The gruesome nature of the murder was indisputable but the incompetent disposal of the body was puzzling. Taking the suitcase containing Yang Liu’s remains through the autumn mists on the moors of the Peak District, east of Manchester, to an isolated and inaccessible spot to burn them might have hidden the crime for some time. As it was, attempting to incinerate them in a lay-by on a busy road meant the victim’s name was known within days of the last time he was seen alive…

Police were alerted on October 10th, 2016, when passing walkers noticed smouldering vegetation surrounding a suitcase on the remote lay-by at Tintwistle, Derbyshire, on the A628 Woodhead Pass, between Glossop and Sheffield.

Another witness later described a smell “like rubber or sewage” coming from the burnt Samsonite case. Officers quickly confirmed that it had been doused in an accelerant before being set alight. A man had been seen from a distance crouching over the suitcase before driving away.

Inside the suitcase, police discovered a torso. Although newspapers called it “The Body In The Bag” murder, the victim’s head and lower limbs were all missing – never to be found…