The law finally caught up with a Chinese woman who allegedly murdered seven people and spent 20 years on the run.
On Monday, 46-year-old Lao Rongzhi expressed remorse during her court appearance at the Nanchang Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangxi. Though she apologized to the victims’ families, she expressed that she was also a “victim.” Rongzhi revealed that her boyfriend, convicted murderer Fa Ziying, forced her to help carry out the murders. The woman also claimed that her ex-boyfriend abused her mentally and physically during their relationship between 1996 and 1999.
However, the court does not see it that way and believe that the couple worked together to plan out the robbery and kidnapping murders.
“The two conspired and had a clear division of labor,” the Nanchang court explained in a statement. “They jointly committed crimes of robbery, kidnapping, and intentional homicide in Nanchang, Wenzhou, Changzhou, and Hefei.”
The wife of one of the victims, Zhu Dahong, also did not feel that Rongzhi played a minimal role in the crime.
“The pain we suffered in the past two decades cannot be brushed away by an apology.”
Ziying was arrested in July 1999. He was convicted of the killings and executed in December of that same year. Soon after his arrest, Rongzhi went on the run. She used several aliases to move freely about the country, relocating to various cities where she worked in bars and entertainment establishments. To ensure that she was never captured, the woman even got cosmetic surgery to alter her appearance.
Her efforts were not enough, as authorities were able to identify and arrest her in November of last year inside a mall in the city of Lao Xiamen. She has been charged with murder, robbery, and kidnapping.
Rongzhi told the courts during her Monday appearance that she was relieved by her arrest. The woman said that she had been “living in darkness” for the past twenty years and can “finally sleep peacefully.”
