Teen rescued after parents hired men to abduct her for arranged marriage

The abduction occurred on the evening of Aug. 26. File photos

Shenzhen police recently rescued an 18-year-old abducted by people hired by her parents back to her native Gansu Province so she could marry someone they had chosen, Chinese media reported.

The young woman, surnamed Ma, was first forced by her parents to drop out of high school and was then engaged to a complete stranger after they received a hefty bride price, a custom in some underdeveloped villages in Northwest China.

Ma, unwilling to accept her fate, posted a plea for help online, which was fortunately noticed by Tencent employees who had joined a charitable organization. These kind-hearted people helped her find a job as a waitress in a café on Tencent’s new headquarters campus in Shenzhen, so that she could support herself away from her family.

Ma’s parents, however, reported her missing to the local police, who then traced her whereabouts through her residence and employment records in Shenzhen.

Determined to retrieve her and marry her to the person they had arranged for her, the parents hired three villagers who drove a minivan to Shenzhen to abduct her.

“You will take her back by any means necessary,” her parents told the three. After arriving in Shenzhen, the hired villagers took a few days to locate Ma and learn her daily schedule; one of them even posed as a customer to verify that it was really her.

Then, at around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 26, when Ma had finished a day’s work and stepped out of the café into heavy rain, two muscular men suddenly rushed up, seized her, and forced her into a minivan parked at the roadside.

As Ma screamed and her umbrella flew away in the struggle, a taxi driver surnamed He was just driving past. A veteran with an instinctive alertness to danger, He immediately reported what he had witnessed to his fleet captain, who retrieved the onboard surveillance footage and reported it to the police.

Based on the video submitted by the fleet, Shenzhen police quickly identified the suspect license plate and the identities of the three people involved. Considering that intercepting them on the highway might provoke the suspects and endanger the girl’s safety, the police dispatched officers to Lanzhou, Gansu, to carry out the rescue.

Ma (2nd L) and her friend send a commendatory banner to thank He and his taxi fleet.

After abducting the girl, the three villagers took turns driving and fled overnight to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, within a little more than 20 hours.

With the help of Gansu police, Shenzhen police rescued the girl successfully. 

Her parents and the three villagers are now under further police investigation for illegal detention and may face up to three years in prison if convicted.