In the early hours of June 17, a 23-year-old woman from Luoding, Guangdong was reported missing by her friends. Two days later, her corpse was found in the freezer of barbeque shop owned by her alleged killer.
Guancha.cn reports that the victim, surnamed Ou, met up with some friends for a late-night meal after finishing her shift as a gym receptionist.
Ou soon realized that she had forgotten her keys so she decided to stay in a hotel, but the first establishment she visited was fully booked. From the hotel lobby, she used car-hailing app Didi to call a driver to take her to a different hotel.
Ou can be seen on surveillance footage leaving the lobby at 3am and entering a white vehicle. The man had beckoned for her to get in, and Ou presumably mistook him for her hired driver. It was the last time she was seen alive.
When they were unable to contact her at around 4am, Ou’s friends said, they went searching for her with no success. Afterwards, they reported her as missing to the police.
On June 20, Luoding authorities announced the arrest of a 32-year-old man, surnamed Zhang, the previous day. Ou’s body had been found in the freezer of Zhang’s barbeque shop.
After Ou got into his vehicle, it turned out, Zhang drove her to his farm 10 minutes away, where he allegedly raped and murdered her before hiding her body. According to her family, strangulation marks were visible around Ou’s neck.
Although police identified Zhang as the driver of the white vehicle in the CCTV footage, Didi has since confirmed that he was not her intended chauffeur. The actual hired driver arrived after Zhang had left; when he was unable to find his passenger, he canceled the order.
This tragic news comes just one month after a man using his father's Didi account brutally murdered his 21-year-old passenger in Zhengzhou. The incident caused an uproar across the country, with many accusing Didi of failing to adequately ensure the safety of its customers.
The company also received a wave of criticism for its response, which some deemed as more of a PR move than genuine concern. Didi has since announced a number of changes to its services, including stricter vetting of drivers, and a rule that limits Didi Hitch users to hiring drivers of the same sex from late at night into the early morning.
[Images via Guancha.cn]
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