A father who spent 8 years searching for the man suspected of killing his son, tracked down the man only to discover he had taken on a new identity.

Dong Enti, a farmer in Erlangmiao village in Zhouzhi county, Shaanxi province in Northwest China, lost his 17-year-old son, Dong Hui, two days after the boy was seriously injured by the suspect, also surnamed Dong, on Jan 21, 2001.

Police efforts to apprehend the suspect were unsuccessful and in the fall of 2004, Dong Enti decided to start his own search for the man he believed killed his son.

The suspect, Dong, was also 17-years-old and lived next door to Dong Enti. In January, 2001, the suspect had an argument with Dong Hui and injured him with a knife. The family of the suspect then disappeared from the village.

From 2004 to 2012, Dong Enti searched for the alleged killer in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Tianjin municipality, and Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi and Guangdong provinces at a cost of more than 100,000 yuan ($15,672).

In 2011 Dong Enti was asked to identify a photo taken by county police from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. Dong, his wife and two villagers confirmed that the man in the photo was the suspect Dong, but police knew the man as Zhang Heng, a registered resident in Baoji, a city in western Shaanxi.

On Dec 14, 2011, police placed Zhang Heng on the wanted list and in July this year Dong was caught in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. He confessed to Wenzhou police that he was the man who seriously injured Dong Hui in 2001.

Dong Enti discovered the suspect changed his identity in 2006 and got his household registration in Baoji. Police in Baoji are investigating how the suspect had his identity changed and registered in Baoji.