Mother and Son Die at Home, Only Discovered 2 Years Later
by Peter Barefoot on Monday, January 28, 2013
From QQ:
Mother & Son Die at Home in Beijing, Discovered 2 Years Later
From Beijing Evening News. A mother and her son pair who lived in Beijing’s Dongcheng District Jingtaidongli Building No.4 had not been seen in their neighborhood in nearly 2 years. In the morning the day before yesterday [January 22], the bodies of this mother and son pair were discovered in their home, the both of them having been dead for some time. Yesterday [January 23], the police collected a refrigerator drawer and other everyday items used by the deceased for examination.
Yesterday [January 23] afternoon, the reporter of this article saw that the metal door of the apartment where the incident happened was locked and already sealed off with yellow [police scene] tape. According to residents in the building, a mother and her son lived in this apartment, “the woman was about 30 to 40 years old, with a little boy who was about 5 to 6 years old.” The residents also claimed that it has been 3 to 4 years since they’ve seen the father of the boy come home, and it had always been the mother and her son living here, but the last time anyone saw the mother and son was in early 2011. “We too were wondering where the mother and her son had gone to at the time. Then we heard that they had simply gone back to their hometown.”
However, the day before yesterday [January 22] after 9am, an old woman who claimed to be the woman’s mother-in-law arrived with a locksmith who unlocked the door. To everyone’s surprise, the bodies of the mother and son were discovered. A neighbor called Ms. Mu described that many police cars arrived at the community that morning. The police was investigating the scene in the apartment where the incident happened until late at night. “In the beginning we didn’t know who died, until later when the police was asking questions around the neighborhood did we know that they were the mother and her son.”
The day before yesterday [January 22] after 5pm, the bodies of the mother and son were carried out of the scene. “The two bodies were carried out together on one stretcher, covered with a white cloth, the child together with his mother even to the end.” A Mr. Li who witnessed the scene was very upset. According to him, this little boy was very lively, and could often be seen playing on the fences. Sometimes the boy would be at home alone, yet nobody ever heard him cry or make a fuss. Residents say the mother and her son were old residents here, but they rarely went out, and nobody had ever had any dealings with them. The woman didn’t really have much contact with her husband’s family either. People didn’t even know the names of the mother and her son. “The woman was fairly tall, very pretty, but she didn’t talk much. If someone ran into her, she’d just smile or nod her head.”
According to the residents, the last time they saw the mother and son was at the beginning of 2011. Afterwards, they never saw them go out ever again. In August or September of 2011, some neighbors noted that there was a foul smell in the hallway, and many flies appeared from nowhere, leading the residents to also think the worst from time to time. They say they’ve contacted the neighborhood and subdistrict committee, but then someone said that the mother and her son had simply returned to their hometown, and so no one ever thought of the worst again.
Yesterday afternoon [January 22], the police took away a refrigerator drawer and some other everyday items for examination from the apartment where the incident happened, and the apartment door was locked again as well.
“The gas bill is collected once every three months here, while the water meter must be checked by going into tenants’ apartments, once a month, so [their bodies] should have been found [earlier]. Did no one from their family think of calling them after this much time?” The residents say that the mother and her son have been dead for 2 years without being discovered. The more they think about it, the more unbelievable it is. What pains the residents the most is [the death of] the little boy who was only 5 to 6 years old. “When he played in the fences, we would playfully tease him and he’d even talk back.”
