A tragic case in China’s Fujian Province has taken a shocking turn after it was revealed that a father had conspired in his own son’s death to collect insurance compensation. The incident, which initially appeared to be a tragic traffic accident, occurred when a 7-year-old boy was fatally struck by a truck while urinating by the roadside.
According to Red Star News, the fatal crash happened on the evening of October 30, 2020. Witnesses reported that the truck did not slow down before hitting the child, while the driver claimed he had looked down to adjust his GPS and failed to notice the boy. The child’s father, surnamed Zhang, was seen weeping uncontrollably at the scene — but what seemed like grief would later be exposed as part of a premeditated crime.
A year later, investigators uncovered the disturbing truth: Zhang had planned the accident. Furious over his wife’s extramarital affair and struggling financially, Zhang devised a scheme to stage a fake accident to obtain insurance money. He first approached a friend, surnamed Ye, telling him his son was terminally ill and asking if he would be willing to “accidentally” hit the child with a vehicle in exchange for a share of the insurance payout. Ye refused and was told to keep the conversation secret.
Zhang then turned to his cousin with the same proposal, promising him 30,000 yuan (approximately NT$130,000) as payment after the claim was made. In a grim twist, the cousin later ended up driving the truck that struck and killed Zhang’s son.
Zhang’s sister later told reporters, “I was completely shocked — I couldn’t believe it was true. Who would have thought it was his own cousin who killed his nephew?”
After a lengthy investigation and trial, the Fujian Provincial High People’s Court ruled that Zhang’s actions were exceptionally cruel and heinous. He was sentenced to death, while his cousin received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, with limited eligibility for sentence reduction.
