Chinese couple kills daughter, commit suicide due to loss in Bitcoin
His wife convinced him that if he has to die then they have to die together
A couple in China decided to commit suicide after killing their daughter when the husband lost a huge share of money while investing in Bitcoin.
Emergency rescue teams in China rescued a man named Zheng from drowning in June last year after he jumped from the Xinghaiwan Bridge in Dalian into the sea.
However, two more dead bodies were later found floating ashore later, and police discovered that they belonged to the wife and daughter of the man who had been rescued before.
The man appeared before the court in December and was convicted of "illegally depriving others of their lives causing one death and intentional homicide", reports Chinese media.
Upon further inquiry in the trial, Zheng told the court that because of the loss of his investment in bitcoin, the couple planned to commit suicide.
He began to invest, primarily in Bitcoin, after graduating from university. He added that by saving, he made a lot of money, but a massive fluctuation in the price of Bitcoin during the first half of last year made him lose more than 20 million yuan or more than 3 million USD.
Of the money that he lost, four million yuan was his parents' money, 500,000 was his wife's parents' money, and the rest was his savings and money that he borrowed from his relatives over the years.
The amount was so vast for Zheng that he decided to commit suicide, but his wife convinced him that if he has to die then they have to die together.
Facing a public prosecutor's questions, Zheng explained that the couple decided to maintain a "family together" after they die so they decided to kill their daughter first and then commit suicide by jumping into the sea together.
On June 17, he bought sleeping pills at the pharmacy and gave them to his wife who fed his daughter. While the daughter fell asleep, Zheng said that before killing her, he "didn't have the courage and hesitated" so he first stabbed the plush toy beside the child with a knife.
He then stabbed his daughter on the neck with the knife causing her to bleed to death. After wrapping up her body, he went to the Xinghaiwan bridge and threw her body down into the sea. Later, Zheng and his wife Wang jumped into the sea.
Zheng confessed to the crime of killing his daughter and said that his wife's suicide was also caused by him. He hoped that the court could give him a heavier sentence.
It is worth noting that in the past month, just when Zheng was confessing in court, bitcoin's more than doubled and on December 17 reached 23,000 USD, as of writing of this article it is almost 30,000 USD.