A missing five-year-old girl was saved by police with aid from netizens who sent in tips to alert her family. When she was discovered, her hair had been shaved and she was wearing different clothes and it was revealed she had been abducted by a woman in southwest China’s Yunnan Province on August 25.
The female suspect, surnamed Fan, was tracked down and arrested by the police a day later on August 26, nine hours after the young girl went missing in Qujing City, Yunnan Province, which is 100km away from where she lives. Fan had intended to travel to another city in southwest China when the child was saved, the child’s parents said.
The suspect had cut the girl’s hair and changed her outfit after taking her away.
The five-year-old was found safe, however with her head shaved and wearing different clothes. /Screenshot via Weibo
Southwest China is one of the most active areas for domestic child trafficking cases according to a recent study on the child trafficking networks behind illegal adoption in China by scholars at Huhan University.
The study also shows many children are trafficked only short distances, with 58.2 percent of all child trafficking occurring in the same province or city.
The five-year-old was found nine hours after being reported lost. /Screenshot via Weibo
In this case, the five-year-old girl's kidnapping was reported at around 2 p.m. while she was out with her grandmother on August 25 near a river in Xuanwei City.
The girl and her grandmother came across an older woman with another girl who looked of a similar age.
“The woman let her kid play with my child and probably offered her candy. She (the grandmother) was distracted, so they took my daughter away,” CCTV reported, citing the mother of the five-year-old.
The female suspect, surnamed Fan, was arrested on August 26, for abducting the five-year-old. /Screenshot via Weibo
Immediately after the girl’s disappearance, the girl’s family went to the police, but also turned to social media for help, and this is what was credited for cracking the case and leading police to the scene.
The family said they had received tips from netizens who said they saw the missing girl at a nearby train station in route to Qujing City from Xuanwei.
And then netizens in Qujing also notified police of the girl and the kidnapper's whereabouts, which allowed the police to track them down later.