POLICE are investigating the death of an 18-year-old woman after her body was found yesterday morning decaying in a river, more than one week after she was reported to have disappeared from an inn around midnight in Xitang Ancient Town, Zhejiang Province.
Police have not said if foul play was involved or whether Zhu committed suicide or accidentally fell into the river, according to Zhejiang Online, a news portal.
The woman Zhu Lili traveled with her colleague, a woman surnamed Zhan, to Xitang from Nanjing on October 27. Zhan called the police the next day, saying Zhu was missing.
A cleaner discovered her body in a river under a bridge about 1 kilometer from the inn yesterday morning.
The case attracted public attention as she was reported by the media to have "disappeared" from the inn wearing pajamas in the middle of the night. After her "disappearance," Zhu's microblog was updated. The day after she was reported missing, one entry read: "As the earth is moving, one can never be placed in an unlucky spot."
Zhan told the website that Zhu was watching TV with her in the room until 11pm when Zhan fell asleep. Zhan found Zhu missing at 1:30am the next day, but her cell phone, purse and luggage were still in the room.
"We stayed in a small private inn owned by a local," the report quoted Zhan as saying. "The inn is far from central Xitang. Police started searching nearby rivers as residents feared she may have fallen into one in the foggy night."
Police said surveillance camera videotapes showed Zhu, wearing green pajamas and a coat, left the inn at 12:30am on October 28. The tapes showed she returned to the inn about seven minutes later.
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