Police confirm body is the DiDi Hitch murder

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01:27

The police in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province, has confirmed through DNA testing that a body it has found belongs to Liu Zhenhua, who allegedly killed a passenger, according to a statement published by the authorities on Saturday.

Liu, who was a driver for Didi Hitch, jumped into a river near west third ring road in Zhengzhou after he allegedly killed a 21-year-old passenger, who was a flight attendant from Luck Air and had booked Liu’s car on the ride-hailing app.

Didi Chuxing is the largest ride-hailing service in China.

Didi on Friday also stated that its hitching service will be suspended for a week as there are reports of loopholes in review systems and in the identification of its Hitch drivers.

Zhengzhou Police published a statement on Saturday, confirming the body they found earlier belongs to murder suspect Liu. /Weibo Photo

According to a screenshot of a text conversation between Li and her friend, Li said she was a little worried about the driver during the ride. “He’s a bit lecherous; he said I’m really beautiful and he wants to kiss me. Glad I am not in the front passenger seat,” the Paper reported. Li’s friend urged her to find an excuse to get out of the car. Li said it was “fine,” but did not reply afterward.

The screenshot of the conversation between Li and her friend /Weibo Photo

Li’s family members reported her disappearance to the local police and Didi after they weren’t able to reach her the following day. The police found Li the next day with her lower body naked and with several stab wounds.

Didi said that it felt “deeply saddened by and sorry about the tragedy.” The company apologized to the family and announced a reward of up to one million yuan (157,500 US dollars) for clues toward finding the suspect. In addition, Didi published the driver’s information, which included Liu’s name, photo, government ID, and mobile phone number.

Didi Chuxing Company published the suspended driver’s information. /Weibo Photo

“We need to step up to win the trust of our users. Our responsibilities in this case are undeniable,” Didi said in a statement to Reuters.

At present, Didi has set up a special working group to cooperate with the police in the investigation of the case. Didi expressed that they will do its best to assist the police in arresting the driver as soon as possible.

According to Reuters, Didi is the world’s largest ride-hailing firm by number of rides and has 450 million users with a commanding market share in China. It completed more than 7.4 billion rides last year, almost double Uber’s count.

However, Li was not the first female passenger to suffer from sexual harassment by a Didi driver. Back in 2016, a 24-year-old female teacher was robbed and killed after being taken to a remote place by a Didi driver in Shenzhen City, south China’s Guangdong Province.

Police had found that the driver's vehicle license plate had been forged. The suspect also used fake licenses to pick up passengers, exposing a fault in Didi’s system. Didi said that after this incident, it will work to improve the security measures of the app for its passengers.

So far, Didi has garnered criticism for being lax in checking the backgrounds of prospective drivers. Many of its current drivers had not obtained the necessary licenses or permits.

One investigation found that of the over 200 illegal vehicles that did not have permits to provide online taxi booking, Didi’s vehicles occupied 90 percent, according to a CCTV report.