Sohe searched for his mother for 55 days: on the day of his father's funeral, his mother's body was found | In-depth report

Reporter / Li Jianan

Editor/Shi Aihua

Two months after the heavy rain in Zhengzhou, Wangzongdian Village along the Suo River has not recovered its original appearance

On September 15, 57 days after the heavy rain in Zhengzhou, Zhang Wen finally buried himself in the ground at his home in Wenzhuang Village, Xinmi City, Zhengzhou.

On the day of the funeral, the police confirmed to Zhang Wen's children that his wife Lu Hua, who was swept away by the flood with Zhang Wen, had been found in the lower reaches of the Suo River two days ago.

On July 20, Zhang Wen and his wife were swept away by the flood in the north of Wenzhuang Village.

Affected by the rainstorm, the humidity of the land is too high. This autumn harvest, the harvester cannot enter the farmland

Father's Funeral, Mother's Message

Until September, the villagers of Wenzhuang Village in Henan are busy with the autumn harvest. Two months ago, the village in Xinmi, Zhengzhou, was hit hard by torrential rains. This year's corn harvest has plummeted and harvesters can't drive into the muddy fields.

The Wenzhuang Village Committee is located in the south of the village. After the torrential rain, the village cadres moved to work in simple houses by the roadside. On the morning of September 15, a family next to the village committee was holding a funeral. The old man who was buried in the ground was named Zhang Wen. Two months ago, he and his remarried wife Lu Hua were flooded in a sudden rainstorm. flush away.

The funeral was kept simple, and only children and relatives came to attend the funeral. Because of the epidemic and flood control, the funeral of the old man was postponed for a long time. Before that, the ashes had been stored in the funeral home.

On the day of the "7.20" rainstorm in Zhengzhou, Zhang Wen and his 55-year-old wife went out to do errands in an old-timer scooter. The road was blocked when reaching the northern end of Wenzhuang Village and was washed away by floodwaters.

Until the moment Zhang Wen was buried, his wife Lu Hua was still missing. For the past two months, Zhang Ping and his stepmother's elder brother Shen Ming have been searching for Lu Hua's whereabouts.

Zhang Ping later learned from witnesses that his father and stepmother were swept away by the water: the stepmother took her six-year-old granddaughter to take shelter from the rain in the car, and the father got out of the car and rescued people with other villagers. When the father helped the stepmother to get out of the car, the stepmother did not stand firm and was swept away by the water. After that, the father who went to rescue also disappeared into the rushing water of the Suo River.

The "halfway couple" are two of the many missing in the heavy rain in Zhengzhou. According to statistics from Henan Province in early August, a total of 292 people in Zhengzhou were killed and 47 were missing. Among them, 46 people were killed in Xinmi City and 58 people were killed in Xingyang City.

Zhang Wen and his wife were swept away in the upper reaches of the Suo River. According to Zhang Ping, more than 20 villagers in Wangzongdian Village downstream were swept away. While searching for the whereabouts of his stepmother, he met Zhang Shan, a villager in Wangzongdian Village. Eight relatives and friends, including Zhang Shan's parents, wife and daughter, and nephew, were all killed and missing in the heavy rain. Two months later, Zhang Shan's parents and children are still missing.

Wang Zongdian villager Wang Feng's mother has not yet been found. According to Wang Feng's knowledge, at present, seven family members of four villagers in Wangzongdian Village are still missing. In September, Wang Feng and Zhang Shan were supposed to be busy in the fields for the autumn harvest, but now they follow the excavators to search for their relatives along the Suo River every day.

On the day of Zhang Wen's burial, Zhang Ping and his elder brother Shen Ming both received a call from the police station. The police told them that their mother Lu Hua had news.

The dilapidated house in Wenzhuang Village is still stuck with a seal

In the end, Zhang Wen was found by the bridge in Wangzongdian Village, about a kilometer away from where he disappeared.

find, miss

The next day after receiving the news, Zhang Ping and Shen Ming set out together to go to the funeral home to identify the remains. Before completing the DNA comparison, they could not fully confirm that the body found was the mother Lu Hua.

In fact, after Lu Hua disappeared for two months, the family gradually accepted the fact that she had died, but they never gave up searching.

At first, Shen Ming had a glimmer of hope for the loss of his mother and stepfather. Someone told him that his parents might have been rescued to the resettlement site. On July 21, Shen Ming and his wife stepped on the mud from dawn to dusk, and when they arrived at the resettlement site in Wangzongdian Village, they could not find Lu Hua and his wife.

The day after confirming the disappearance of the two elderly people, Shen Ming and Zhang Ping met. The brothers, who became relatives due to their remarried families, took rope and dry food and went downstream along the Suohe River to search for their common parents.

They mobilized almost all their relatives to look for it together. In those two days, as soon as they heard that the body had been salvaged, they rushed to identify it. Zhang Ping remembered that on July 23, a body was found on the other side of the Suo River. He and his brother-in-law supported the rope and waded the waist-deep river to the other side to identify the body. My brother-in-law was almost swept away due to the rapid water rush.

On the other side of the river, the deceased who was salvaged was very similar in size to his father. Three days have passed since the rainstorm. At this time, he was already prepared for his father's death. He only hoped that the body could be found quickly. But the brother-in-law beside him reminded him that the length of his hair was wrong.

On the afternoon of the second day, Zhang Ping accidentally found his father. That day, on his way back to search, he happened to encounter an excavator searching for rescue in front of the bridge in Wangzongdian Village, and he and his brother-in-law waited for news. Within a few minutes, the news of "digging someone" came out from the crowd. At first, a villager in the same village mistakenly identified the body as his husband. Relatives and friends helped transport the body to the shore. Zhang Ping went to identify it twice, and finally confirmed it was his father through the false teeth and physical characteristics in his mouth.

The location where his father was found was only one kilometer away from where he was swept away. In fact, this digging spot had already attracted Zhang Ping's attention. After the rainstorm, the temperature rose suddenly, and Zhang Ping and his relatives and friends also "smell" to find people. When he passed here for the first time, he felt that the smell of the air was wrong, but he couldn't see anything abnormal with the naked eye, so he could only wait for the excavator to search. After that, every time he walked to that location, he and his family stopped to wait and check. When he finally found his father by the bridge, Zhang Ping felt a little regretful, "Just like that, I missed it again and again."

On the fifth day after the rainstorm, Zhang Ping cremated his father's body. After leaving the funeral home, he didn't even go home, and went straight back to the river to continue looking for his stepmother's whereabouts. The family members have checked the places that the eyes can search for many times. In addition to manpower, they can only continue to search with large equipment.

The local civilian search team will inform the family members of the excavation plan one day in advance. The family members of the missing person can go to the designated location to wait in the morning, and then follow the excavator to search along the Suo River. Zhang Ping and his eldest brother Shen Ming followed the excavator to search for several days. Except for a few vehicles dug out from the ground, Lu Hua was still without a trace.

In early August, a sudden outbreak in Zhengzhou interrupted Zhang Ping's family's search plan. Because there are cards at the intersection of the village, they can only wait for news at home. Throughout August, they kept contacting the police station and the family members of other missing villagers, hoping to get some information on the search and rescue ahead.

Lu Hua's relatives remembered that during the epidemic, news of the discovery of the remains came from the "front" twice. Every time a new body is found, Shen Ming will immediately ask the villagers whether the characteristics of the body are consistent with the mother's, and then contact the police station to ask for the DNA comparison results, but his hopes have failed twice.

At the end of August, the closure of the village was lifted, and Shen Ming couldn't bear to go out to look for his mother. In the end, he was stopped at the epidemic prevention checkpoint in Wangzongdian Village in the lower reaches of the Suohe River, and he had to give up the search and return home again.

At the beginning of September, after the city's roads were unblocked, the police contacted them to go to the river to continue their search. At this time, Zhang Ping and Shenming both felt that the hope of finding their mother's body in the huge Suohe seemed to have become very slim.

They didn't have a strong premonition until the day of his father's burial on September 15, when the police notified them to identify the remains. This time, the mother would definitely be found.

Wangzongdian villagers find excavators to search for the remains of the missing

I can't eat my mom's hand-rolled noodles anymore

At the funeral home, with the help of the forensic doctor, they basically confirmed the identity of the mother through false teeth. On September 18, three days after receiving the notification to identify the remains, the police station confirmed that the deceased was the missing Lu Hua through DNA comparison.

If it weren't for this heavy rain, Lu Hua and Zhang Wen might have a comfortable old age.

Six or seven years ago, the two came together after being widowed, when their children were all grown ups. Soon after their marriage, Shen Ming and Zhang Ping got married and had children, and the two old people were full of children and grandchildren.

On weekdays, Zhang Wen does farming at home. During the slack season, he does some odd jobs near the village, building roads and moving stones, and rarely causes trouble for his children. Lu Hua is also diligent and quick-witted, not only helping Shenming take care of the children, but also helping Shenming choose vegetables and clean up in Shenming's farmhouse. In the eyes of Zhang Ping and his wife, his father was outspoken and very enthusiastic, and he would personally check on anything. In Shen Ming's view, her mother is also warm and friendly. The guests in the city like the agricultural products in the village, and the warm-hearted mother will pack her own corn and sweet potatoes to the guests every time.

Originally, the Mid-Autumn Festival was the busiest time for farmhouses. But because of the loss of contact with his mother after the flood, Shen Ming's farmhouse business has been put on hold. In the past, many customers loved to eat hand-rolled noodles made by Luhua. Recently, when someone asked, Shen Ming could only tell the other party, "I can't eat it in the future, my mother was washed away by the flood."

The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Lu Hua's sisters ordered meals to reunite with the old mother who was over eighty years old. So far, the old man did not know that his daughter had passed away. Whenever the old mother asked about Lu Hua, relatives and friends could only lie and say that she went to stay at her daughter's house temporarily.

After Zhang Wen's death, Zhang Ping realized that his father had done a lot of things for him in silence before. In the past, Zhang Ping took his wife and children to work in Xinxiang, and he didn't need to worry about things in his home village. When it comes to marriages and funerals between relatives and friends, his father will arrange for him.

After his stepmother was found, Zhang Ping was ready to return to Xinxiang to work. Before leaving, he and his elder brother Shenming went to Haigou Village, the last place where Lu Hua was found.

The brothers are trying to figure out how their mother was finally found.

A forest in Haigouzhai Village is covered with garbage from the river

where luhua was finally found

It doesn't matter who's relatives, find one and count as one

Haigou Village is also in the lower reaches of the Suo River, about ten kilometers away from Wenzhuang Village, where the Luhua couple disappeared. In September, it's still a mess here.

The carton factory in Haigouzhai Village was smashed to pieces by the flood. There were still rivers flowing through the large forest in front of the door. Plastic bags and other sundries were hanging high on the branches. Several cars were overturned by the flood. Still lying in place. Two months ago, the carton factory also had 13 dead and two missing.

Zhang Ping and Shen Ming later learned that their mother's body was found in Haigou Village by the villagers of Wangzongdian.

In fact, the Shenming brothers have always been in contact with the relatives of the missing Wang Zongdian, and they have encountered many times when searching around Suohe. Once, Shenming's family was looking for relatives on foot, and they also met Wang Feng, a villager from Wangzongdian, who had driven them for a ride.

Wang Feng said that the August epidemic once interrupted the search work of Wangzongdian villagers. After the epidemic was lifted, people in the village began to search by themselves intermittently. Starting from September 10, the village committee helped find excavators, and everyone began to follow the Blue Sky Rescue Team to search from the upper reaches of the Suo River to the lower reaches of the Suo River in a carpet-like search to find the places that could not be dug manually. During the search process, news came from Haigouzhai Village downstream that when villagers were picking up gas canisters, they found a body under a big tree.

On September 13, Wang Feng, Zhang Shan and others, together with the villagers of Wangzongdian, arrived at Haigouzhai Village and began to search separately. Zhang Shan said that when the villagers of Wangzongdian and the search and rescue team were searching nearby, they found three bodies one after another. They heard from the forensic doctor that the first person they found was a woman in her 40s and 50s, and they later learned that it was the missing Lu. magnificent.

After Lu Hua was found, Shen Ming and Zhang Ping's search could come to an end, but Wang Feng and Zhang Shan still had not found their relatives.

On the afternoon of September 22, the reporter saw Wang Feng, who was still searching for his family, in a workshop on the east side of the carton factory. An excavator was parked on the tree pile outside the factory building. Wang Feng recalled that this was the second time the villagers used excavators to search here. In the early days of the rainstorm, they searched here once with an excavator. At that time, trees and other debris washed down by the flood filled the outer wall of the factory building, and they could only search by the outer wall of the factory building.

Wang Feng was talking when the roar of the excavator outside rang again. The driver dug very carefully and at a very slow speed. First, he dug up some trees, and then shook them down a little bit. Wang Feng and his uncle were wearing masks to observe carefully, "The body we found now is similar to the wood. can not tell".

Wang Feng told Shenduyi that in the past few days, they found another body in the tree pile on the south side of the factory building, but it was not their mother.

Wang Feng estimates that the search and rescue of Haigou Village will take a day and a half. After digging the trees piled up by the factory building, they have to find the location of Luhua and dig it again. There is still more than one meter of silt there. Previously, only a surface investigation was carried out. .

Facing the wide river, Zhang Shan and his family are at a loss, but they will continue to look for it

In order not to delay the search, Zhang Shan and his family went to Qicunhe Village downstream to investigate the terrain in advance. Under the scorching sun at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang Shan and his family were at a loss as they watched the wide river washed out by the flood. On July 20, the water flow from the upstream was divided into two streams, bypassing several houses in the middle and converging downstream. Some family members remember that at first, the water level was very high, and there were villagers paddling kayaks downstream to search for the missing.

Now that the flood water has receded, there are still traces of flooded houses on the river, and the big trees in the river have been uprooted and piled up in a pile. The family members tried to step on the tree trunk to go down the river to check the situation, but were discouraged by the nearby villagers. Looking at the vehicle buried in the river, Zhang Shan's sister sighed, "Just like this, the vehicle is still stuck inside, and I don't know if there is anyone inside."

Today, the seemingly dry river surface is still covered with silt. The family only asked about a route that excavators could enter. But even if they can continue to dig, the search on the river surface with a width of tens of meters will be a big project. Zhang Shan said that they will continue to dig, and they will dig all the places they didn't find, so they can't leave any regrets.

In addition to finding the remains, Zhang Shan also has to face the real problems at hand. Because he couldn't issue a death certificate, he couldn't handle a series of personal legacy relics such as his parents' bank cards. In addition, the family suffered heavy casualties and the house was destroyed. At this stage, he can only rely on relatives and friends, and he moved to relatives' houses for temporary accommodation, becoming a "homeless" person.

In fact, Zhang Shan and his wife only returned from working in Africa in July. According to the plan, they will return to Africa to continue working for a year at the end of September. This sudden torrential rain broke everything.

(In order to protect the privacy of the interviewees, the text is a pseudonym)

[Copyright Statement] The copyright of this article belongs to [Beijing Qingshen once]. Toutiao has obtained the exclusive authorization of information network communication, and any third party shall not reprint it without authorization.

Demolition and Retention of "Pocket Garden"

After failing to "hire a murderer to kill herself" twice, she is resisting living without dignity

The 10-year petition tug of war behind the "300,000 rescue fund"