Man In China With Down Syndrome Killed To Replace Another Corpse For Cremation

China has banned burials and made cremations mandatory since 2012 for the sake of saving land. So, when the time came for a family to cremate their deceased relative, they hired a man to find a substitute body for the cremation so that they could hold a secret burial instead.

SCMP reported that the deceased man told his family that he wished to be buried before dying from cancer in February 2017.

The family then hired a man surnamed Huang to find a substitute body for the cremation and paid him a sum of 107,000 yuan (RM67,596), of which 90,000 yuan (RM56,856) went to Huang while the rest went to a middleman surnamed Wen.

On 1 March 2017, Huang abducted a man with Down syndrome while he was picking rubbish on the streets. Huang then forced the 36-year-old man, identified as Lin, to consume a large volume of liquor and placed him into a coffin once he became unconscious.

The coffin was prepared in advance and was sealed with four steel nails before being sent to the family two days later when it was due to be sent to the funeral home.

Lin’s body was sent for cremation, while the family took their deceased relative to a secluded area for traditional burial.

Lin was listed as a missing person by local police for two years before his family found out that he had been murdered in November 2019. Police used CCTV footage to investigate the crime.

In September 2020, Huang was found guilty of homicide and was sentenced to death with a two-year suspended sentence, reported Asia One.

Huang appealed to the Guangdong Higher People’s Court, claiming that he did not force the victim to drink the alcohol. He claimed that he thought the victim had died from sudden illness after drinking.

However, the court dismissed his appeal and upheld the original sentence.

 

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