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Autopsy says chef's death was suicide

By Jane Chen | June 25, 2009, Thursday | Online Edition
AN AUTOPSY has confirmed that the chef whose mysterious death had created public disturbances in a central China city, committed suicide, a government spokesperson with Shishou City, Hubei Province, announced today.

The chef's body was cremated at 4am, an hour after the chef's family agreed to the local government's offer of 80,000 yuan (US$11,712) in compensation, the Caijing.com reported.

Tu Yuangao, a 24-year-old chef at Yonglong Hotel in Shishou, was found dead outside a hotel last Wednesday.

His family refused to let his body be taken away by police for days claiming the authorities were trying to cover up a murder.

Thousands of protesters torched the hotel and overturned police cars last weekend to stop the authorities removing the body. The body was finally taken to a morgue for an autopsy after order was restored on Sunday.

Experts from the Public Health Ministry and Huazhong University of Science and Technology conducted the latest autopsy on Tuesday, using X-rays and checking for poisons, the spokesperson told Cnhubei.com, the provincial news portal.

Police confirmed that a suicide note found in Tu's dorm was written by the chef himself.

For humanitarian reasons, the government was willing to pay compensation to the hotel which was facing bankruptcy, according to an official from the Jingzhou publicity office surnamed Xiong. Jingzhou has jurisdiction over Shishou.

Two autopsies had been conducted on Tu's body.

The first one was completed on June 21, the day that Tu's family agreed to let authorities take the body away. The second autopsy was conducted on Tuesday. Tu's family witnessed both autopsies.

A pathologist told Tu's family that Tu had died from lung failure with 750ml of blood flooding his lungs after he struck the ground, one of Tu's family members said.

Tu also suffered broken bones and liver damage.



 

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