't think much of it, but now that I think about it, what he said was very suspicious."
Based on the clues provided by Tian Yajuan, Xiao Zhou immediately led his team to Tian Liang's rented residence to conduct an investigation. The urban village where Tian Liang lived had a complex population, dense housing, and a lack of surveillance equipment, making the investigation quite difficult. Through interviews with neighbors and landlords, the team learned that Tian Liang had indeed been behaving strangely recently: in the week before the incident, Tian Liang had gone out at night several times, returning with mud and grime on his body and appearing quite agitated; after the incident, Tian Liang took leave from work and rarely went out, and when he did go out, he wore a mask and hat to deliberately cover his face, making his whereabouts very secretive.
Furthermore, the landlord reported that Tian Liang had discarded a dark cotton coat in the community's trash can the day after the incident. "The coat looked quite old, and there seemed to be dark red stains on it. I thought it was strange and asked him about it. He said he accidentally got paint on it and threw it away," the landlord said. Xiao Zhou immediately arranged for his team to search for the dark cotton coat in the community's trash cans and the surrounding garbage transfer station. After a day of careful searching, the team finally found the discarded coat in a hidden corner of the garbage transfer station.
The jacket was sent to a laboratory for testing. The results showed that the dark red stains on the jacket were Zheng Guobin's blood, and the jacket's fibers matched perfectly with those found on the clothing of the male perpetrator at the scene. Furthermore, Tian Liang's DNA was extracted from the jacket's cuffs, matching precisely with the male DNA found on a cigarette butt at the scene. This means that Tian Liang not only appeared at the crime scene but also wore the jacket while committing the crime, discarding it afterward to destroy evidence.
To further solidify Tian Liang's suspicion, the team retrieved his travel records, communication records, and bank statements. Communication records showed that in the week before the incident, Tian Liang repeatedly called Zheng Guobin, but Zheng Guobin hung up each time. Subsequently, Tian Liang inquired about Zheng Guobin's whereabouts through a third party, Tian Yajuan's friend, especially the location of the warehouse and his work schedule. Bank statements showed that the day after the incident, 5 yuan in cash was suddenly deposited into Tian Liang's bank account. Upon investigation, this money was found to have been transferred from a hidden bank card belonging to Zheng Guobin, which Zheng Guobin had always carried with him and whose whereabouts were unknown after the incident.
Meanwhile, by tracing Tian Liang's travel history, the team discovered that around 1:00 AM on the day of the incident, Tian Liang took a taxi to the vicinity of Zheng Guobin's suburban warehouse. The taxi driver recalled that when Tian Liang got out of the car, he was carrying a black cloth bag, looked flustered, and asked the driver to wait for him at a distance. Around 3:00 AM, Tian Liang took the same taxi back to his rented residence. When he got out, the black cloth bag was gone, he had a strong smell of blood, and his shoes were covered in mud. The taxi's route perfectly matched the location of the crime scene and the warehouse, and the duration of its stops also matched the time required for the crime.
More importantly, the team found a single-edged woodworking knife in Tian Liang's rented apartment. The knife was approximately 8 centimeters long and 2 centimeters wide, made of steel, and showed slight wear on the blade, perfectly matching the characteristics of the sharp weapon identified by the forensic examiner. Laboratory tests revealed traces of Zheng Guobin's blood and skin tissue on the knife, and the metal residue on the blade matched the metal residue found on the bluestone at the scene, confirming the woodworking knife as the murder weapon. Furthermore, the team found Zheng Guobin's hidden bank card and warehouse key in Tian Liang's drawer; these were the same keys found at the scene, indicating that Tian Liang took them after the crime in an attempt to steal valuables from the warehouse.