Qinzhou City Funeral Home, which is mired in a corpse trafficking scandal
Zhu Fang (a pseudonym) sat in front of me with a 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 Qinzhou City Funeral Home on January 26, but two days after that, the funeral home was exposed to the scandal of corpse 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 what happened next was that Ah Jing’s remains were stolen and sold. And shuttled between the two sides of a massive case of dumping bodies, and thus 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.
Zhao Xian, director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qinzhou City, said in a media interview that the Qinzhou City Funeral Parlour provides corpses “purely for normal business transactions”. Zhao said that around March 2004, a “funeral law enforcement brigade of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Huzhou City, Guangdong Province” contacted the Qinzhou funeral home for support, saying that they wanted to pull some nameless corpses, widows and orphans and families who said they would not keep the ashes of the corpses to be cremated in Guangdong, to help complete the cremation target, the other side explained that Guangdong’s funeral reform efforts are very strong, each funeral home are Signed a responsibility certificate, divided into people in pieces of work, failure to complete the task will be punished.
Zhao said, “Qinzhou City Funeral Home each year to spend a lot of money for the unnamed 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, you can save a lot of money each year, so the Bureau did not meet to discuss it agreed.”
On February 3, 2005, Zhang Wan, head of the social welfare and social affairs section of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qinzhou City, also said in an interview with the local media: this is just a normal business transaction between funeral homes, some of the bodies are out of town, the family pulled back to cremate, but also from out of town to pull 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 “Maoming funeral home worker,” approached Zhong Wei, the director of the funeral home in Qinzhou City, to discuss with him whether he could transport some bodies to Guangdong for cremation, because many people in Guangdong did not want to be cremated and wanted to pay for a replacement body. “business”, immediately reported to Zhang Wan, Zhang Wan agreed.
The scandal of selling corpses brought shame to Qinzhou, and the public was angry
Subsequently, Zhang Wan will sell the body “business” plan to the 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 of 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 stressed again and again to pay attention to confidentiality, but also asked the participants to “guarantee with personality”. After the meeting, Zhong Wei and others called some of the stokers and salesmen to “convey the spirit of the meeting”, also emphasizing that not a single piece of information should be disclosed to the outside world.
Two
The exposure of the corpse trade between the two regions is largely due to the conscience of some staff within the Qinzhou City Funeral Parlor, who reported the illegal practice of selling corpses in the parlor.
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 bodies loaded on the Guangdong car to transport away, since then, the “business” has been carrying out smoothly, at least 3-5 times a month, each time 3-5 bodies. The “business” has been going well since then, pulling at least 3-5 times a month, 3-5 bodies each time. Whenever there is a “source of goods” in Qinzhou, they will telegraph Zhou Si and others to “pick up the goods”.
The whistleblower said that the corpses were purchased by Guangdong people, and most of the corpse trucks were carrying Maoming and Zhanjiang license plates, and the intercepted “Guangdong KK1911” came most frequently.
Within 10 months, Qinzhou City Funeral Home sold at least 150 bodies.
The aforementioned briefing by the local prosecutors said: Zhou Si and others “business cooperation” with the Qinzhou City Funeral Home began on March 31, 2004, has been identified as 163 bodies sold, of which the youngest is 2 years old, the oldest is 98 years old, the total amount of stolen money from the sale of corpses 60,200,000 yuan, Chen Qinlong, Zhang Wan, Zhong Wei 3 people In 2004, before the Mid-Autumn Festival, each share the stolen money 20,000 yuan.
Informants revealed that in order to avoid the eyes and ears, the sale of corpses “business” are chosen to carry out at night. The stoker and the salesman all “worked” between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. the next day. They had to lie to their families that they were working “overtime”.
They had to lie to their families about “overtime”, but there was no overtime pay, so some workers became dissatisfied, and from the second half of 2004, the Guangdong buyers stuffed the staff with a red packet containing 8 or 10 yuan each time.
According to the whistleblower, the funeral home to the 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; second, the family does not want ashes, to the funeral home full disposal; third is the nameless corpse.
I saw the 60 stolen bodies sold by the whistleblower “body disposal notice”, 45 of which said “do not keep the ashes”, the other 15 said “plastic bags of ashes kept 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 a “rule” in the funeral home: the body into the crematorium, “can not be cremated as soon as possible not cremated, can be delayed as much as possible,” if the mourners have questions, say 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 “sent away” in this way.
After the body is sold, what if the relatives ask the funeral home for ashes to pay respects? I was told: “It’s very simple, hold someone else’s ashes out to deal with, give the people 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 blame the earth, please do not blame me.”
III
What I learned in Qinzhou was that Zhou Si and others were not satisfied with just one source of ashes in Qinzhou, but kept expanding their geographical scope, and by the end of 2004, they had developed their “supply” network to Beihai and Hepu, Guangxi. Qinzhou police also found that on January 28 that year, 10 bodies were intercepted, one from Hepu, one from Beihai.
In the afternoon of March 25, 2005, officials from the Beihai Civil Affairs Bureau visited the city’s funeral home to understand the situation, saying, “We also invite news media reporters from Beihai to monitor the scene to ensure the authenticity of the investigation.” .
Beihai official preliminary investigation results are: “January 28, Guangdong Huzhou City, three people came to the funeral home in Beihai City, said in order to ‘to complete the death cremation rate’, to buy bodies to fill the number. Beihai City Funeral Parlor new director of less than three months on the funeral business and regulations are not very familiar, and out of sympathy for their counterparts in Guangdong, took it upon themselves to transfer a nameless child corpse to them, did not ask for money.”
Beihai City Mortuary
Beihai official results are: “Although this is ‘send a corpse’ not ‘sell a corpse’, but from the humanitarian, professional ethics, are not allowed. The leadership of the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau and the leadership of the Municipal Funeral Institute decided after study: the funeral director who is mainly responsible for the immediate suspension of the review, depending on the investigation will be further dealt with.”
However, during my stay in Guangxi, I was told that Zhou Si and others had admitted that the number of bodies bought in Beihai was much more than 1, but more than 30. This news was firmly denied by the Beihai authorities in my interview.
During my interview in Guangxi, a city funeral home staff also reported to me that his funeral home also has the act of selling bodies, from 2004 to 2005, about a hundred bodies sold, and to “buy”, it is in January 28th was arrested in Guangdong, a few people.
Like in the Qinzhou City funeral home “goods”, Zhou Si and others will give 10 yuan each time to the workers carrying the bodies.
“After the exposure of the Qinzhou corpse sale 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, warning employees not to disclose the situation to the public, the home sent two additional security guards to protect the courtyard, “do not allow journalists to 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 the people or a lot.
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. The case also includes a key figure, Huang Zhonghe, who was responsible for “marketing” the bodies in the area, when Huang was an employee of the logistics department of Huzhou’s eighth high school.
A street scene in Huzhou, Guangdong (online photo)
A staff member of the Hwazhou Mortuary Law Enforcement Brigade revealed to my colleague that after the three Zhou Si pulled back the body from Guangxi, Huang Zhonghe put the body in the morgue of Hwazhou 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 people of Huzhou known as “earthworkers” to help bury the dead for “wholesale”, and then by the “earthworkers” who “retail” to the mourners.
Huang admitted that the “wholesale price” of a corpse is about 1,000-2,000 yuan, and that the “earthworkers” throughout Hwaseong City form a tight network that can quickly appear in front of mourners who want to be buried in the city. In one case, a young man surnamed Liang died in a car accident in 2003, his family wanted to be buried, and the “earthworker” came to the door and charged 8,000 yuan to help complete the burial.
The relevant process is: “earthworkers” will Liang’s body into the hospital morgue, with the body bought from Huang Zhonghe switched bags, 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 bodies from the neighboring Guangxi, Hwazhou local body theft cases also occurred frequently. 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.
Zhu Fang told me, “We petitioned everywhere, but no one could give a proof. I asked them to show me photos, but they wouldn’t show me, and they wouldn’t let me identify them.”
A group of “suspected victims” in Qinzhou being interviewed by me
In Qinzhou, a large group of people, like Zhu Fang, were deeply disturbed after the body trafficking case came to light, especially those who had their relatives’ remains cremated in Qinzhou City funeral parlors between March and April 2004 and the “January 28” incident in 2005. They are not sure whether their deceased family members have been trafficked, so they have gone to the relevant departments to petition, trying to get a clear answer.
They also spontaneously registered with 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 when the cremation, the staff did not allow them to enter the incinerator, so she did not see her son’s cremation process, and after the “1-28” incident, some family members suddenly recalled that the cremation did not see smoke from the chimney, Huang Qifang suspected that her son Huang Qi Fang suspected that her son’s body had been sold.
“It was so close to Jan. 28, and he wasn’t sick, so there was no way he wouldn’t have been pulled out and sold.” In my interview, Huang Qifang mourned loudly, “It’s poor enough that my son is dead, but if he is sold again, don’t you think it’s poor?
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 that the 163 bodies that were sold were “three kinds of people”: those whose families requested that the ashes not be kept, those from the Five Guarantees, and the nameless corpses.
On the morning of April 12, 2005, about 30 “suspected victims” appeared in front of the Qinzhou City government, they asked the government to provide information about the 163 bodies sold, such as name, age, gender, address, etc. They received a reply: “For reasons of confidentiality, the bodies were sold to the government. The reply they received was that it was not convenient 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.
Recent Comments