Man fakes his death to escape debt; wife kills herself and two kids

The man faked his own death after falling into debt and taking out a 1 million yuan life insurance policy on himself, hoping to save his family

The biggest topic on Chinese social media at the moment is a tragic story out of Hunan province where a man faked his own death for the insurance money, but failed to inform his family of his plan, leading to his wife killing herself along with their two young children.

The 34-year-old man surnamed He disappeared on September 19th after borrowing a car which was later found crashed in the Zijiang River of Xinhua county. Police searches of the river and surrounding area failed to turn up He’s body.

Three weeks later, He’s 31-year-old wife surnamed Dai was seen on surveillance camera walking with the couple’s four-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to a pond near their village. Upon reaching the pond, Dai then bound the children’s hands and threw them into the water before also drowning herself.

Before going to the pond that day, Dai had left behind a suicide note on WeChat. In the note, she said that she had lost the will to live, no longer able to bear the weight of being accused of causing her husband’s death by He’s family, who, she claims, also accused her of being lazy, crazy, and a spendthrift to boot.

Dai also wrote that she and her husband had been happily married and that she loved and missed him, explaining that she was taking her life and those of her children so that they could all be together again.

The day after the three bodies were found, He arrived at the local police station, tearfully confessing to faking his own death in order to solve his financial difficulties. Police said that He was more than 100,000 yuan ($14,000) in debt after taking out an online loan and that a little more than a week before faking the crash, he had taken out a 1 million yuan ($144,000) life insurance policy on himself.

...[ Continue to next page ]  /  Source: shanghai