Meet The Chinese Widow Who Spent 17 Years Putting Four Of Her Husband’s Five Killers In Prison

Pic shows: Li Guiying.nnA determined woman who has been hunting a gang of five assailants who killed her husband almost two decades ago has seen four of them put behind bars.nnBut the 17 years she has spent tracking down her husband¿s murderers has come at a high price - in which she sacrificed time she could have spent with her five children, all of whom are now adults.nnLi Guiying, 59, is a former village official from Xiangcheng city, in China¿s central Henan Province, while her late husband, Qi Yuande, who was a school teacher.nnLi and Qi Yuande had three sons and two daughters, and also ran a workshop producing nails, until everything changed in the winter of 1998.nnJust a low-level official at the time, Li started arguing with one of her neighbours named Qi Xueshan, who feared Li was going to make a complaint to authorities.nnFearing punishment from the local government, Qi Xueshan and four of his relatives asked the couple to visit. They then attacked Li with daggers and cleavers, seriously injuring her in the back and shoulder.nnLi¿s husband charged at the attackers with a sickle in order to defend her, but he was overpowered and stabbed to death by the men, who fled the town the very same day.nnThe devastated widow went to local police for help, but the ineffective and inefficient authorities let the gang get away, saying that there was a lack of leads and witnesses to pursue the case.nnShe was told that unless she could provide clues, they would not pursue the investigation - and that is what she decided to do herself.nnLi promised herself and her children that she would spend the rest of her life searching for the men who killed her husband, and who left her five children fatherless.nnShe was called "crazy" and "psychotic" during the endless years she spent tracking the five men down, visiting more than a dozen Chinese provinces during the process.nnHer breakthrough came finally in 2011, when her investigations and persistent questioning led to her discovering one of her attacker¿s mobile phone numbers.nnOne thing led to the next and over the past years four of the five attackers were captured and jailed by police, including her old neighbour, Qi Xueshan.nnDespite achieving so much to avenge the death of her late husband, Li admitted she missed out on too much time she could have spent with her children, including their formative teenage and university years.nnWhile her children matured into young adults, she spent many of her days on the road, which can also be seen from the many pictures she took of various provincial landmarks.nnAt almost 60 years old, Li says she also still has her husband¿s last attacker on her mind and hopes he can be brought to justice one day as well.nn(ends)n

Seventeen long years after witnessing the brutal murder of her husband Li Guiying’s struggles have finally borne fruit – she has managed to track down four of his five killer and provided enough evidence to have them locked up. 58-year-old Li doesn’t plan on stopping until she finds the last killer as well.

The determined widow’s sad story began in the winter of 1998. Li, her husband Qi Yuande, and their five children were a happy family living in Xiangcheng city, China’s Henan province. But things went wrong when an argument broke out with a neighbor named Qi Xueshan, who feared that she might start complaining about him to the local authorities. To ensure this wouldn’t happen, he invited the couple to his house under pretext of having a civilized conversation, but attacked them as soon as they arrived.

Li claims that four of Xueshan’s relatives attacked her with daggers and cleavers, and as her husband charged to defend her, they stabbed him to death. Li, who was seriously wounded in the altercation, managed to escape after helplessly watching as the assailants murdered Yuande. Aware of the consequences of their actions, the five killers left town the very same day. She went to the police, but since there weren’t any eye witnesses, there wasn’t much they could do. They told her they wouldn’t pursue the case unless she had solid evidence to support her claims.

But Li wasn’t one to give up. She has spent every waking moment since then tracking down her husband’s killers and gathering evidence against them, often at the cost of spending time with her own children. She combed 10 of China’s provinces in search of the five men, saving every train ticket to keep track of locations she had visited. Many of the people she encountered on her epic journey called her ‘crazy’ or ‘psychotic’, but she never let that bother her, focusing instead on fulfilling her mission.

In 2011, she got hold of one of the attacker’s mobile phone number, and found him living in Beijing. Over the next four years, she used information from his testimony to track down three of his accomplices and bring them to justice. All four men were convicted of premeditated intentional homicide, based on witness accounts of the argument that had taken place 17 years ago, place before the attack.

Despite her monumental achievement, Li says that she doesn’t consider her struggle a success, because she had to miss so much of her children’s life in the process – their childhood, teenage and university years. Nonetheless, she does not intend to stop until she finds the fifth killer. “I did not catch the last one, I have to chase him down,” she said.

Credit: Oddity Central.