Missing Whistleblower Found Dead

Police have identified a corpse excavated from under a middle school playground in Xinhuang, Hunan Province as Deng Shiping, an administrator at the school who went missing 16 years earlier amid a corruption scandal. According to media reports, police were tipped off to Deng’s location after arresting a local crime gang on unrelated charges. During the investigation, one of the suspects confessed the gang had killed Deng to prevent him from reporting corruption on a construction project at the school being run by the head of the gang, Du Shaoping, who is also the nephew of the school’s principal. Deng, who was overseeing quality control on the project, went missing shortly after threatening to report the poor quality of construction to authorities, according to Deng’s family. However, local police did not investigate further, citing lack of evidence. Netizens called for higher authorities to investigate whether local officials and law enforcement had protected the criminal gang.