Murder-Suicide by Wife Foils Hubby's Fake Death

He reportedly hoped insurance money would pay for daughter's epilepsy treatment
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 17, 2018 9:20 AM CDT
He Faked His Death—Until Bodies of Wife, Kids Turned Up
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/designer491)

Lesson learned: Tell your wife if you ever plan to fake your own death. A 34-year-old man who failed to do so turned up alive to find his wife had killed herself and their two young children, according to police in China. The man, identified only by the surname He, allegedly purchased a $144,000 insurance plan naming his wife as beneficiary without her knowledge in early September, per the BBC and South China Morning Post. When He's body wasn't found Sept. 19 alongside a borrowed vehicle that plunged into a river, she therefore assumed he was dead. Less than a month later, 31-year-old Dai Guihua penned an online suicide note saying she planned to "accompany" her husband because she "only ever wanted our family of four to be together."

"Thinking that my children would suffer without both their parents, I decided to take them with me," added Dai, whose parents died when she was young, per the Morning Post. She and the couple's 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter were found drowned in a pond near the family's home in Hunan province on Oct. 11. He then surrendered to police after sharing a video in which he said he'd faked his death to pay for his daughter's epilepsy treatment. The Morning Post reports he was some $15,000 in debt. Noting he's unlikely to be held responsible for the deaths, a financial crimes expert tells the Straits Times that even an insurance fraud charge will be hard to prove since "no claim was ever made to the insurer." He is also charged with intentional damage to property. (This guy was thought to be dead—and was just found living in a castle.)

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