A man was beaten to death at his in-law’s house after an argument with his wife over divorce escalated and turned violent on Sept. 12, 2018.
The family also accused the man of raping his own mother-in-law and threatening her life with a hatchet three months prior to the deadly incident. However, due to late reporting, local police said the forensic evidence collected from the mother-in-law was invalid to support her rape claim, according to the Beijing Times on March 13.
Divorce Demand
On September 2018, Wang told Meng that he wanted a divorce. He said he would go to her parent’s house to discuss the matter with her.Meng said that they discussed the divorce and tried to set conditions, but Wang wasn’t satisfied and wouldn’t agree with the terms.
Meng lost her temper and slapped him across the face. Wang hit her back. Meng grabbed a wooden stick and attacked Wang. Wang fought back, scaring Meng and causing her to hide.
The parents-in-law saw the fight and grabbed sticks of their own, attacking Wang. He was knocked to the ground, unable to move. Meng’s mother reportedly continued to beat Wang’s legs with the stick as he lay on the ground.
The report suggested that Meng’s mother was taking revenge on Wang for assaulting her earlier.
When the police arrived, he was pronounced dead. Bloodstains were all over the floor, and three wooden sticks were found.
Domestic Abuse
In the video from Beijing Times, Meng’s older sister described Wang’s actions. In the winter of 2017, Wang beat Meng. Meng’s sister asked her over the phone where she was staying. Meng said she was staying somewhere outside the house.“Wang Gang beat her and wanted to kill her,” Meng’s sister said. “She found an excuse to get out of the house, but he kept calling her. He told her that if she hid outside, he'd kill our parents.”
Wang reportedly destroyed many of Meng’s clothes and threw them all over the family room on that evening.
The report said that Wang drank frequently, and his uncle confirmed this in an interview.
“After drinking, he'd talk all sorts of nonsense,” Wang’s uncle said. The report suggested that Wang also would not listen to anyone after drinking.
Wang would often go to the parents house while he was drunk and cause trouble. On June 30, 2018, Wang went to his in-law’s house. He smashed a brick on their front door, and set the rear-bumper of their car on fire.
In his rage, he was reportedly shouting at his mother-in-law by name. “You’re just like a wife to me!” Wang was said to have shouted.
The family did not understand his meaning until Meng’s mother told them what she had been hiding. She said that on June 7, 2018, Wang sneaked into their house. Her husband was out tending to his apiaries, and she was home alone.
Wang reportedly jumped the wall to their house, and Meng’s mother believed it was her husband returning home. Meng’s mother said Wang approached her with a hatchet in hand. He then forced himself onto her.
“Wang said that she let her daughter go out, so she'd have to replace her daughter, that [expletive] raped my mother!” Meng’s sister said in the video.
Since Meng’s mother was mortified by what she claims Wang did to her, she didn’t tell her family until his actions later that month.
“My mom grabbed the phone and was getting ready to call the police, but [Wang] said that if she did, he'd kill her.”
Meng’s mother went to the police and received the physical inspection on July 1, 2018. No evidence could be collected from her to implicate Wang.
