Girl taken by couple drowned, police say

The couple suspected in the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found over the weekend were longtime swindlers and transients who had run out of money and decided they no longer wanted to live, according to Zhejiang provincial police, who issued a statement late on Sunday.

"A preliminary investigation found the pair had, for some time, considered the idea of committing suicide, and had the motive and intention of seeking death along with the girl," a spokesman said.

The body of the girl, Zhang Zixin, was found on Saturday in the sea off Xiangshan county, Zhejiang province, 30 kilometers from where she had last been seen alive. An autopsy found she drowned, and there were no obvious injuries on her body. Police said they ruled out accidental drowning.

Zixin had last been seen with the couple in surveillance camera footage on July 7 near Songlanshan beach in Xiangshan. Police said the girl had been seen being carried on the man's back.

The couple, 43-year-old Liang and 45-year-old Xie, are believed to have committed suicide on July 8 at Dongqian Lake in Ningbo, 64 km from Xiangshan. Their bodies were found at the bottom of the lake with their clothes tied together, police said.

The discovery ended a weeklong search that grew to include 500 officers after she was taken by the Guangdong couple, who had rented a room from the girl's grandparents in Chun'an, Zhejiang, and persuaded them on July 4 to let her leave with them to be a flower girl at a wedding in Shanghai, police said.

The suspects were from Huazhou in Guangdong province but had not lived there for years, police said. They had lived together since 2005 and had been cheating and borrowing money from friends and relatives for the past two years to pay for their travels, police said.

They had lived in Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Maoming and Dongguan in Guangdong, and had traveled to 48 cities around the country since the end of last year, police said.

Despite popular speculation, police said they had found no indication that the couple were under the influence of a cult.

The girl's body was recovered after it was spotted by a 55-year-old fisherman who gave his name as Zhou and whose boat was loaded with 16 tourists on a fishing trip on Saturday morning.

"We departed from Shipu port at 10:20 am and found a body floating facedown about an hour later on our journey back," Zhou said. "It was dressed in light yellow clothing."

He said he had heard about the missing girl, but did not connect the body with her at first. Zhou called police, who recovered the body.

In late June, the couple had rented the room from Zixin's grandparents. The girl was living with her grandparents while her parents, who were separated, were working in other cities.

The couple had promised to have the girl back home on July 6.

The girl's father, Zhang Jun, who was working in Tianjin, did not know about the arrangement and contacted the couple. But the family lost contact with the couple on July 7 and the father called police the next day.

Late on Saturday, the girl's father visited the Xiangshan funeral parlor, where the body was kept, to identify her and make funeral arrangements. The girl's mother, who had learned of her daughter's disappearance as she was divorcing the girl's father, was reported to be traveling to Chun'an on Sunday.

The girl's death has stirred a public outcry for the need for more attention for "left-behind children".

"In Zhang's case, both the grandparents and the girl belong to disadvantaged groups who are vulnerable to risks and tricksters," wrote a netizen named haoqixin2015 on Sina Weibo.

By the end of August, China had 6.97 million children left at rural homes by their parents, who were working in cities to support their families, Xinhua News Agency reported.

MA ZHENHUAN in Hangzhou