Woman’s Decompose Body Found In Lift Two Workers Charged

Police found Wu's body, which had begun decomposing, on March 1st 2016 and launched an investigation, news portal NetEase reported on Sunday.

The forty-three-years-old woman, from the central Chinese city of Xian, had been trapped in the elevator of the apartment building where she was living after maintenance crews shut off power. She has been identified only by her surname, Wu.

Two Chinese maintenance workers are facing charges over the death of a Chinese woman who is believed to have starved to death after a month trapped in a lift.

"Her hands were distorted...there were scratches on the wall, it was horrible," an apartment resident said. 

"The scene was inhumane. We think she starved to death in there," one of the residents, Xiao Lin, told reporters.

Another resident, only named as Wang, said the elevator was full of markings of the victim's desperate attempts to get out.

Police ruled out any foul play but concluded her death was caused by gross negligence on the part of the maintenance crew in a case of involuntary manslaughter, the government said.

The elevator apparently became stuck between the 10th and 11th floors of the building on January 30, the Beijing Times said.

Servicemen called to deal with the broken cable banged on the door, but when they heard no response they cut off power to the elevator and told residents to use a different lift, the officials said.

When the servicemen returned to fix the cable on March 1, they opened the elevator door and found the woman's body.

Residents said they had heard no strange sounds coming from the elevator while it was inoperative. The government said the servicemen should have opened the door to make certain no-one was inside.

Many residents interviewed by local Chinese media said the building management service was poor and routinely ignored residents' complaints about the frequently broken elevators. After the woman's body was discovered, residents staged a protest against the building management.

"There's now a shadow across my heart. It's scary, and it gives me shivers," one resident surnamed Ding said.

"To think of this happening in one's own building."

Chinese media wondered how it was possible that the woman's corpse went unnoticed by the building's residents for over 30 days, although it could be that several residents may have been away on travels to other parts of China during the customary Lunar New Year festivities in February.

Another mystery is how the woman went missing for a month without family or friends reporting her absence to the authorities. 

China has poor records on workplace safety where proper safety procedures and practices are routinely ignored.