Prosecutors: Psychic omen led to murder

Chen Qian

2006-11-16

A WOMAN suspected of clubbing her 82-year-old mother to death with a knife handle because of a fortune teller's warning has been charged with murder.

Prosecutors with the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Prosecutors' Office allege Wang Yongtuan killed her mother on January 15 after a series of arguments that started in August last year when Wang moved in with her mother because she lost her job.

"During the investigation, we found Wang is believed to be an honest woman by her family members and neighbors," said prosecutor Gong Peilin.

"But she is too inward and can't release her rashness through communication."

Neighbors told prosecutors the mother suffered mental problems and would verbally abuse Wang, calling her a devil.

Prosecutors said Wang told them the loss of her job and the daily abuse had made her depressed.

Prosecutors said that in January, Wang took her mother on vacation to Jiangsu Province, where she met a fortune teller.

The fortune teller allegedly said her mother's fate was against hers and that they would never get on and would die together.

Prosecutors said that on the day of Wang's mother's death, Wang was again verbally abused by her mother until midnight.

Prosecutors alleged that with the fortune teller's words in mind, Wang rushed into kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors and a kitchen knife.

Prosecutors said that when her mother continued to abuse Wang, she pounded her mother in the head with the handle of the knife until she died.

She called the police and told them her mother had hit her head off the wall.