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Five Street Children Died in a Dumpster

On November 20, 2012, The Beijing News reported that five boys were found dead in a dumpster in Bijie, Guizhou Province. An elderly woman, a rubbish collector, discovered the bodies. Beijing News said that the boys had apparently taken refuge from the cold by staying in the dumpster; they burned charcoal in order to keep warm. The preliminary cause of the deaths was determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning. Several dozen policemen sealed off the funeral home to which the bodies were transported. Three or four days earlier, the boys had been seen in rags looking for food and rotten wood they could burn to keep warm.

[Editor’s Note: It was later confirmed that the boys were between 9 and 13; all belonged to the same extended Tao family. They were the sons of three brothers who are poor. Ironically, two are garbage collectors in another city. Li Yuanlong, the reporter who broke the story about the boys’ deaths, disappeared after the police forced him into a vehicle.]

Sources:
The Beijing News, November 20, 2012
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2012/11/20/234677.html
Radio Free Asia, November 22, 2012
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/boys-11222012152908.html