Li Hao (murderer)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Li.

Li Hao (Chinese: 李浩; pinyin: Lǐ Hào) was a Chinese murderer and rapist who kept six women as sex slaves and locked them in a dungeon in Henan. He murdered two of the women. Li tricked the six women into entering his basement and locked them there for two to 21 months. He raped them repeatedly and forced them to appear on online pornography in 2011.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Li Hao
李浩
Li Hao, murderer and perpetrator of sex slavery dungeon case
Born	1977 Henan, China
Died	21 January 2014 (aged 36) China
Cause of death	Execution
Known for	Murder and rape, sex slave dungeon case
Criminal status	Executed

In 2012, the Luoyang court charged Li with rape, murder, prostitution, illegal pornography, and illegal detention of sex slaves, and he was sentenced to death. The Supreme People's Court approved the death penalty, and Li was executed in 2014.^{[1][5][9][10]}

Of the six women that Li had raped, two were surnamed Zhang (张), one was surnamed Duan (段), one was surnamed Jiang (姜), one was surnamed Cai (蔡), and one was surnamed Ma (马).^[11] Li murdered Cai and strangled one of the women surnamed Zhang to death. He forced Cai to eat feces and drink urine before her death.^[12] The victims were 16 to 23 years old at the time.^[13]

Li's sister Li Yuan (李媛) was also charged for harboring a criminal^[14] and sentenced to probation.^[15]

Murder and rape case

Makeshift dungeon

In August 2009,^[16] Li bought a residential compound and dug a dungeon in his basement.^[1] He dug a tunnel in Xigong district (西工区) of Luoyang city.^[12] He spent more than a year digging the cellar.^[17][18] The dungeon has also been described as a 'fortified underground cellar' and 'subterranean prison'.^[19]

Li's cellar was located under a residential building. It had a space of less than 20 square meters.^[20][21] There was a tunnel connecting into the cellar with a diameter opening of 60 cm and can only be crawled through by a person. The tunnel led to two bedrooms, 4 meters underneath the cellar.^[20][14] Li Hao placed seven metal doors to prevent his captives from escaping.^[22][23] The dungeon was 215 square meters.^[24]

Li's intention was to make money from online pornography^{[2][14][25][26]} and making his captives strip for 'customers'.^[27] Li forcibly kept his captives starved so that they would have little energy to escape. He would only feed them once every two days.^[28] He later gave them computers so that they could watch movies and play games,^[24] but they had no Internet access.^[17] The only time they were allowed to leave was when Li needed money. Li would then force his captives to sleep with other men for cash.^[17] The women ate and defecated in the rooms, and the cellars were described as 'dank' and 'smelly'. Apparently some of the women were competing for Li's attention.^[29]

From 2009 to 2011, Li kidnapped six karaoke bar workers and locked them in his dungeon. According to China Central Television, Li offered to pay them for sex if they went home with him, but then proceeded to kidnap and imprison them.^[16][30]

In October and December 2009, Li first lured two women, Zhang Xuanxuan (张宣宣 an alias) and Duan Moumou (段某某 aged 18 at the time), into his basement, detaining Zhang and Duan by violence, blackmail, and coercion.^[12][31]

In December 2010, Li used the same method to detain nineteen-year-old Jiang Moumou in his dungeon.^[12]

In March, May, and July 2011, Li successively brought three other women: twenty-year-old Zhang Moumou, Cai Moumou (aged 16 years old at time of death), and twenty-three-year-old Ma Moumou. He raped the women repeatedly, causing Zhang Moumou to become pregnant.^[12][32]

He repeatedly abused and raped the six women, forcing them into prostitution. He filmed them and posted the pornography online for profit. He later forced three of the captives to kill two of the other women.^{[33][13][34][35][36][15]}

Intentional homicide: Murder of Zhang Xuanxuan and Cai Moumou

In July and August 2010, Zhang Xuanxuan attacked Li from behind, taking advantage of his unprepared digging of the tunnel. Li handcuffed Zhang to the bed in anger. When Zhang Xuanxuan refused to give in, Li forced Duan Moumou to murder Zhang Xuanxuan in exchange for Duan's freedom. Li and Duan jointly strangled Zhang to death, and Li Hao buried her in a pit under the bed.^[12][14]

Li beat Zhang to death to force the other women to 'obey'. Moreover, he buried Zhang's body close to where they slept to warn them.^[14][37]

In May 2011, Cai Moumou was found to have gynecological disease and was unable to perform the obscene pornography Li Hao forced his captives to do. Li then saw Cai as useless and had the idea of killing Cai, revealing his plan to Duan, Jiang, Ma, and Zhang Moumou. Li forced the other women to beat up Cai, abusing, starving, and torturing her, as well as forcing Cai to eat feces and drink urine.^[12]

One day at the end of July 2011, Li, Duan, and others beat up Cai again, and later that night she died. In order to cover up the crime, Li and Duan laid Cai's corpse in a concrete pool in a hole.^{[12][13][14][37]}

Filmed pornography

Between March and April 2011, Li forced the women to perform in pornographic shows online.^[38] Li purchased a computer and video head, opening a broadband connection to his dungeon. Li forced Duan, Jiang, Ma, Zhang Moumou and others to do obscene performances in his dungeon. He filmed these performances and sold them to viewers on Tencent QQ for prices of "50 yuan for 30 minutes" and "100 yuan for 50 minutes". By the time of the incident, Li produced more than 50 obscene videos and collected thousands of yuan from viewing from Alipay and other forms of online banking.^[12][13]

Organized prostitution

From August 2011 to September 2, 2011, Li forced the women to have sex with other men in exchange for money.^[20][39] Li arranged for Duan and Zhang Moumou, who were under Li's control, to visit a hotel in Xigong district and the welfare lottery shop across the road from the hotel. Li forced Duan and Zhang into prostitution and made more than 700 yuan in money handed by the two. On the evening of September 2, 2011, Li forced Duan, Ma, and Zhang Moumou to go to the same place for prostitution. In the early morning of the next day, Ma seized the opportunity to escape and call for the police. With the cooperation of Ma, the public security personnel rescued Jiang Moumou, who was detained in Li's dungeon. Public security later rescued Duan and Zhang Moumou from the hotel and welfare loterry shop.^[12][13]

Li tried to escape the city and went to his sister Li Yuan to borrow money, but the police caught him.^[14] Li was arrested on September 6.^[24] Li Yuan gave Li Hao 1000 yuan to help him escape, but Li Yuan was also arrested and charged by the police for helping a criminal.^[14]

Arrest and execution of Li Hao

In 2011, local media reported Li's crimes. In September 2011,^[40] a 23-year-old woman (Ma Moumou) escaped from his dungeon and reported Li to the police, leading them to his basement.^[33] Li was subsequently arrested.^[40] A reporter named Ji Xuguang from Guangzhou was one of the first people to expose the case to the media.^[16]

On November 30, 2012, Li was sentenced to death at age 35.^[41][42] The Intermediate people's court of Luoyang found Li guilty with rape, murder, prostitution, illegal pornography, and illegal detention.^{[16][43][44][45]} A higher court upheld the sentence, and the Supreme People's Court approved the death penalty.^[20] Li was also deprived of his political rights and fined 10,000 yuan ($1640).^[39][6] He was expelled from the party and public office.^[46]

On January 21, 2014, after meeting his relatives in a detention house, Li was executed.^{[1][20][47][48][49]}

Victims and captives

The two women who were murdered, Cai and Zhang Xuanxuan, had been dead for months by the time police had found their corpses. The remaining four women were convicted for working with Li to kill Cai and Zhang Xuanxuan.^[2]

Duan, Jiang, and Zhang Moumou were charged with murder, but were given lighter punishments (shown leniency)^[14] due to the situation Li forced them into.^[50][51][26] According to Xinhua, two (Jiang and Zhang) were sentenced to probation, while the third (Duan) was jailed for three years.^[33][4] The six KTV women had worked at nightclubs, hair salons, karaoke bars, and a massage shop.^{[40][20][52][53]}

A lawyer from Changsha, Zhang Yan, tried to represent the women in court. Zhang said that Li's death penalty was predictable, but that she tried to lobby for lighter sentences for the three women who were forced by Li to kill the two other women.^[16][54]

Police say that the victims may be suffering from Stockholm syndrome.^[8][17]

Public response

In 2011, Guo Congbin said that the delay between when Li abducted the women and when he was finally caught and arrested was too long and indicated that the local police were ineffective. Guo said that four police officers were suspended and that entertainment areas such as nightclubs and bars were to be more thoroughly inspected. Moreover, the internet was to be subject to intense cleansing of pornography sites.^{[2][11][5][55]}

The Chinese nation was shocked and horrified by the details of the crime. Reporter Ji Xuguang, from the Southern Metropolis Daily, was one of the journalists who exposed Li's crimes. Ji Xuguang was detained for leaking 'state secrets'.^[24][56] Ji originally traveled to Luoyang to report on the Li Xiang case, but then brought Li's story to national attention. For some time, local newspapers were forbidden from reporting on the case as officials feared it would tarnish the city's image and bid to win the 'Civilized City' award.^[7] At the time local authorities were shocked, and very few high level officials knew of the case.^[57]

Authorities denied such claims of coverup.^[8][57] Later Li's story was widely covered and spread by national media, with Li's crimes terrifying and being severely condemned by the public.^[7]

Overseas news media has also condemned Li for carrying out 'twisted fantasies',^[26] with other sources calling him a 'monster'.^[58] Fox News reported that Li subjected his captives to 'horrifying' sexual and emotional abuse.^[19]

Resident Kou Yongxue, who lived in the building above the dungeon, said that Li's crimes were unimaginable and that they were still 'shuddering' at the sex slave case.^[8]

The sex slave case is described in detail in a book written by Liu Baiju (刘白驹) titled "Sexual Offenders: Psychopathology and Control" (性犯罪：精神病理与控制).^[31]

Personal life

Li was married and had an eight-month old son at the time of his arrest.^[11] His wife was 24 at the time.^[8]

He worked for the technology bureau in Henan.^[40][59] He also used to work as a firefighter for the Luoyang City Fire Bureau.^[14][16][41] Li and his son lived somewhere other than the building with the dungeon in Luoyang.^[24]

According to Li, his wife had no knowledge of his dungeon and sex slaves.^[29] Li lied to his wife saying he found a night time job. He spent two weeks a month with the women captives in his dungeon.^[22]

See also

• Gary M. Heidnik
• Fritzl case
• Natascha Kampusch
• Ariel Castro kidnappings

References

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