11 arrested in China after selling woman's corpse into 'ghost marriage' | Huffing Post International

Friday 31 October 2014

11 arrested in China after selling woman's corpse into 'ghost marriage'


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11 arrested in China after selling woman's corpse into 'ghost marriage'

By Mina Abgoon. CREATED 3:30 PM
Police in eastern China have arrested 11 people for their alleged roles in a tomb-raiding incident, in which they reportedly dug up a woman's body and sold it into a "ghost marriage."
In the ancient ghost marriage custom, "a man who dies single is laid to rest with a dead 'spouse' to ensure he isn't a bachelor in the afterlife," according to Newser. "Though stealing corpses is now a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison, the tradition persists in rural areas, with families even turning to matchmakers to find the right mate."
 
Shanghaiist reports that the accused tomb raiders retrieved the woman's body from a grave in Shandong, a province in China. They alegedly sold the corpse for about $3,000 to a middleman, who later re-sold it to a family for about $6,200.
 
According to Newser, the group's supposed ringleader, identified only by the surname Wang, says that years-old carcasses "are not worth a damn." That's why he and his accomplices chose a body which had only been buried for about three months.
 
Wang confessed to the crime during a recent interrogation, which took place after he was caught stealing motorcycles in Shandong.
 
A number of ghost marriage cases have been reported in different parts of China in recent years. South China Morning Post details that in 2011, a Shaanxi man murdered a pregnant woman in order to sell her body for a ritual ghost marriage -- he was later sentenced to death.
 
Mina Abgoon

Mina Abgoon

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Mina Abgoon, a Vegas-based journalist, is a digital editor with Journal Broadcast Group's national content team.
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