A group of “suspected victims” in Qinzhou being interviewed by me
Zhu Fang (a pseudonym) sat in front of me, his face full of gloom and unease.
Zhu Fang is a native of Qinzhou, Guangxi. That year, his 84-year-old mother died of illness and was cremated in a funeral home in Qinzhou City on January 26, but just two days after that, the funeral home exposed the scandal of body trafficking, which made him feel very uneasy.
Zhu Fang suspected that his mother’s corpse might have been trafficked as well.
Also disturbed was Li Shaoqiang (a pseudonym) of Fangchenggang, Guangxi, who, unlike Zhu Fang, soon confirmed that the body of his relative Jing had been stolen and sold.
On the afternoon of January 30 of that year, he was suddenly approached by the police, who said they had found 10 stolen and sold bodies in a van, among which might have been Jing.
Earlier that year, Li Shaoqiang’s 15-year-old niece, Ah Jing, died prematurely. Jing’s father was Li’s wife and brother, who had died several years earlier, Jing went to the United States with her mother to study, and returned to Fangchenggang City for nearly six months to treat her illness.
Li Shaoqiang saw a video played by the police when they intercepted the illegal body truck. He really saw Jing in the video, and she was still wearing the clothes that Li Shaoqiang had personally changed for her.
At 2:00 p.m. on January 28 of that year, because there was no funeral home in Fangchenggang, Jing’s body was picked up by a car from a funeral home in Qinzhou City, which is close to Fangchenggang. Cremation, Qinzhou funeral home people informed Li Shaoqiang, there is a body not handled, “the next one is her. “
But then what happened was that Ah Jing’s remains were stolen and sold. And shuttled between the two sides of a large-scale dumping of corpses, and thus the case surfaced.
One
The year was 2005, and I was working as a journalist for a magazine in southern China when I got a tip about this case of body theft and sale. After that, I split up with a colleague, he went to Maoming, Guangdong, and I went to Qinzhou, Beihai and Fangchenggang, Guangxi to cover the case.
The reason for this case is: On the night of January 28, 2005, the Public Security Bureau of Qinzhou City, Guangxi received a report that someone was illegally smuggling corpses to Guangdong to sell them for profit, so the police set up an ambush and intercepted a vehicle with the license plate Guangdong KK1911 at the entrance of the highway. The car was opened and 10 bodies of men and women were piled up inside.
Qinzhou police initially found out that the people on the car are Guangdong people Zhou Si, Hua Zhenquan and Lao Youwen, they began in August 2004, from the Qinzhou City funeral home to 300 yuan per body to buy back to Guangdong, and then sold out at prices ranging from 1,000-1,500 yuan.
On January 29, 2005, the Qinzhou City police took Zhou Si, Hua Zhenquan and Lao Youwen into criminal detention on suspicion of stealing and insulting corpses.
At the beginning of the case, officials of the civil affairs system in Qinzhou City denied the theft and sale of corpses from the funeral home.
Qinzhou City Civil Affairs Bureau Director Zhao Xian said in a media interview, Qinzhou City funeral home to provide corpses “purely normal business transactions “. Zhao said that around March 2004, a “funeral law enforcement brigade of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Huazhou City, Guangdong Province “contact Qinzhou funeral home for support, said they want to pull some nameless corpses, widows and orphans and families said not to leave ashes of the body to Guangdong cremation, to help complete the cremation target, the other side explained that Guangdong funeral reform is very strong, each funeral home signed a responsibility certificate, divided into pieces of work, failure to The task will be punished.
Zhao said: “Qinzhou City funeral home every year to spend a lot of money for the unknown corpse, the Civil Affairs Bureau and can not get the money to support, coupled with the construction of the funeral home lack of money, less cremation of a corpse can save two or three hundred yuan. Each year will be able to save a lot of money, so the Bureau did not meet to discuss agreed. “
February 3, 2005, Qinzhou City Civil Affairs Bureau of Social Welfare and Social Affairs Section Chief Zhang Wan in an interview with the local media also said: this is just a normal business transaction between the funeral home, some bodies are out of town, the family pulled back to cremation, but also from the field back.
Afterwards, their explanation proved to be a complete pretext.
During the interview in Guangxi, I saw a brief from the Qinzhou procuratorial authorities reported to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region High Procuratorate, which was simply worded but shocking in content.
According to the brief, it was around late March 2004 that Zhou Si, who identified himself as “a staff member of the Maoming Funeral Parlor Zhou Si approached Zhong Wei, director of the funeral home in Qinzhou City, to discuss with him whether he could transport some bodies to Guangdong for cremation, because there were many people in Guangdong who did not want to be cremated and wanted to pay to find bodies to replace them, and Zhong Wei attached great importance to this single “business”, immediately reported to Zhang Wan, Zhang Wan agreed.
Subsequently, Zhang Wan will sell the corpse of the “business “plan to Qinzhou City Civil Affairs Bureau Deputy Director Chen Qinlong for instructions, Chen Qinlong stressed that it must be done thoroughly.
At the end of March that year, Zhang Wan informed Zhong Wei and the two deputy directors to meet at the Civil Affairs Bureau to “study the sale of corpses “. At the meeting, Zhang Wan repeatedly stressed the importance of confidentiality, and also asked the participants to “guarantee with their personalities “. After the meeting, Zhong Wei and others called some of the stokers and salesmen to “convey the spirit of the meeting “, the same emphasis on not to disclose a trace of information to the outside.
Two
The revelation of the two wide corpse trade was largely due to the conscience of certain staff within the Qinzhou City Mortuary, who reported the illegal practice of selling corpses at the facility.
The information I got from the whistleblower is that the funeral home sells a corpse for 800-1000 yuan. And according to the aforementioned briefings written Zhou Si and other people’s account, each corpse into the price is only 300 yuan, to Guangdong can be sold at a price of 1000-1500 yuan, the highest when a corpse can be sold for 30-50,000 yuan.
The whistleblower also revealed that on the night of April 2, 2004, Qinzhou City Funeral Home began to receive the first single “business “, the four corpses loaded on the Guangdong car to transport, since then, “business “has been carrying out smoothly, pulling at least 3-5 times a month, each time 3-5 bodies. Every time to Qinzhou has a “source of goods “, then telegraphed Zhou Si and others to come to “pick up the goods “.
The whistleblower said that the corpses were purchased by Guangdong people, most of the body carriers with Maoming and Zhanjiang license plates, the intercepted “Guangdong KK1911 ” came most frequently.
Within a 10-month period, Qinzhou City Funeral Home sold at least 150 bodies.
Local prosecutors’ aforementioned brief then said: Zhou Si and others and Qinzhou City Funeral Home “business cooperation “began on March 31, 2004, has been identified as 163 bodies sold, of which the youngest 2 years old, the oldest 98 years old, the total amount of 60,200,000 yuan of stolen money from the sale of corpses, Chen Qinlong, Zhang Wan, Zhong Wei 3 people before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2004, each share of 20,000 yuan of stolen money.
Informants revealed that, in order to avoid the eyes and ears, the sale of corpses “business “all choose to carry out at night. The stoker and salesman are “working” between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. the next day “. They had to lie to their families that they were “working overtime “.
Always working “overtime” like this ” but no overtime pay, some workers began to be dissatisfied, from the second half of 2004, the Guangdong body buyers then each time to stuff the staff a red packet, containing 8 yuan, 10 yuan ranging.
According to the whistleblower, the funeral home focused its main target on three types of corpses: one is the family did not follow to the funeral home, did the formalities and wait to receive the ashes; the second is the family does not want ashes, to the funeral home full disposal; third is the nameless corpse.
I saw the 60 stolen and sold bodies provided by the whistleblower, “Notice of Disposal of Remains”, 45 of which were written on the “do not keep the ashes “, and the other 15 said “ashes in plastic bags Keep for six months (or a year)”, the name column to write There are 16 copies of “John Doe”.
But these three types of corpse sources obviously can not meet the needs of buyers in Guangdong. According to the local police disclosed to the media, Zhong Wei explained that since August 2004, he entered into a “rule” in the funeral home “: the body into the crematorium, “can not be cremated as soon as possible not cremated, can drag If the mourners have doubts, say that there is still a body to be cremated, the next one will be your turn, and then notify the mourners to collect the ashes after the cremation. -Many mourners were just “sent away Many mourners are “sent” away.
After the body is sold, if the relatives ask the funeral home for ashes to pay respects, what should be done? I was told: “It’s very simple, hold someone else’s ashes out to cope with, give the person to pay respects, and then at the end of the ashes back to the original place. Some staff members also know that this kind of thing is harmful to God, so when holding the ashes of others impersonation, are first bowed to the ashes: blame God and earth, please do not blame me. “
Three
What I learned in Qinzhou is that Zhou Si and others were not satisfied with just one source of corpses in Qinzhou, but kept expanding their geographical scope, and by the end of 2004, they had developed their “supply “network developed to Guangxi Beihai, Hepu two places. Qinzhou police also found that January 28 of that year was intercepted in 10 bodies, there is one from Hepu, one from Beihai.
On the afternoon of March 25, 2005, officials from Beihai’s Civil Affairs Bureau visited the city’s funeral parlor to understand the situation, stating that they “also asked Beihai’s news media reporters to supervise the scene to ensure the authenticity of the investigation. “.
Beihai City officials preliminary investigation results are: “January 28, three personnel from the funeral home in Huzhou City, Guangdong Province, came to the funeral home in Beihai City, said in order to ‘to complete the death cremation rate’, to buy corpses to fill the number. Beihai City Funeral Parlor newly appointed less than three months curator of funeral business and regulations are not very familiar, and out of sympathy for their counterparts in Guangdong, took it upon themselves to forward a nameless child corpse to them, did not ask for money. “
Beihai official result: “Although this is ‘send the body’ is not ‘sell the body’, but from the humanitarian , professional ethics, are not allowed. Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau leaders and municipal funeral leaders have decided: the funeral director with primary responsibility for the immediate suspension of the review, depending on the investigation will be further processed. “
However, during my stay in Guangxi, I was told that Zhou Si and others have admitted that the number of corpses bought in Beihai was much more than 1, but more than 30. This news was firmly denied by the Beihai authorities in an interview with me.
During my interview in Guangxi, the staff of a city funeral home also reported to me that his funeral home also had the practice of dumping corpses, from 2004 to 2005, about a hundred corpses were dumped, and came to The “goods”, it is in January 28th was arrested in the few Guangdong people.
Like the funeral home in Qinzhou City, “buying goods “Like in the funeral home in Qinzhou City, Zhou Si and others will give 10 yuan each time to the workers carrying the corpses.
“Qinzhou sold corpses after the exposure of the incident, our funeral home leaders have nothing to do, still working normally. The 10 corpses in the 1, it is bought from here. After the incident, the funeral home gave the mourners 2,000 yuan to appease. “The informant told me so.
He also revealed that since the incident of the sale of corpses in Qinzhou, the funeral home leaders are very nervous, warned employees not to disclose the situation, the museum sent two additional security guards, “not to let reporters just enter. “
April 10 of that year at noon, I went to the funeral home, the entrance to the museum hanging “national second-class funeral home ” sign, compared to the Qinzhou Funeral Home scale to large, that day is the first Sunday after the Qingming Festival, the sound of firecrackers, cigarettes curling, in the worship of many people or.
Four
Guangxi funeral officials to organize the sale of bodies for profit after the case, the local officials involved in the disposal of the case is quite swift: February 23, 2005, Qinzhou funeral home.
On February 23, 2005, Chen Qinlong, deputy director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qinzhou City, was double-regulated and turned into an arrest on March 5; on February 28, Zhong Wei, director of the Funeral Management Institute of Qinzhou City, Zhang Wan, head of the Social Welfare and Social Affairs Section of the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, and Zhou Si, Hua Zhenquan and Laoyouwen, three corpse buyers, were arrested; on March 8, Zhao Xian, secretary of the party group and director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qinzhou City, was suspended and the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection opened a case against him.
So, what are the three corpse buyers who were known to be from the funeral parlors or civil affairs bureau staff of Huzhou City, Guangdong, in the mouth of Qinzhou funeral system officials?
The city of Huzhou is governed by Maoming, Guangdong. According to the investigation of my colleague who went to Maoming, at that time, there was no funeral home in Huzhou City, and people who died locally had to go to Maoming City Funeral Home for cremation. According to the investigation of Huzhou Public Security Bureau, Zhou Si and others were actually a well-defined group of corpse dumpers. There was another key figure in the case, Huang Zhonghe, who was responsible for “marketing” the corpse in the area. The case also involved another key figure, Huang Zhonghe, who was responsible for “marketing” the bodies locally.
A staff member of the Hwazhou Mortuary Law Enforcement Brigade revealed to my colleague that after the three Zhou Si pulled the bodies back from Guangxi, Huang Zhonghe put the bodies in the morgue of Hwazhou City People’s Hospital for freezing and preservation. Huang’s mother Peng is an employee of this hospital. Morgue freezer is Peng funded the purchase, usually used to store such as car accidents, criminal cases resulting in death need to preserve the body.
Huang Zhonghe has a large source of corpses through the funeral home in Guangxi, directly to the Huzhou known as “earthworkers who helped bury the deceased in Hwachow, “wholesale “, after which the “earthworkers “the” people “retail” to the mourners.
Huang admitted that the “wholesale price” of a corpse ” in about 1000-2000 yuan, and all over the city of Hwazou “earthworkers The city’s “earthworkers” form a tight network and can quickly appear in front of the city’s mourners who want to be buried. A case in point is that a young man surnamed Liang died in a car accident in 2003 and his family wanted to be buried, the “earthworkers The family wanted a burial, and the “earthworker” came to the door and charged 8,000 yuan to help complete the burial.
The relevant process is: “earthworker guy ” will Liang’s body into the hospital morgue, with the body bought from Huang Zhonghe switched packages, and then the body of Guangxi sent to Maoming funeral home, while Liang’s body secret burial.
For people who died at home, “earthworkers “will buy the body smuggled to the mourners home, after the funeral car to come before the transfer.
At that time, in addition to the purchase of corpses from neighboring Guangxi, local body theft cases in Hwazhou were also frequent. My colleagues in the local interviews learned that from the second half of 2004 to the beginning of 2005, graves in some local villages were being dug one after another, and that the coffins, whether new or old bones, were all stolen. As of December 2004, a total of seven bones had been dug up in a village in Hwazhou, and at least 50 bones had been stolen in the town where the village was located.
A background to these incidents is that around 2000, Hwazhou City implemented a funeral reform that required a 100% cremation rate in the city. This also gave some people in the funeral system room to make profits. My colleagues in the area learned that for a small amount of money, mourners could obtain a burial permit. Some people in the funeral system acquiesce to burial for profit, while some mourners seek burial by any means possible, thus directly creating a market for corpses with strong supply and demand.
After the Qinzhou corpse theft and sale case, the Guangdong Hwazhou authorities also investigated the case, but the local investigation verified that a total of 28 corpses were shipped to Hwazhou to replace the cremation, and the rest were not known.
Five
When I met Zhu Fang in Qinzhou, he was deep in grief.
“At that time, when all our worship services were finished, the funeral home people told us to go back, saying that the ashes had been put away for us. “Zhu Fang recalled. He was very worried that his mother’s bones were among those being trafficked.
We petitioned everywhere, but no one could give a proof,” Zhu Fang told me. I asked them to show me photos, and they wouldn’t show me or let me identify them. “
At that time in Qinzhou, since the exposure of the corpse trafficking case, like Zhu Fang was deeply disturbed, is a larger group, especially in March and April 2004 to 2005 “1-28 The people who cremated the remains of their relatives at the funeral home in Qinzhou City during the time of the “1-28” incident were even more disturbed. They were not sure whether their deceased family members had been trafficked, so they went to the relevant departments in droves to petition for a clear answer.
They also took it upon themselves to register at the local Civil Affairs Bureau. Some people saw at the Civil Affairs Bureau that on March 25, 2005, 123 people had registered.
They put forward such requests: to seriously check the implementation of the real names of the bodies sold and related information, to provide convenience for the relatives of the deceased to access screening; after the implementation of the list of bodies sold, should be published in a timely manner to the “Qinzhou Daily”, the results will be made public; and during the sale of bodies, due to the complexity of the situation, the operation is hidden, the bones may be confused, therefore, should be identified through high-tech means to check the bones, and so on.
Among them, Huang Qifang (a pseudonym), who was running a garment store in Qinzhou City, was one of the more active ones. That year, Huang Qifang’s 22-year-old only son died in a car accident and was cremated on January 7 at the Qinzhou City funeral home.
Huang Qifang recalled that on January 7, many relatives went to the funeral home to do the ceremony, but the cremation, the staff did not allow them to enter the incinerator, so she did not see her son’s cremation process, and in the “1-28 “After the incident, some family members suddenly recalled the cremation did not see smoke from the chimney, Huang Qifang suspected that her son’s body was sold.
“It was so close to Jan. 28, and he was not sick, it was impossible not to be pulled out and sold. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. “
After the “1-28″ incident, Huang Qifang also went to many local departments, such as the government, public security organs, the Civil Affairs Bureau, etc., in order to get an explanation. I asked for a definite answer: Was the child sold? Are the ashes his? ” she said.
But the answer from all the departments was: the 163 bodies that were sold were “three kinds of people”, one was a family request not to keep the ashes, one was a five-bond household, and one was a nameless corpse.
On the morning of April 12, 2005, about 30 “suspected victims” appeared in front of the Qinzhou Municipal Government, asking the government to provide information about the 163 bodies that were sold. They asked the government to provide information about the 163 bodies sold, such as name, age, gender, address, etc. The answer they received was that it was not possible to provide them for the time being due to confidentiality, and that they would only be able to disclose the results of the trial when they were available.
One of them told me that they may never figure out if the bodies of their family members were sold.
“The damage this has done to us is bound to be permanent. ” he said.
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