Shen Changyin was born on January 26, 1976, in China.

In June 2003, Shen Changyin and his brother Shen Changping began a series of murders in Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Their first victim was Yao Fang. They lured her to a house, tied her up, and forced her to give them her bank account PIN. After they obtained this information, they strangled her and dismembered her body.

In late November 2003, they targeted Li Chunling, robbing her in a similar way. However, the brothers did not kill her because she offered to help them find more victims. Li later brought another woman to them. Together, they stole from her and forced Li to kill her. They then removed one of her kidneys, burned her body with sulphuric acid, and disposed of the remains in a toilet.

After murdering three more women in the same manner, the brothers and Li moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi, in April 2004. There, they lured a woman named Zhao Meiying and forced her to bring another sex worker to their home. They compelled Zhao to stab the woman and then used a meat processor to dispose of her body, flushing the chemical-treated remains down the toilet.

As pressure from law enforcement increased, Zhao eventually turned herself in to the police, leading to Li’s capture as well. However, the Shen brothers continued their crimes in various cities, including Hefei, Anhui; Baotou, Inner Mongolia; and Shijiazhuang, Hebei.

The brothers and an accomplice named Du Surong were arrested in August 2004. They were found in a Shijiazhuang apartment where they were attempting to destroy the dismembered body of one of their victims using acid. The Shens confessed to killing 11 women in total. Shen Changyin also admitted to having murdered a man in their hometown in 1999.

In September 2005, Shen Changyin, Shen Changping, and Li were sentenced to death. Three female accomplices received prison sentences ranging from three to twenty years. On April 27, 2006, the Shens and Li were executed by lethal injection.