A murder suspect who allegedly killed a woman at his home and fled from Shanghai 24 years ago has been caught by police.

The suspect Fu, who has been listed on the police wanted network since 1999, was turned in last year by a resident of Hainan Province where he was in hiding, police said yesterday.

The murder took place on May 29, 1994, in a residential complex in Caoyang area of Putuo District.

The victim, a woman named Yu, had been taken by another woman, surnamed Li, to Fu’s home that morning.

Yu was 20 years old at that time, and Fu was 37 — all three worked in the same factory. Fu and Yu were left alone as Li excused herself after their arrival.

The man claimed that he was in a short relationship with Yu and then they broke up, but Yu’s sister said she had a boyfriend of two years who she planned to marry.

Fu, who lost part of his middle and ring fingers on his left hand in a work accident, said he killed Yu because she offended him.

“She jeered at my disability and said she would never marry me because our kids would inherit it from me,” said Fu, who is now under detention at Putuo police detention center.

Fu said he strangled her with an electric wire and then put her under his bed.

When Li returned to Fu’s home, she asked about Yu but Fu threatened her with violence.

Fu told her that Yu had left for home, but Li found out later that it was not true and then contacted the police.

By the time police arrived, Fu had already fled.

At the end of August last year, Shanghai police received a report from Lingshui Li Autonomous County in Hainan Province that a man claimed that he had killed someone in Shanghai in 1994.

The man, who lived under the name of “Li Qiuping,” was soon identified as Yu.

Yu was caught in September and has confessed. The 63-year-old told police he had been working as an electrician in Hainan.