Harpurhey's market culture could soon disappear, traders say. They're seeing less cash in their pockets every week.
12.05.2024 - 16:07 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Gambling addict Ming Jiang was a familiar face at the card tables and roulette wheels of Manchester's 235 Casino. So when on the night of October 9, 2016 the 42-year-old took a seat and began placing his bets, few of his fellow players took much notice.
Little did they know they were rubbing shoulders with a cold-hearted killer. Just an hour earlier Jiang had stuffed the headless torso of his friend Yang Liu into a suitcase, drove to a remote lay-by off the Woodhead Pass outside the village of Tintwistle and set fire to it.
When the charred remains were found by hikers the following day, it kickstarted one of the most shocking and high-profile murder investigations in recent memory.
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Senior investigating officer David Cox was one of the first police on the scene. "I could see straightaway it was the body of a person, there was no doubt about that," he told Secrets of Murder Detective, a new TrueCrime TV series which looks at the case. "But unusually the head had been removed, the arms had been removed and the lower legs had been removed.
"I couldn't tell at that stage whether it was male or female. My immediate thoughts were steps had been taken to prevent identification."
And that presented detectives with a big problem. Forensic officers discovered a small, postage stamp-sized piece of skin on the body which hadn't been burnt, but that didn't provide any answers.
That meant they had to appeal to public for witnesses. The first breakthrough came when a passing driver came forward to say they had captured dash-cam footage of a fire in the lay-by.
That meant police knew when the body was dumped and set alight. And then
Harpurhey's market culture could soon disappear, traders say. They're seeing less cash in their pockets every week.
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