Man who cut up wife in meat grinder tearfully pleaded for information after she vanished

A man who murdered his wife and chopped up her body in a meat grinder made multiple media appearances tearfully begging for information after she disappeared.

Xu Guoli, 55, made headlines in China last year for offering a 100,000 yuan (£11,000) reward for information about his missing wife Lai Huili, whom he claimed had left their apartment while he slept.

But in a sickening twist, he’s just been convicted of her murder.

Police in eastern Hangzhou spent weeks combing through the couple’s apartment and watching 6,000 hours of surveillance footage before coming to the conclusion Lai, 51, didn’t leave the complex after returning home the day before she vanished.

Eventually, DNA testing found traces of her body tissue in the building’s septic tank. Just 16 days after his wife went missing, Xu was arrested and confessed to her murder within hours.

At a trial which began at Hangzhou Intermediate Court on Friday, prosecutors accused Xu of drugging Lai’s milk before sealing her mouth with tape and smothering her to death on the night of July 4, 2020.

He then moved her body to the bathroom and dismembered her with a meat grinder, flushing some of her body parts down the toilet and throwing others in the rubbish.

Xu told the court he felt disrespected by Lai and the two fought often, with things sometimes turning physical.

He denied that the murder was premeditated, saying it happened after a particularly vicious argument over dinner which had involved a meat grinder.

He also denied having purchased the tools used to dispose of her body (the grinder, a cutting machine and a knife) especially for this purpose, saying they were regularly used in the household.

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Xu’s lawyer requested both a psychological evaluation and a lenient sentence, while prosecutors argued the defendant had no family history of mental illness and his hindrance of the investigation proved his mental stability.

The couple’s 13-year-old daughter pleaded for the court not to sentence her dad to death, at which point Xu reportedly burst into tears.

“I loved her and I hated her,” he told the court.

“[Killing her] is the only way. Now it’s of no use to say I regret it, but I have nothing more to say than ‘I regret it’.”

Xu was convicted of murder and will be sentenced at a later date.

Lai’s two daughters (one of whom was from an earlier relationship) have filed a civil lawsuit against Xu for 2.17 million yuan (£240,000) as compensation.