Police in Yanshan county, East China's Jiangxi Province, on Sunday confirmed that a body found hanging from a tree by local residents was Hu Xinyu, a 15-year-old boy who had been missing for more than three months. Photo: Sina Weibo

Police in Yanshan county, East China's Jiangxi Province, on Sunday confirmed that a body found hanging from a tree by local residents was Hu Xinyu, a 15-year-old boy who had been missing for more than three months. Local police noted that follow-up investigations are underway and relevant findings will continue to be released to the public in a timely manner.

Prior to the discovery of the body, the missing of Hu caught nationwide attention online. Hu disappeared mysteriously from his school on October 14, 2022. Thousands of people, including local residents, police and government workers, joined the massive search for him during the past three months.

Local police on Saturday rushed to the scene after receiving reports from local residents to discover the body wearing the same clothes as Hu did when he went missing. Representatives from the local supervisory department, Hu's family and their lawyer also attended the field investigation, according to the police.

The police identified the diseased as Hu after conducting DNA tests on biological materials recovered from the scene.

A voice recorder was also found at the scene, which has been sent to related agencies for further analysis. Senior crime experts have been invited to participate in the investigation.

The disappearance of the young student was suspicious from the start and his whereabouts have been one of the most hotly discussed topics on Chinese social media. The police said on January 7 that a thorough investigation had excluded the possibility of the boy dying inside his school, and suggested that he had left the campus on his own.

The boy did not carry his ID card, cash or cellphone, and only took a digital voice recorder with him when he was last seen, Hu's family earlier said in a notice.

However, Jinji Mountain, where the boy's decayed remains were found, is located right behind Hu's school, according to media reports.

"It's quite strange that both rescuers and Hu's family went to search after Hu was reported missing as the area is so close to his school, but nothing was found at that time," a local media source quoted a family member of Hu as saying on Sunday.

"The family decided to carry out the postmortem to establish the cause of Hu's death," Zheng Xiaojing, a legal representative of the family, told the media on Sunday, noting that the family hopes to uncover the exact cause of Hu's death as soon as possible.

Global Times