BEIJING - Police believe the man who committed the daring daytime murder and robbery in Nanjing is the same person responsible for similar cases in other cities.

The suspect in those cases, Zeng Kaigui, 42, is wanted by police in Chongqing for two armed robberies and murders there in 2004 and 2005.

Zeng also matches the description of a suspect involved in a series of armed robberies in Changsha, Hunan province, the most recent of which occurred there on June 28 last year.

The Ministry of Public Security also described Zeng as the suspect in an armed robbery in Yunnan province on Oct 13, 1995, during which he allegedly killed a person.

Zeng's whereabouts have been unknown since he retired from the army in 1992.

The first time Zeng's parents heard about their son in the past two decades was when they saw his picture on a warrant in their village in January 2011.

His father said Zeng spent his first 20 years "simply cutting grass and feeding cows" in his hometown in Yuquan village of Neijiang city, Sichuan province.

Zeng's neighbors recalled his martial arts prowess as he beat sandbags and stumps and was strong enough to break bamboo tubes into pieces with his hands.

Zeng joined the army in 1989, and his fellow soldiers remember the way he would often do push-ups even while chatting with others. They also said he was so strong that he could fight two or three people at once.

Comrades described him as a man with a hot temper but great restraint at the same time. When quarreling, Zeng would take the initiative to make a compromise to avoid fueling the dispute.

Zeng's father guessed his son might bear a grudge because they were unable to give him enough money to marry his girlfriend.

He was in a relationship for more than a year with a girl from a well-off family in 1989, but the parents of the girl went against the relationship because of Zeng's poor family.

Zeng's fellow soldiers remembered him vowing not to come back home without making big bucks before he left for Yunnan province in 1992.

Numerous police forces are now offering rewards for his arrest, including Chongqing - 100,000 yuan($15,800), Nanjing - 150,000 yuan and Ma'anshan, Anhui province, 200,000 yuan. Ma'anshan is a one-hour car ride away from Nanjing.

China Daily

(China Daily 01/12/2012 page5)