A blood-filled mosquito squashed in a burgled apartment in China’s Fujian Province helped investigators catch the mysterious criminal.

It sounds like the plot of a CSI episode, but according to Chinese news sources, authorities in Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province managed to bring a burglar to justice by analyzing the blood stain left on a wall by a squashed mosquito. While examining the crime scene – a burgled apartment in a high-rise residential compound – police noticed that the burglar, who appeared to have breached the home after climbing onto the balcony, may have spent the night there, and after finding a blood stain left by a squashed mosquito on a wall, they decided to have the blood tested for DNA.

According to Global Times, investigators found leftover noodles and cooked eggs in the kitchen, blankets and pillows taken from the wardrobe and left on the bed, burned incense sticks, all clues that whoever broke into the apartment spent some time there. So when they saw a dead mosquito and two bloodstains on one of the walls, they decided the blood was worth analyzing.

DNA tests showed that the blood belonged to a man surnamed Chai who happened to have an extensive criminal record. 19 days after the robbery, Chai was brought in for questioning and confessed to the burglary, as well as three other burglaries he was a suspect in. He is currently being held in custody pending trial.

Oddity Central