Man sentenced to death for killing wife, hiding body in freezer for over 100 days

Shanghai, July 05: A court in China on Friday sentenced a man to death for killing his wife and hiding her body in a deep freezer for over 100 days. Not only this, he had even spent nearly 150,000 yuan (Rs 14,92,599.67) from the woman's credit card on travelling and hotels with another woman for "trying to forget about the killing".

The man identified as Zhu Xiaodong, 30, was convicted of strangling his wife Yang Liping during an argument on Oct 17, 2016, at their home in Hongkou district 10 months after they tied the knot, the court said.

Yang, 30, was the only child of her parents.

Zhu appealed against the death sentence handed down by the Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court in August.

The Shanghai Higher People's court on Friday confirmed the sentence, the report said.

Zhu, a clerk at a clothing store, hid the body of the woman, a former primary school teacher, in a freezer in the balcony for 106 days, the report said.

During the period, he logged into the social networking accounts of his wife and replied to text messages she received from her parents and friends, according to the court.

Zhu surrendered before police accompanied by his parents on February 1 after realising he could no longer hide the truth as the couple was asked to attend the father-in-law's birthday dinner that evening, the report said.

He purchased the freezer, which was used to preserve his wife's body, online on September 22. He claimed that he bought it to store meat for his pet snakes, lizards and frogs. But Yang's family believed it was a premeditated murder.

After Yang's death, Zhu travelled to Hainan province, Nanjing and Xuzhou cities in Jiangsu province and South Korea in a bid to "trying to forget about the killing".

He used her credit cards for luxury goods and daily expenses. He used Yang's ID card to check into hotel rooms along with another woman.

(with PTI inputs)