In today’s episode of your worst nightmare come to life, a 43-year-old woman in the Chinese city of Xian has been found dead in the elevator of her apartment building, after being trapped in it for over month.
Markings on the inside of the elevator showed where the victim had made desperate attempts to escape.
“The scene was inhumane,” one resident, Xiaolin told reporters. “We think she starved to death in there.”
Another resident known as Wang told media: “The paramedics told us that when they found the body, her hand had already begun to deform.”
According to local media, maintenance workers improperly deactivated the elevator to repair a fault sometime in late January. They shouted down the elevator shaft to check if anyone was trapped inside, but failed to physically open the doors.
It’s thought that the Chinese lunar new year caused a delay in workmen returning to fix the elevator, and residents simply assumed she was away during that time. It is unclear, however, how the woman’s family and friends failed to report her disappearance.
Police are now investigating the death as an involuntary manslaughter.
Source: Shanghaiist.
Photo: Sina.
