Student, 17, murdered by classmates in cave before body is set alight
Li Zhiqiang was kidnapped, murdered and his body doused in petrol and burned by a classmate who used to sit next to him and another student. The student had been missing for more than two weeks before police finally found his charred remains
A high school student was kidnapped, murdered and his body doused in petrol and burned by a classmate who used to sit next to him, it was reported.
Li Zhiqiang, 17, from Hubei had been missing for more than two weeks before police finally found his charred remains, according to the China Youth Daily.
Li’s classmate and “friend”, together with a former student who had been expelled from the school, seized Li and took him to a cave. The two boys killed him and used petrol to burn his remains.
A day after Li disappeared his mother, Zhang Hongying, received a call on her son’s mobile phone. A voice said: “Are you looking for your son? Your son is with me, if you want him back, find 50,000 yuan, (HK$63,000) or don’t even think about seeing him again.”
Zhang proceeded to bargain with the caller and negotiated a 10,000 ransom for her son to be released, provided that she and her family agreed not to alert the police.
But Zhang did speak to her son’s teacher, who noted that a friend and classmate of her son hadn’t been in school for over a week. When Zhang visited the home of her son’s “friend” and spoke to the boy’s father, he suggested that the children may have been pulling a prank for more pocket money. He added that Zhang shouldn’t alert the authorities because that risked the students being jailed for a simple joke.