Husband kept slain wife's body in freezer for 3 months

A man accused of killing his wife and storing her body in a freezer for three months has been charged with murder.

Prosecutors at the No.2 branch of the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate said the suspect surnamed Zhu, 29, throttled his wife, surnamed Yang, last October 18 at their home in Hongkou District after they had quarreled over a family dispute.

He kept her body in a freezer, reportedly bought by him to store beef, mutton and salmon.

Prosecutors added that Zhu handed himself into police on February 1 after inviting his parents over for dinner and then confessing his guilt. 

Yang’s father told Shanghai TV Station that the last time he saw his daughter was on October 1. Yang’s last update on her Weibo account was October 16.

For the next three months, Yang's relatives sought to dine with the young couple or just visit their home, but Zhu made up excuses to prevent them doing so and pretended she was still alive via SMS and WeChat messages.

Zhu's posts on social media to cover up Yang's absence worked. “We had just believed that she didn’t care much about us after she got married, and every time we asked to see her, she would sent messages to us, saying she was travelling,” Yang’s father said.

Zhu and Yang registered their marriage on December 31, 2015. Both Yang’s parents and friends tried to persuade Yang not to marry Zhu as he didn’t have a decent job. He was also reported to be a show-off and was suspected of having romantic relations with other women, prosecutors said.