BEIJING, Nov. 20 -- A Shanghai family of three was brutally slain 12 years ago in a crime that has not yet been solved.

But revenge, they say, is best served cold.

The then-patriarch of the family has offered a one-million-yuan (134.690 U.S. dollars) reward for information that leads to the location of a mystery woman he believes holds the answers to the grisly crime.

The wife, daughter and father-in-law of the man, identifying himself only as Xu, were found dead in their residence in Shanghai's Yangpu District in February, 1995.

Xu, who has settled in Australia and remarried, put an advertisement in a local newspaper, promising the huge reward for finding the woman he believes is a friend of the killer.

Xu said on his special Website www.medilu.com/228 that he only knew that the woman's name had a Chinese character "Ying" and she introduced Xu's wife to the killer in 1994.

"She must know the killer," said Xu in a phone interview with the Labor Daily. "Since he cannot be found, I came up with the idea to find the woman, which might help in locating the killer."

He said he went to Australia in 1991 and his wife, who intended to reunite with him down under, was approached by Ying.

"The woman introduced the killer and the man lied to my wife that he could arrange immigration and exit affairs for her," Xu said.

"But my wife soon discovered he was a cheat after paying him the fee. She might have demanded the return of the money on the day she was killed."

Xu's wife, Shi Hui, was 38 when she was murdered. Shi's 68-year-old father, who visited his daughter's residence that morning, become the second victim. Shi's daughter, aged 10, was killed when she went home for lunch.

"Putting the ad in the newspaper is not an act prompted by a sudden impulse ... I want to locate the killer and bring him to justice," Xu said.

The Shanghai Public Security Bureau confirmed the case to Shanghai Daily yesterday, emphasizing that police efforts to solve the murders have been ongoing for the past 12 years.

Police at the time widely circulated an Identikit image of the suspect, but received no worthwhile leads.

"Investigators have never given up and will not quit," said a bureau official, who declined to be named.

"For example, local police caught up with a man in 2004 who was responsible for four murders. The first one took place in 1985."

(Source: Shanghai Daily)