Chinese man kidnapped and killed in elaborate body-swap scheme

(FASTNEWS | COLOMBO) – A Chinese man with Down’s syndrome was kidnapped and killed in a bungled plot to grant another man’s wish for burial rather than cremation.

Before he died of cancer in 2017 a man from south-east China told his family he wanted a traditional burial, but in some regions these are banned.

His family hired someone to find a substitute body that could be cremated in place of their relative’s.

But unknown to them, the man they hired committed murder to provide the body.

In September 2020 the man hired by the family – identified only by his surname Huang – was given a suspended death sentence over the murder.

While the murder happened in 2017, the case only gained prominence last week after an article about the incident came to wider attention online in China.