Grieving Chinese couple asked to pay fee of 18,000 yuan to recover body of son from river
Corpse of Deng Shuchao, who had committed suicide, left tied to a rock in the water in Sichuan province for three days until poor couple can borrow enough money to pay fishermen
A Chinese couple who spotted the body of their son floating in a river after he committed suicide were asked by pay fishermen 18,000 yuan (HK$22,000) as a finder’s fee and for retrieving the body, mainland media reports.
The couple, Deng Gangming and his wife, Dong Congrong, who live in Panzhihua, a city in the south of Sichuan province, were unable to afford the fee so the body of their son, Deng Shuchao, remained floating in the river - tethered to a rock - while they tried to get the fee reduced, West China City Daily reported on Tuesday.
Finally after three days they were negotiated a fee of 5,400 yuan so that the body could finally be recovered from Jinsha River.
Deng Shuchao, who had worked as a taxi driver, took his own life by jumping into the river on November 30, but his body was not found by local fisherman until last Thursday, the report said.
When his parents went to collect his body the fishermen told the couple that they would have to pay 18,000 yuan for finding and recovering the body, before it would be handed over.
Although the fee was reduced to 8,000 yuan after negotiations, it was still too much for the couple, so they were forced to leave their son’s body in the river, which fishermen tied to a rock to stop it floating away.