Three teens detained over gruesome murder of 13-year-old classmate, sparking debate in China

BEIJING (AP) — In the last recorded moments before the 13-year-old boy’s death, he was filmed by surveillance cameras sitting on a scooter, surrounded by three of his classmates. An hour later, his phone went dead, kicking off a frantic search by relatives.

The following day, officers in a village in central China made a sickening discovery: the boy’s body, buried in an abandoned vegetable greenhouse underneath a tarp.

Now, his three teenage classmates have been detained on suspicion of murdering the boy in a case that has riveted China, setting off outrage and frenzied debate over the young age of the suspects and soul searching about bullying and social responsibility in the Chinese countryside.

Police in Feixiang district of Handan city identified the boy only by his last name, Wang. In a short statement Sunday they said the boy was killed on March 10 and that the suspects were detained the following day.

Wang’s relatives and their attorney said in interviews with local outlets and in posts on social media that the boy had long been a victim of bullying, and was forced to give money to one of his classmates before he was killed. They said police identified the suspected killers after reviewing the surveillance footage and questioning his classmates.

“He was beaten alive and his body was disfigured beyond recognition,” Wang’s father wrote on Douyin, a Chinese social media platform. “I hope the government will be fair, open and just, punish them severely, and that the killers will pay with their lives!”

Wang’s father, aunt, and grandmother did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A person answering a phone number listed for the attorney’s law firm told The AP to wait for comment, saying they were swamped with