The men responsible are said to be part of a gang that operates in the town, the leader of which is the nephew of the head of the Public Security Bureau.
They are alleged to have raped numerous girls in the town with impunity. In the most recent case, after raping the two 14-year-olds, they are alleged to have forced them to drink pesticide, killing them both, according to interviews The Epoch Times conducted with family members.
Zhao Shanshan and Sun Qingqing were two middle school pupils in Jimo City, Shandong Province. They went missing on their way to school on May 12, and were found the next day in a rental apartment occupied by young men.
Zhao Shanshan’s parents broke into the apartment after struggling with three of the young men who tried to stop them from entering. They found Zhao and her friend Sun Qingqing had just been forced to drink pesticide.
The two 14-year-old girls died after a day of unsuccessful emergency medical care.
The local police concluded the girls had committed suicide. When the parents appealed to officials on Sept. 9, they were told that it was not a criminal case.
Zhao’s father, Zhao Pixue, told The Epoch Times: “There are a dozen men in this town who are known to rob and rape. Leader Qu Tao celebrated his birthday and detained the two girls in his apartment. When we went looking for our daughter, three of them armed with screwdrivers tried to stop us from entering. I saw from outside through the apartment windows that the girls were fine. When we eventually got into the apartment they had already drunk the pesticide. Those men killed them to shut them up.”
Mr. Zhao said he noticed a pungent chemical smell once they got into the apartment, by which time the girls were no longer able to speak, and it was too late. At the hospital they were told the chemical had no antidote, being the pesticide endosulfan, which has been banned in the U.S. since 2000.
The Epoch Times also spoke to Sun’s older sister: “Local officials have not given us a reasonable answer. We went to the school trying to understand what happened. The people from school would not let us in and beat us. The coroner’s examination revealed the girls’ hymens had been ruptured.”
According to Zhao’s father, the police arrested five of the men but they were released on bail.
On May 16, Jimo City police published a report in the local Baodao Metropolitan News and on the city’s official website, claiming the two girls committed suicide; no third party was present when it happened, they said.
Mr. Zhao thought the official treatment deplorable, and posted his narrative of the tragedy online.
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It reads, in part: “How would the police explain that three men armed with screw drivers tried to stop me from saving my daughter? While they were under hospital emergency care, a woman from the city’s propaganda department stood outside the emergency room and drove away reporters who had arrived. The town officials also arrived and demanded we keep quiet. Why? The Jimo City Criminal Squad told us it was not a criminal case and told us to cremate the bodies right away. And if we did not comply, they would forcibly cremate the bodies. Do they really have the right to do so?”
The Epoch Times telephoned Jimo Criminal Fourth Brigade captain Wang Jidong to inquire about the incident. “I cannot tell you anything now. This is the rule—nothing to tell. If you want to know what happened, you have to come here yourself.”
According to the father, the young men are “local scoundrels” known to steal, rob, and commit rape. The leader of the group is Qu Tao, whose uncle is a division head in the city’s Public Security Bureau, Mr. Zhao said. They can act with impunity because of their connection to the security forces.
“The kids are scared of them. These hoodlums would beat those who refuse to do what they want. They raped many girls in the middle school, at least 30. The girls and their parents would not speak up out of fear. People in the surrounding villages are scared of them, too, and try to avoid them,” Mr. Zhao said.
Sun’s sister told The Epoch Times that the officials passed the buck back and forth when they tried to appeal. “We tried to hire a lawyer. They told us they would not take our case because whoever takes the case would lose his job.”
“A place 30 feet away from the school sells birth control items, including condoms. The school had to know. These young men forced many girls to have sex with them,” she said.
A reporter called the local education commission to understand their duty of care toward the killed students; after consulting with superiors, the person who answered the phone said “The kids were not on school ground at the time.” She did not identify herself.
An Internet user set up a blog titled “Zhao Pixue’s daughter in Jimo” to commemorate the young girls. “Two young girls were killed,” he wrote. “Where is justice? The Jimo police concluded the case quickly to protect the criminals.”
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