Prosecutors approve arrest of female fugitive suspected of killing seven people

Nanchang People's Procuratorate, in Jiangxi province, has approved the arrest of Lao Rongzhi, a female fugitive suspected of involvement in the killing of seven people, it said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Lao was arrested by police in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Nov 28 after two decades on the run. On Dec 5, she was taken to Nanchang by Nanchang police, the statement said.

Lao is suspected of killing seven people with her ex-boyfriend, Fa Ziying, between 1996 and 1999. She escaped from a rented house in July 1999 when Fa was caught in Hefei, Anhui province, after two men were killed.

Lao, born in 1974, went into hiding and falsified her identity. She was helping a friend manage a business counter in a shopping mall in Xiamen when she was captured.

She used to be a primary school teacher in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and met Fa at the age of 19. Before they met, Fa had been sentenced to eight years in prison for robbery in 1981.

Fa was given the death penalty for the seven killings and was executed in 1999.