Chinese Couple Told to Pay $2,800 to Retrieve Their Son’s Dead Body From a River

December 8, 2015

A grieving Chinese couple in southwest China was asked to pay an unaffordable finder’s fee of $2,800 to retrieve the body of their recently deceased son floating in a river.

Deng Gangming and his wife, Dong Congrong, live in the city of Panzhihua in southwest China. Their son, Deng Shuchao, recently took his own life by jumping in the Jinsha river on November 30.

When his body was discovered by fishermen on November 3, they tied a rock to the body to prevent it from floating away before demanding that the couple pay them a finder’s fee of 18,000 yuan, or over $2,800, to retrieve the body.

When the couple couldn’t afford the money, they pleaded with the fishermen to lower their price while their son’s body remained in the water. The couple was able to talk the fishermen down to 8,000 yuan, or about $1,250.

When the police got involved, the fisherman lowered their price to 5,400 yuan, or about $840, but only after the couple’s son had been floating in the river for three days.

The couple still couldn’t afford what the fishermen were asking, so they borrowed from family to pay the fishermen what they describe as blackmail, despite the fact that the fishermen were technically doing them a favor, according to SCMP.

The fishermen, on the other hand, claim that the price they asked for was fair and that finding a dead body like that is a sign of bad luck.

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