Jiang Zongxiu: Cover-up for murder

Jiang Zongxiu (34) was suspected by the police of distributing bibles. On June 17, 2004, she and her mother-in-law, Tan Dewei, were subpoenaed by Podu Township Police Station of the Public Security Bureau of Tongzi County while on a shopping trip.

“The overall analysis finds that there is no sign of mechanical violence or mechanical suffocation.”-police autopsy report

The next day, the PSB accused them of “being suspicious in disseminating rumors and instigating others to bother the social order in other ways” and ordered them to be detained 15 days.

Ten hours after her arrest, Jiang Zongxiu was dead. Then Tan Dewei was released.

The police said Jiang Zongxiu died of natural causes.

According to the official report, “The autopsy was conducted by the Legal Medical Appraisal Center of Zunyi Medical College on June 28, 2004. The overall analysis finds that there is no sign of mechanical violence or mechanical suffocation. The possibility that the death may be caused by outside forces can be ruled out. And the possibility that the death may be caused by poisons can also be ruled out. Based on the autopsy, the diagnosis of fat heart is evident. And a pathological change caused by acute heart failure is obvious. No other fatal disease is found. Therefore, Jiang Zongxiu dies a sudden death, which is caused by fat heart.”

Case closed. Police ordered the body to be quickly cremated.

But Zhang Zhenghua, Jiang Zongxiu’s husband, and her family were suspicious. Tan Dewei saw police kicking her daughter-in-law and heard her crying out in great pain. And family members and neighbors knew Jiang Zongxiu to be a strong, healthy woman.

“Since we were married 10 years ago,” Zhang Zhenghua said, “I have been working in Chongqing to sustain the family. All the work of my family, including farming the land, feeding the livestock, raising our four-year-old child and taking care of my parents had to be done by her alone. She had never been afflicted by any disease.”

So the family hired attorneys and forced the government to release the body to a mortuary for reevaluation.

The truth was obvious. The corpse was covered with bruises and clots of blood. During the autopsy, even one of the police officers said, “It is unnecessary to appraise, for obviously she was beaten to death.”

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