Hubei Province police have received more than 20 tips in the ax murderer case where eight people were killed in Suizhou City, a newspaper reported today.

The victims included a two-year-old boy.

Police are investigating the tips. Special police teams have been set up to look into chief suspect Xiong Zhenlin's network of relationships, according to a Chutian Jinbao report.

A high school classmate of Xiong surnamed Ren told the newspaper that Xiong, 35, was very unsociable in school and liked to fight with classmates 20 years ago. In addition, Xiong didn't like to bathe so nobody wanted to share a dormitory with him. None of his 50 classmates were willing to be friends with him, Ren was cited as saying.

Xiong was expelled from school for fighting with schoolmates one year after enrolling at Suizhou Technician School.

Ten years ago Ren met Xiong, who owned a small restaurant at the time. Xiong used opium poppies as a hot pot ingredient to attract customers. Ren told the newspaper that he persuaded Xiong to burn the poppies in front of him. Ren and Xiong never meet again after that, the report said.

A manhunt began for Xiong on Monday after 42-year-old Zhu Deqing and her 2-year-old grandson Zou Chuanshuo were found dead in their home in Suizhou's Luoyang Town. Police found six more bodies at a waste recycling station owned by Xiong. The victims were Xiong's employees.

(Shanghai Daily January 8, 2009)