Bankruptcy Turmoil and Body Snatching Tales

Li Lianzhi was found by relatives hanging from a door beam in her home with two scarves, red and gray, wrapped around her neck. Her 79-year-old body was still warm.

Shaken relatives were shocked again just two hours later, on the evening of November 11, when nearly 100 men surrounded her village home in a section of Changde, Hunan Province. Four men entered the room where Li had been laid out, lifted the body, and carried her to a van parked outside before driving away.

Local Internet micro-bloggers were soon chattering about the strange "body snatching" of an elderly villager. They also shared many of the same questions troubling the mourning relatives. Why would a 79-year-old mother hang herself from a door beam? Was it really suicide? And who took her corpse?