The children who fell from the 15th floor. Photo: Web

The case of a father who is alleged to have brutally murdered his two babies has sparked outrage on the Chinese internet. The indictment in a case that is about to go to trial next Monday surfaced online, showing that a father and his new girlfriend in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality conspired to throw two infants from the 15th floor to kill them.

A video shows a pair of young siblings falling from 15th floor to death in a residential area of Nan'an district, Chongqing on November 2, 2020. The children's father rushed downstairs and cried in pain when he saw the children's remains and banged his head against the wall. As the public felt sorry for the accidental demise of the children, however, the police investigation suggested that it wasn't an accident -- the two children did not accidentally fall, but were thrown downstairs.

The suspect who killed the children is their father surnamed Zhang. His motive is even more mind-boggling -- he did it to please his girlfriend. He conspired with her to kill his own children so he could marry her. After a police investigation, Zhang and his girlfriend surnamed Ye were arrested on suspicion of intentional homicide.

Police investigation identified that Zhang and the child's mother, surnamed Chen, married in 2017 and subsequently gave birth to a daughter and a son in 2018 and 2019. in April 2019, Zhang filed for divorce on the grounds of discord and concealed his marital history to pursue Ye. In August, Zhang and Ye established a relationship. By the end of 2019, Ye learned through others that Zhang had children and still continued the relationship with Zhang.

On February 26, 2020, Zhang and Chen finished their divorce and agreed that Chen would raise their daughter, and Zhang would raise their son until the age of six.

According to the indictment, even though Zhang was divorced, Ye had repeatedly told him that she and her parents cannot take the fact that Zhang had children, and that if Zhang cannot get rid of the kids, she cannot be with him. 

Subsequently, Zhang and Ye were conspiring to kill the two children through face-to-face and WeChat chats since around February 2020. They agreed to kill the children by "accidental falling," according to the police.

In June 2020, Ye repeatedly urged Zhang through WeChat to commit the crime. The two broke up for a while later in the year, but soon restored their plan after getting back together in November.

Chen, mother of the babies, said her ex-husband was forced by Ye who tried to cut her wrists before he threw the children off the balcony. "At that time Zhang was on a video phone call with Ye, Ye slit her wrist, and then Zhang got scared. The phone was dropped, he picked up the two children, and threw them down the balcony."

After Zhang's sister learned of the incident, she wrote to Zhang to reprimand him. In his reply, Zhang said he felt remorse and was "overwhelmed by love" when he committed the murder," Chen told the media.

The trial of the case is set to begin July 26 in Chongqing. Many netizens have called for the death penalty without probation for their cruelty. 

Global Times