After a long cold day at work, all you want is to get home, eat something warm, and rest. You're walking down the street, head down against the winter wind. And that's when you notice it, a plastic bag just lying there on the sidewalk. You almost walk past it, but something about it catches your eye. It looks like it's filled with meat. Being the true crime lovers we are, you already know that is not a good sign. And sure enough, in this case, what was inside that bag would go on to become one of China's most horrifying unsolved mysteries. A story that made a lot of people think twice before they ever touched meat again. This is the story of the 2,000 pieces of meat stew, the Nanjing University murder case, the Daoing case. [Music] It was January 19th, 1996. Winter in Nanjing was harsh that year. Bitter cold, the kind that cuts right through your coat. Most people stayed inside, cooking hot pot, drinking, trying to stay warm. But not everyone had that luxury. One sanitation worker was out there in the freezing streets working overtime. His job was to keep the sidewalks clear, making sure the snow didn't turn into dangerous ice and gathering up garbage so it wouldn't pile up. And that's when he noticed something. A handbag tossed near Hao Road in Shinji. Curious, he opened it. Inside, he found slices of meat, neatly cut, already cooked looking. Judging by the color and the way it was prepared, he figured it was pork. Maybe someone had dropped it by accident. Either way, it felt like a lucky find. So, he decided to take the bag home, thinking he could make a good hearty stew to warm himself up that night. At home, he got everything ready. Chopped up carrots, potatoes, onions, gathered all the spices he needed. He wanted to make the best stew he'd ever had. He even took the time to rinse the meat slice by slice under running water just to clean off any dirt. But then without even looking, as he reached into the container for another piece, he felt something different, something long. So he pulled it out. And there it was, a human finger. At first, he just stared, frozen. Maybe he was imagining things. But when he finally forced himself to look back into the container, he didn't see just one. There were three three human fingers hidden among the meat he was about to cook. His scream cut through the night air. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. In his mind, one terrifying thought hit him. If these fingers aren't real, then this isn't pork. Without wasting another second, he picked up the phone and called the police. At first, the officers thought it was a prank. Maybe just some workers seeing things after a long shift. But when they saw the meat he brought in, the mood shifted immediately. There is no way anyone would just throw away that much meat. And once they spotted the fingers for themselves, they knew this wasn't a joke. They rushed the bag down to the station and after hours of examination, the results came back. It wasn't just meat. It was human remains. The police immediately launched a massive search. Officers swept through the city looking for any more signs. And one by one, across eight different locations around Nanjing University, they found them. Plastic wrapped packages stuffed with body parts at the stadium, near the entrance gate, outside the hospital, even along random roadsides. It was everywhere. And then the next day, they found another package. This one filled with cooked meat and a human head. 10 days later, they found clothes believed to belong to the victim. Back then, DNA databases didn't exist. But from the muscle tissue, hair samples, and the clothes they collected, investigators figured out the victim was female. They started reaching out to families of missing persons, and eventually the pieces came together. The victim's name was Dao Aqing. So, who was Dao and how did she end up in pieces? Her flesh cooked like pork. Daoing was born in March 1976 in Shangao Changyan district, Taiou City, Djiangu Province. She was the youngest of two siblings. According to her older sister, Dao Aiha, life wasn't easy for their family. They lived poor. Winters were hard. The sisters had to share a single coat. And Dao, being the youngest, always wore handme-downs. While other kids played and bought snacks without a second thought, the Dao sisters had to save every coin just to buy a piece of candy. Eventually, Daoi dropped out of school to help support the family, working whatever job she could find to pay for her little sister's education. Daqing knew how hard it was for her family. She felt it every day. At one point, she even asked her sister if she could start working too. But Aiawa refused. She told Dao to stay in school, to study hard, to chase a better future when none of them could reach without education. And Dao did exactly that. She worked harder than anyone. And finally, she passed the entrance exam to Nanjing University. In October 1995, she arrived in Nanjing to enroll at the university school of adult education, majoring in computer applications under the Department of Information Management. Her family did everything they could to support her. They couldn't afford a new computer. They couldn't send her expensive things. But they never burdened her with her problems. Not even when her grandfather died or when her sister got married. They kept it all from her because they wanted Dao to focus, to live a life better than the one they had. Dao herself tried her best to stay focused on her studies. Her classmates described her as introverted and simple. She usually wore the same few outfits, never really caring much about appearances, but she always kept herself neat and tidy. She didn't love being around people, but still she had a small circle of friends she hung out with from time to time just to clear her mind. Even after moving to Nanjing, Dao stayed close with her old classmates back in her hometown and actually on January 7th, 1996, she traveled back home to have dinner with a few of them. She returned to Danjing University the very next day. Then on January 10th at around 5:00 p.m., Dao was seen leaving the Gulo campus. Her classmates remembered seeing her and they remembered that she never came back. Before she left that day, something had happened. Apparently, her roommate had accidentally cooked an induction cooker in their dorm room, which was strictly against the dorm rules. Since the violation happened inside their room, the dorm supervisor told Dao she had to pay half of the fine to help cover it. Dao tried to argue she hadn't done anything wrong, but the staff insisted. After that argument, her classmates said Dao walked out of the building and she didn't come back that night. At first, her friends didn't think too much of it. It was exam week and Dao was the kind of person who would usually lock herself in the room and study for days when things got stressful. Plus, she had made her bed neatly before leaving, which suggested she wasn't planning to be out for long. Maybe she just needed a break, they thought. Maybe she had something important to take care of. When she left, she was wearing a red coat with a black lining. That was the last time anyone saw Diaoing alive. Her classmates and roommate reported her missing, but the dorm management decided not to inform her family. They didn't want to cause panic. They even kept the news contained within a small circle of her friends and staff. It wasn't until January 19th that everything came crashing out into the open. More than a week after Dia was last seen, a janitor cleaning near Nanjing University stumbled across a handbag left by the roadside. Inside, he found slices of what he thought was pork until he discovered human fingers hidden among the meat. Terrified, he called the police immediately, and that call would open the floodgates. Over the next few days, police uncovered more bags, body parts cut into small bite-sized pieces, so neatly done that at first glance, most people would have thought it was just pork. The bags turned up all around Nanjing, many of them near the university grounds. Because the pieces of meat were so small, it took the police longer than usual just to figure out the victim's gender. Based on muscle tissue and a few physical features they could still recognize, they eventually confirmed the victim was a woman. And not long after, more bags turned up in places like Shu Joang and other random corners of the city. Bags filled with cooked meat, clothing, and even a cooked human head. By the time the search was over, the police had recovered over 2,000 pieces of her body. Each one carefully wrapped in plastic and scattered across different locations around Nanjing University. The cuts were extremely clean. The way the meat was sliced and the precision of the cut around the neck, it wasn't something an ordinary person could do. Police started to think they were dealing with someone who had professional skills, maybe a butcher, maybe even a surgeon. One of the most disturbing parts was that some of the body had been cooked for several days, not just once, several days. It made it almost impossible to identify her facial features or even pinpoint the exact time she died. And then there was something else. Her key organs, her heart, liver, and spleen were missing, completely gone. And that opened the door for all kinds of theories and none of them were comforting. The police worked non-stop trying to reach out to families of missing persons. Eventually, they were able to match the remains to a missing girl thanks to a small mole still visible on the right side of her cheek. When her family got the news, they were devastated. Their beloved Dao Ching, the girl they had poured all their hopes into, was gone, brutally murdered. Her body desecrated, and worst of all, her killer was still out there, roaming free, blending in with the city like nothing happened. A senior officer who worked the case later said it outright, "This wasn't the work of an amateur. Whoever did this had a deep understanding of human anatomy. It was methodical and it was cruel. The investigation wrapped up hard after that. Naturally, the first people they looked into were the ones closest to Diao, her classmates, her teachers, anyone who lived or worked around the university. They even came up with two suspect profiles. A single physically fit middle-aged man living alone. Someone who had access to a stove inside his room. But after searching the entire university, they couldn't find a single person who fit that profile. Not one. A massive investigation was launched, spreading out into the surrounding neighborhoods, desperately chasing even the smallest clue that could lead them to the truth. But every lead ended the same way, nowhere. And if you're wondering about CCTV, you would think being a university campus, there would be cameras everywhere, right? Maybe today, but back then in the mid 90s, it wasn't like that. Public surveillance was rare. Most places didn't have cameras at all. Still, the Nanjing police treated the case seriously. They even set up a special task force stationed right inside Nanjing University, working around the clock, combing the city for anything, anything they could use. But after 3 months of exhausting every possible lead, the task force finally pulled out. Rumors started swirling across campus. A photo of Diaqing was officially posted and every student was required to prove they weren't involved to show they had an alibi for the night she disappeared. But just like before, the investigation hit a dead end and the killer slipped through their fingers. With students, teachers, and Yao's friends all providing solid alibis, the police gradually ruled out anyone from her immediate social circle. At that point, the theory shifted. Maybe this wasn't someone she knew. Maybe it was a random attack or worse, the work of an unknown psychopath. The media picked up the story, reporting every new development. The police even offered a reward for any information that could lead to an arrest. They released details, too. the type of plastic bags used to wrap the body parts, the handbag that carried the meat, even a printed bed sheet they found during the investigation, hoping that somewhere someone would recognize something. But time dragged on, and despite all the announcements, all the police for help, no useful clues ever came in. The deadline to officially solve the case came and went, and just like that, the trail went cold. Fast forward 20 years, January 19th, 2016. An article popped up on a local Nanjing WeChat account. It pointed out something chilling. That day marked the final day of the 20-year prosecution period for the Nanjing University murder case. In other words, if no one was arrested by the end of that year, the case would legally expire. The murderer could walk free. and even if they confessed, they couldn't be prosecuted. The article caused an uproar. People were furious. They demanded action. Some begged the authorities to make an exception to not let the case slip away into history unsolved. And the very next afternoon, the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security posted an official statement on Waybo. They promised the case would continue to be investigated to the very end. no matter how long it took. No expiration date, no forgetting. Since then, legal scholars have debated whether the statute of limitations should even apply in a case this brutal. Depending on how the law is interpreted, if a suspect is ever found, the authorities could seek special approval to prosecute. As for Dao Aing's family, they just want the truth. They said that even if the murderer came forward today, they would forgive. They just want to know why. They just want answers. Over the years, because of how bizarre the case was, it's gone viral online more than once. Each time, sparking new discussions, new theories, and new fears. Some believe the murderer cooked and scattered the body parts to destroy evidence, trying to make it impossible to trace back to them. Others believe it was personal, that it was rage or some twisted perversion that led to Dao's death. During the investigation, a photo of Diaqing was published in the Yangsu Evening Post showing her with short boyish hair, and that caused panic. People feared a serial killer might be targeting women with short hair, especially women who wore red coats, just like Dao did on the day she disappeared. There were even darker rumors, too. Some people suspected that Diao's missing organs meant she had fallen victim to human trafficking, specifically for organ harvesting. One of the darker theories that stuck around over the years ties back to China's organ trade. According to a paper written by Schwe Wang, since 1983, the main source of human organs in China had been from executed criminals. It wasn't until 2015 that the government officially abolished the use of those organs for transplant operations. And after that ban, the shortage of organs, which had already been serious, became even worse. At the same time, people started noticing something else. An increase in missing person cases across the country. There is no hard proof linking Dao's death to organ trafficking, but because of the missing organs in her case, it quickly became one of the most believed theories. Another theory, some believe the killer was a cannibal, someone who murdered Diao just to satisfy a craving for human flesh. But even that theory leaves a lot of questions. If it was cannibalism, why leave her body parts scattered all over the city? Why not just make everything disappear? The more people thought about it, the more unsettling it all became. On March 21st, 2007, a user under the name Shilio Cha posted a detailed description of the case online. Then on May 28th, 2008, some anonymous users on BU Taba created what they called the Dao Iing Bar, an online forum to collect and discuss every piece of information about the case. On June 19th that same year, another Nisen using the name Hey Misa posted an analysis titled A Little Thought on the Nanjing Corpse Dismemberment Case. In it, they suggested that the murderer might have known Tiao or maybe even fallen in love with her. The post blew up. It sparked heated debates across the internet. Some people even started questioning whether the poster had some kind of inside knowledge about the case, maybe even a personal connection. Then things got even weirder. On June 24th, 2008, Nanjing's Modern Express newspaper reported on the online frenzy and it caught the attention of the police. After that, Hey Misa disappeared. The original posts vanished too, deleted, which of course only fueled even more suspicion. Some media outlets later reported that Hey Misa had agreed to cooperate with investigators if needed. They said the user was a 26-year-old man majoring in law and his father had been a police officer. Local police confirmed later that the poster didn't have malicious intent, that his posts were mostly based on speculation, the whatifs, not actual evidence. The editor-inchief of the forum also clarified the posts were deleted at the request of the police, not because the poster had any real connection to the case. On July 4th, 2008, a netizen using the name Dao Hong Shuan decided to take matters into his own hands. At his own expense, he traveled from Shandong all the way to Naning and Jangyan, hoping to visit Diao's parents and do his own investigation. Jiao's father welcomed him without suspicion, but her brother-in-law wasn't so sure. He thought the whole thing felt off. At his request, the Jang Yan City Public Security Bureau stepped in. They took the man in for questioning just to be safe. Later, on July 13th, based on tips from other Nisonens, this same man posted an analysis on his blog claiming that a writer named Wang Dain, who had written and published a novel called Jin Yan Wu, or The Memorial in 1998, might somehow be connected to the case. or even worse, might have been the murderer himself. Wong Dai Jin responded publicly, basically laughing it off. He called the accusations baseless and said they were nothing more than wild imagination influenced by earlier online rumors, especially from Hey Misa. Years passed without any real breakthrough, but then in May 2022, a post went viral on Waybo claiming that the Nanjing University murder case had finally been solved. people immediately connected it to another major arrest that had just happened. The capture of the real culprit behind the Hulan police murder case. The rumors exploded. Everyone thought maybe finally the truth had come out. But by May 30th, those hopes were crushed. Diao's family, the Nanjing police, and even the cyerspace administration all stepped forward to confirm the rumor wasn't true. The Nanjing case was still unsolved. The original Waybo poster was later banned for spreading false information and causing a public uproar. In the years after Dao's death, Nanjing University tried in small ways to show remorse. They fully refunded Dao's tuition fees to her family. Then on March 29th, 2021, 25 years after Diao's murder, her sister Daoi filed a lawsuit against Nanjing University at the Gulo District People's Court. She demanded compensation 1.62 million yen, around $246,000, claiming that the university failed to protect her sister, especially after punishing her on January 10th and letting her leave alone. She argued that the fact Diwa's remains were found scattered all around the campus only showed how poorly the school handled safety. But just a week later on April 6th, she suddenly withdrew the lawsuit. No clear reason was ever given. Meanwhile, Diao's father, Daudi Chang, kept going back to the university over the years, four times in total, asking for updates about the case, hoping for any news at all. According to one report, during his fourth visit, either in 2010 or 2022, depending on the source, he was struggling financially, facing serious health problems. He asked the university for help and they gave him 10,000 yen. But in exchange, he had to sign a letter promising not to seek further compensation related to Tiao's case. Today, this case has become one of the most infamous unsolved murder cases in China, often compared to the Black Dalia case in the US. But at least with the Black Dalia, there were leads, even theories involving the perpetrator's own family. With Daqing's case, nothing, not a single clear suspect, not a single solid lead. Almost 30 years have passed and still no justice, no closure, only scars carved deep into the family's memory. Even today, many of her relatives avoid mentioning her name. They're afraid of reopening the pain. Afraid of reliving the horror of seeing her remains laid out at the police station. For now, I'll leave it with you. What do you think really happened to Diaing? Do you think she fell victim to human trafficking or was it something darker? Something very deep within the human mind, something much harder to explain? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And that is all for today. Thanks for watching. [Music]