A man pretended to be homeless and deaf and dumb for 20 years to avoid prison (2 photos + 1 video)
A man named Xiao decided to leave his wife and 11-year-old child and go on the run, but justice caught up with him two decades later. 
A man named Xiao from China, wanted for murder, managed to evade the police for more than 20 years by pretending to be a deaf-mute scavenger in the mountains.
On the evening of May 22, 2004, a young and hot-tempered man got into a heated argument with a neighbor in his home village of Oumio Dain. At one point, Xiao allegedly took a shovel and hit his neighbor in the head with it, killing him instantly. That night, knowing he risked spending the rest of his life behind bars or, worse, the death penalty, he decided to leave his wife and 11-year-old child and go on the run. The man hid in the mountains and decided to pretend to be homeless. To avoid giving away anything about his past life, Xiao pretended to be deaf and dumb for the next 20 years, only smiling at people and communicating with them using gestures.
Time passed, but the police did not give up, trying to find the killer and bring him to justice for the crime. And although the fugitive behaved very reservedly, having never contacted his family over the past few decades, he was still found. Last month, a deaf and mute garbage man was taken into custody for fighting with local residents, and although he was soon released, his photographs ended up in a national database. 
Earlier this month, police discovered an unexpected coincidence. Having found the suspect, they asked him point-blank: “Are you from Xiangcheng District in Xianyang?”, to which he instantly replied: “Yes.”
“I kept my words for 20 years and I thought I was going crazy. When I left, my son was 11 years old, and now 20 years have passed and I wonder how my family is doing?” he told police. relieved Xiao.
After this, Xiao was returned to his native village, and, despite his long absence, he showed where exactly he had a clash with his neighbors on that fateful evening. Now he has to serve the prison sentence he has been escaping for so long. People who knew him as a deaf-mute garbage man told police they never suspected him of being a criminal on the run. He kept to himself and did not communicate with anyone, so no one knew anything about him.
