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Leeds bodies in the boot murder: Third killer hunted
Police today vowed to hunt down a third man over the brutal bodies-in-the-boot Leeds murders.
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Students Lu Jia, 20 and Ji Peng, 24, were last night both jailed for life for abducting and killing Jin Xue, 38, and his wife Li Xie, 35 as part of a plot to hijack the couple's Leeds Chinese takeaway.
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The couple, illegal immigrants, ran the Timboo Takeaway in Fairfield Road, Bramley, Leeds.
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Their bodies were found in suitcases in the boot of a car outside Jia and Peng's home in Kensington Way, Belle Isle, two days after they disappeared. They were abducted after going to meet three men to discuss the sale of their business.
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Judge Mr Justice King yesterday told their killers they must serve a minimum of 34 years in jail.
A third man, Liang Zhang, who is also believed to be involved in the plot, fled to China but West Yorkshire Police said today work was "ongoing to bring him back to the UK".
Det Sup Bill Shackleton said: "The exact circumstances of the murder of Jin Xue and his wife Li Xie may never be known. What is
clear is that three men hatched a plot to kidnap the couple and force them to sign over their business.
"This plot led to the murder of the couple. The prosecution team was greatly assisted by the friends of the murdered couple and other members of the local Chinese community."
Sentencing Jia and Peng the judge said the "horrific circumstances" of the kidnapping the significant degree of planning and the amount of mental and physical suffering of the victims meant he had to consider jail for life without parole. The judge said: "No words of mine can express the grief, the distress and the profound sense of loss which your wicked acts have caused the relatives of the deceased.
"You were intelligent young men from respectable backgrounds in China: you believed that their illegal status meant you could cause this
unfortunate couple to disappear without arousing suspicion."
The judge told Lu Jia "You may have only been 19 at the time but ..... you have shown no remorse and you have shown yourself to be a manipulative and callous person.
"You covered your tracks with a web of deceit, I have no doubt you had an intention to kill and you were a leading force in this enterprise."
Both men also received concurrent sentences for two charges of kidnapping to which they had earlier pleaded guilty, Peng received 12 years and Jia received 16 years.
The judge paid tribute to West Yorkshire Police praising the investigation team for their work in difficult circumstances which had been made more difficult by the killers web of deceit and by the fact many of the witnesses did not speak English.
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
