Chinese woman trapped for a month in an elevator starves to death
BEIJING » Maintenance men returning to work after a monthlong break for Chinese New Year made a horrific discovery last week when they opened the cab of a broken elevator and found the body of a woman who had been trapped inside since late January and starved to death.
The gruesome incident in the western city of Xian, renowned as the home of China’s terra-cotta warriors, has sparked outrage over the apparent negligence of the elevator repair company and the building’s management office.
The property managers told the Beijing Youth Daily that the elevator cab was returned to the first floor and taken out of service after workers had “confirmed” that no one was inside. But police investigators said workers simply shouted to check whether anyone was inside and did not open the cab to perform a visual inspection, the newsmagazine Caixin reported.
Authorities said the case involved “gross negligence” on the part of the elevator maintenance company and at least one “person responsible” has been detained in connection with the investigation, according to the magazine. The case has been classified as a negligent homicide.
The victim, believed to be in her late 30s or early 40s, was identified only by her surname, Wu. Investigators said that when her corpse was found, her hands were mangled — apparently from her attempts to pry open the cab doors.
Although a monthlong wait to repair an elevator seems unusual even by Chinese standards, many businesses and services grind to a halt during the new year holiday. Although the official break lasts only about a week, many workers take time off before and after the holiday, causing serious disruption to many commercial services.
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The Xian case revived memories of a tragic escalator death last summer also related to maintenance issues. In that case, a 30-year-old woman in the central Chinese city of Jingzhou, 125 miles west of Wuhan in Hubei province, was “eaten alive” when she stepped onto a loose metal plate at the top of an escalator in a shopping mall. The plate collapsed and the woman was pulled into the gears; she managed to shove her small child to safety at the last minute.
But questions remained over how the woman in the elevator could have remained trapped for so long with neither her neighbors or her family realizing it. Local media reports portrayed the victim as mentally ill and said that her family believed she had just gotten lost somewhere. They had reported her missing but did not take further steps to determine her whereabouts.
A resident of the apartment complex, surnamed Ding, told Sohu News that the building management service was poor and routinely ignored residents’ complaints about the frequently broken elevators and other matters.
“There’s now a shadow across my heart. It’s scary, and it gives me shivers to pass by” that part of the building, the resident said. “To think of this happening in one’s own building.”
After the woman’s body was discovered, residents staged a protest against the building management. Caixin said that local officials were taking steps to replace the building management.
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(Yingzhi Yang in the Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report.)
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©2016 Los Angeles Times
18 responses to “Chinese woman trapped for a month in an elevator starves to death”
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Hmm…I always thought China was better than Hawaii about mechanical maintenance, at least the simple stuff. Truly alarming negligence on the building maintenance. Even more sad that family just chalked it up to mental issues and didnt search their own building thoroughly enough. Condolences.
China is very backward. Tourist are given a class on how to behave before they travel abroad.
Quite a few Americans could use a similar class.
If this happened in America, it would have also sparked outrage over the apparent negligence.
This incident obviously occurred in a poor or at best working-class neighborhood. A month-long delay to repair an elevator would never have been tolerated had anyone of name or note lived there. A horrifyingly tragic death which makes one wonder if Chinese elevators lack phones, intercoms or other emergency equipment. Since the hapless woman appears to be a nobody, I suspect the common PRC justice of a full-metal-jacketed slug to the back of the head will not be imposed.
Surprised at the indifference of the family when her absence was noticed. Apparently there was no active follow-up by the family. The mental,capacity of the victim could be the reason for the lack,of follow-up?
Or there simply isn’t a family to check in.
One child policy and parents could be in the countryside. Or parents could have passed away.
Bigger question is does this lady have any friends?
Also, unlikely she starved to death. More likely she dehydrated to death. Humans can go weeks without food. Only days without water.
scary, so sad and shame on the family……………..
That’s allie’s line.
Unbelievable!!
China, need to say more?
I’m not a fan of China but this is probably the best place where this could have occurred. The Chinese government is not given to finger-pointing and listening to everyone else’s excuses. They find out who is at fault, then come down HARD, possibly including even death. They don’t mess around. We need more of that. Our justice system is waaayyyy too lax.
We give second, third and even fourth chances in our country. Don’t kill someone though, unless u r O.J. Simpson.
So sorry she didn’t carry a cell phone with her, or no signal?
Not very well-informed reporting. She wouldn’t have “starved to death” over a long period, but died of dehydration within a few days. That doesn’t make it any less of a horrific tragedy.
Almost like being buried alive. Hopefully she felt no pain while slipping away into a peaceful world.
This would not have happened anywhere in the USA because an elevator would have been in a building of consequence, meaning that within two days, cries of help would have been answered, not withstanding the portable potty that anyone would have had to endure during the two days. Why two days? It would be at most a Saturday and a Sunday that a building would have been unoccupied. If the building was abandoned, the elevator would have been out of commission. I think that’s enough: I don’t need to write a novel for this. Goes to show that having over a billion people to watch over, some fall by the wayside and a lot more probably do fall by the wayside in a third world country (which unfortunately China still is, in some parts) because of lack of media coverage.
Actually, China remains a Second World country and has been one since it became a member of the Communist Bloc. Countries aligned with NATO are the commonly considered First World countries. Those countries aligned with neither NATO nor the Communists represent the traditional Third World.