A 34-year-old Chinese man whose wife killed herself and their two children after he allegedly faked his own death for an insurance payout has surrendered to police this month.
The man was presumed dead after his car was found in a river, though his body was never recovered.
After hearing of the passing of her husband, the woman later jumped into a pond with their children. A suicide note has been posted online prior to her act.
The man, who police said was surnamed He, turned himself in to police in Xinhua county in Hunan province last Friday, October 12, 2018.
He has been detained on charges of insurance fraud and intentional damage to property, Xinhua police said in a statement on WeChat - a social media platform.
Reason for the fake death
It was in early September when the man known as He, bought an insurance plan worth one million yuan (£110,000; $145,000) without his wife's knowledge in order to pay his loans amounting to 100,000 yuan, police said.
According to a report by state-run Voice of China radio, his wife was named as the beneficiary.
In order to claim the insurance money, He used a borrowed vehicle to fake his own death in a car crash on September 19, police reports said.
On 11 October, the bodies of his 31-year-old wife, their four-year-old son and three-year-old daughter were found in a pond near their home, according to the Voice of China.
In a suicide note posted on WeChat, she wrote that she was coming to "accompany" him, adding that she had "only ever wanted our family of four to be together", the Voice of China added.
He turned himself in the next day.
He had earlier posted a video online, which was later widely circulated, in which he was crying and saying he had borrowed money to pay for treatment for his three-year-old daughter, who suffered from epilepsy.
The incident has been vastly talked about across Chinese social media over the past week, sparking conversations about financial pressures and familial issues.
The hashtag is currently going viral as #ManFakesDeathLeadingtoWifesDeath, it has been viewed almost 29 million times on microblogging-site Weibo
