Three arrested for selling dead woman to ghost marriage

TAIYUAN - Police in North China's Shanxi Province detained three people suspected of stealing a female corpse from a village tomb to sell as bride for the ancient rite of "netherworld marriage."

The main suspect in the case, a 72-year-old man surnamed Hou, said he was tempted by the idea of selling female bodies as brides to deceased single men when hearing the death of a young woman in a nearby village, according to the public security bureau of Ruicheng County.

They later claimed to be relatives of the woman and found a buyer who agreed to purchase the body, priced at 25,000 yuan ($3,900). But their tomb raid on Saturday night was discovered by local villagers, whose reports led to their arrest.

Once popular in some parts of China, a "netherworld marriage" claims that a man who dies unwed would bring bad luck to the family, so he must be buried with a female corpse as a ritual symbolizing a wedding of the deceased.

In 2012, three men murdered a pregnant woman in Shaanxi Province and sold her body as a ghost bride in a case that prompted a national outcry against this grisly tradition.