Half-hearted suicide attempt

试探性自杀 (shì tàn xìng zì shā): half-hearted suicide attempt

On August 27, 2011, the body of Xie Yexin (谢业新) was found dead in his office with eleven stab wounds. Mr. Xie was a government official in Hubei who was a member of the disciplinary committee. The month before his murder he had investigated the local deputy secretary for corruption. The official cause of his death was ruled suicide. The explanation for the multiple stab wounds was that the initial wounds were “half-hearted suicide attempts” which were followed by a final successful attempt. Netizens and Mr. Xie’s family were deeply skeptical of the official account of his death.

Image showing the locations of Mr. Xie's stab wounds.