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Wujizi John Doe was a man whose charred body was found in a small oil extraction shed in China. Based on his clothing and stature, he was identified as Zhao Lianxin, and it was ruled that lightning struck him. The case was reopened after it was revealed that Zhao was still alive in 2005 and had faked his death to change his identity and fraudulently collect on a life insurance payout. Zhao was put on trial for the decedent's murder and insurance fraud. But due to a lack of evidence, he was acquitted on the charge of murder, leaving it unknown how the decedent's remains ended up in such a condition.
Case[]
On 24 August 2003, a woman living in China's Wujizi Village named Liu Yuxia was returning home with her son after staying at her sister's house and returning to her husband Zhao Lianxin's house but found the home locked. After using her key to unlock the door, her son ran over to a small hut in the yard used for extracting oil and found a charred corpse inside. He frantically told Liu, who reportedly broke down in tears after seeing the body. The other villagers who heard the screams informed the village secretly and later informed the authorities.
The police and forensic workers conducted an investigation and concluded that the deceased had been struck by lightning during a heavy thunderstorm on 23 August and ruled the death as accidental. The decedent was wearing Zhao's clothing, and next to the bed was a pair of plastic sandals Zhao also wore. In his possession was also a string attached to Zhao's house key. Measurements of the remains were taken, which matched Zhao's reported height and led police to identify the remains as Zhao Lianxin. After a brief funeral service, Liu and her son left the village.
In 2005, a man named Ma Liujin was arrested for theft. When he learnt that he could get a reduced sentence for exposing the crimes of others, he told police that he had met Zhao after returning to Wujizi village, where Zhao told him not to tell anybody that he had seen him. The police took the claim seriously and exhumed the body, which, in the two years since, had been reduced to a skeletal state. The police found Zhao, Liu and their son at a hotel 40 km from the Wuhan village. Zhao identified himself as Wu Zhongjin, and his neighbors verified this identity. However, the police arrested him regardless and forcibly brought him to Wujizi Village, where the villagers identified him as Zhao, leading to him confessing his identity.
Zhao was interrogated on 19 June 2005 and first claimed that he was attacked upon entering the shed and woke up to find the man dead with him. He panicked and fled with 200 yuan and returned to see his funeral being conducted and didn't come forward out of fear of being jailed. The confession was deemed non-credible, and after further interrogations, he confessed to murdering the decedent to fake his death and flee due to various rumours being spread about him as a result of crimes committed by his family members. He stated the victim was a homeless man he had come across who looked similar to him. He killed him by forcing him to hold a power cord and turn on the switch, which resulted in the man being electrocuted to death. Afterwards, he poured gasoline on the decedent and set his body on fire. He informed his wife, Liu, of what had happened after the funeral service, and Liu was compensated with 17,000 yuan in life insurance.
The police attempted to verify his confession, but the only homeless person who went missing in the nearby area disappeared after August. Neighbors stated that a man who looked like Zhao visited his house on 23 August, and on 22 August, Zhao borrowed a tricycle from Liu's sister. At trial, Zhao retracted his confessions, stating that the man died after lightning struck the shed and set it on fire, with Zhao only inviting him in to give him a change of clothes and that he didn't report the incident out of fear of being labelled a murderer. He told the court that he only confessed because the police had tortured him. The confession was also flawed and didn't entirely match the evidence, as Zhao was buried under the wrong last name. An autopsy couldn't determine whether the decedent had been electrocuted or murdered. In January 2006, Zhao was acquitted on the charge of murder, but both he and Liu were convicted of insurance fraud.
The cause of death was amended to be labelled "undetermined", and how the body ended up being charred is unknown.
Clothing and accessories[]
- Plastic sandals.
Belongings[]
- String attached to a house key.