In July, a nine-year-old girl was found dead in a river in the east China city of Nanjing. In her backpack were bricks weighing four kilograms (nine pounds), sparking questions of why someone would deliberately drown the young child.
After a month-long investigation, police in Jiangsu Province finally arrested two suspects in the young girl’s death: her father and grandfather.
When local police found the unidentified girl’s body in a river channel under a highway bridge on June 25, they posted a search notice on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social platform, offering a 2,000 yuan reward for help identifying the young girl.
The search notice posted on Weibo by the Jiangning District Public Security Office /Screenshot on Weibo
The notice wrote that the girl was about nine-years-old, 135 cm in height, wore a 20.5 cm shoe size, and had short black hair. The post also replicated the clothing she was found in: a white T-shirt, pink coat, blue trousers with white spots, pink shoes and a pink bag.
The case captured the public’s attention, as the police reposted the notice for the next couple days, with over 10,000 shares and 5,000 comments on Weibo. Later, the police increased the reward to 20,000 yuan in hopes of identifying the girl.
Concern turned to outrage online after the Legal Daily disclosed on July 2 that bricks weighing up to four kilograms were found in the girl’s backpack, making it a murder instead of a simple tragedy. Many wondered how desperate the girl was and how she suffered before died, with many sending condolences to her family.
After a month, police updated the public on July 25, closing the case with an even sadder ending.
Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau announcement /Photo via @Pingan Nanjing on Weibo.
Two suspects, the girl’s father and grandfather, were arrested. Both admitted to the police that they pushed the girl into the local river on June 23 because they couldn’t afford to take care of the child, who had cerebral palsy, a chronic disease that affects coordination, muscle movement and can cause seizures.
Her illness had cost the family over 100,000 yuan (15,000 US dollars) and was difficult for the family to manage, a family member told the Yangtse Evening Post. Her parents got divorced and the grandmother who used to take care of the girl had just been diagnosed with intestinal cancer. She was drowned not long after being taken to her 65-year-old grandfather who was working at a construction site in Nanjing.
After hearing the news, netizens were beyond being shocked and expressed fury, gathering over 40,000 shares and about 10,000 comments under the police Weibo post.
Screenshot on Weibo
“Soooo SAD! The girl may still wonder what she had done wrong to make her father and grandfather do this to her,” netizen @Gaogezimaomi said.
Screenshot on Weibo.
“The suspects finally got arrested! But I still feel upset when seeing the photo,” another comment with hundreds of likes written by @Yiyangqianyu.
Screenshot on Weibo
“The motive was reasonable, but emotionally I just can’t accept it!” said user @Nikanjianwodehuajitouxianglema.
According to the Chinaeconomic.net, a subsidiary office under the State Council, over 43 million people lived in poverty in 2017. Of that number, 42.6 percent were affected by expenses related to medical care.
China has stepped up efforts to help needy families in recent years, with the illness-caused poverty population decreasing by 8.5 million from 2015 to 2017, reported China Youth.
