Crowds have lined the streets in a village in faraway Guangdong Province to welcome home a 4-year-old girl who was abducted and taken north to be sold to a man from our very own Jiangsu, in an ordeal concluding with the capture of her abductor, a fellow villager.
On the morning of 2 January, some 3 days after her abduction, Xiaohuanhuan (小欢欢), a 4-year-old girl living in Wuhua County of Meizhou City in Guangdong Province, was reunited with her family.
Following the successful rescue and capture of the girl’s abductor, the Wuhua County Public Security Bureau disclosed their investigation of the case.
At around 19:00 on 30 December, Ms. Wen, a villager in Longcun Town of Wuhua County, reported to the authorities that her 4-year-old daughter was missing. The family had been out looking for her for more than an hour.
Police learned that with her parents not usually at home, Huanhuan was normally taken care of by her elderly grandparents. On the evening in question, Huanhuan’s grandmother returned home after work to find her not at home. This did not concern her at first as the child was often to be found playing in front of or behind the house.
As The Paper reports, upon being alerted, local authorities put the message out far and wide. Volunteers came forward to join the search and soon, Huanhaun’s disappearance was the only thing on everyone’s minds.
According to The World Journal, local police first turned their attention to a nearby pond to see whether it had claimed Huanhuan. In addition, drones were used to conduct air patrols, but still nothing was found.
After setting up a special task force, police got their break the next day, when a cadre from a nearby village reported that a car came by at noon the previous day, appearing to patrol around the village and arousing suspicion.
Investigators found that the car was owned by an unemployed 27-year-old man, surnamed Wen, who has a criminal record and an intellectual disability. Wen also lives across the street from Huanhuan and her family. Tracking the vehicle, police were able to intercept and apprehend Wen in Baidu Town of Meixian District in Meizhou at around 22:00 on 31 December.
Upon interrogation, Wen confessed to having tricked Huanhuan into getting into his car on the pretext of going shopping at around 14:00 on 30 December. He then drove some 900 kilometres north to a highway service area in Tongling City of Anhui Province, where he sold Huanhuan to a man from Jiangsu Province, surnamed Yan, for ¥60,000.
Police then went all out in their search for Yan, traversing 2,500 kilometres across the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu. With the assistance of the police of Zhenjiang City in Jiangsu, they finally captured their suspect at around 11:00 on 1 January.
Huanhuan was subsequently rescued, having been kept hidden locked in a wardrobe. She was said to be none the worse for her ordeal. Huanhuan’s father revealed that his daughter had only a vague recollection of her experience and maintained she was not abused during the abduction.
