Missing schoolboy was depressed, committed suicide
A photo of Hu posted by his cousin on Weibo.com.
A joint investigation team in Jiangxi Province said that the teenage boy who went missing from his dormitory in October had committed suicide.
The 15-year-old high school student with the last name Hu disappeared from his dormitory in Qianshan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, on October 14.
He was found hanging in a mountain forest 106 days later, on January 28.
A DNA test later confirmed it was Hu.
According to Hu Mansong, deputy director of the Jiangxi public security bureau, "two audio clips recorded by Hu just before his disappearance that were recovered near his body proved his clear intention of suicide."
Hu had repeatedly recorded and deleted the clips multiple times, corrupting some of the data, but no evidence of man-made synthesis or tampering was found, he said.
In one of the clips recorded at 11:08pm on October 14, the day he went missing, Hu said, "Now I want to die, because it feels pointless."
Another clip was recorded in the afternoon on the same day when he was standing on the balcony of his dormitory on the fifth floor and intended to jump off, Hu Mansong said.
'I'm trying to disappear, but nobody cares'
A psychological analysis determined that Hu was "introverted, compassionate, and lonely." He had little social interaction and no one to lean on for emotional support. He frequently jotted down his feelings and thoughts in books.
After joining the Zhiyuan Middle School in September 2022, he experienced a psychological gap brought on by his poor academic performance, coupled with the pressure from interpersonal relationships and adolescent impulsiveness.
He had issues eating and sleeping and had cognitive disorders and a psychological imbalance before he went missing. The investigation also revealed that he was clearly weary of the world and had a propensity toward suicide.
He once noted in his textbook that "My introverted personality is incredibly unpleasant, and it's really hard to adapt to the new surroundings."
"I'm trying to disappear, but nobody actually cares," he wrote in a social media post.
On September 27, he made three phone calls to his mother, crying and complaining that he wanted to stop studying and return home. Hu's mother and brother met him on October 1 in an attempt to calm him down.
Hu is seen on a surveillance camera in the dormitory of Zhiyuan Middle School on October 14, 2022.
No trace of fighting or dragging
Hu had strung up his shoelaces to commit suicide from a tree in the courtyard of a granary on Jinji Mountain, about 400 meters from his school.
The two 147-centimeter-long terylene shoelaces can hold 85 kilograms, according to tests. The body had also decomposed and become lighter.
The investigating team discovered that Hu was wearing the same clothes and shoes when he vanished.
There was no evidence of dragging or fighting at the scene.
An autopsy revealed that the body had severely decomposed but the skeleton was complete. There were no signs of blood, fracture, damage, or poisoning.
After Hu went missing, the search team made four trips to the area, but they were unable to scour the entire 9,300-square-meter forest, which led to the delay in finding the body, Hu Mansong said.
Hu's disappearance garnered national attention after his family reported him missing on October 15. Hu Mansong claimed that there were numerous rumors that were also floating on the Internet.
Over 120 pieces of fake information, many of them fabricated, including voice recordings, and surveillance footage, were discovered by the police. This caused great discomfort to Hu's family and hampered the police investigation.
