Xingduan Yuan Bio – Xingduan Yuan Wiki
Xingduan Yuan’s mother wrote a note saying ‘I am a bad person’ before she stabbed her five-year-old son to death and then took her own life.
AGE:
Xingduan Yuan was five years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
The bodies of Yi Chen and her son Xingduan Yuan were discovered by her husband at their London home after he returned from taking their other son to school.
In the run-up to the murder-suicide Chen, 37, had been seeking psychiatric support for depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, migraines, and insomnia from NHS and private practitioners.
On June 21 last year, husband Shuai Yuan drove back to their £800,000 Barnet home via the pharmacist to pick up medication for his wife – he had been under the impression her condition had been improving.
Upon his return, he found their bedroom door was locked and heard no response from his wife or son, panicked he called the police and forced his way in.
On June 14, less than a week before, she had a zoom meeting with a psychiatrist attended by her husband but was not seen in person by him.
Her husband Yuan updated the psychiatrist and they agreed on a management plan.
Mr. Yuan told North London Coroner’s Court via video link he was under the impression his wife’s condition was improving but in hindsight realized she had been hiding what was happening.
He said previously she had been open with GPs, psychologists, and a private psychiatrist about her suicidal thoughts.
He added: ‘From what I saw, I believed she was getting better but now I realize she was getting worse and chose to hide it from me.’
Senior coroner Andrew Walker recounted his father’s version of events that day.
He said: ‘You woke up to an alarm on your phone at 7.20 am and when you woke up you had a message from your wife at 7.50 am saying that she did not want Xuan to go to school.
‘You went to take your other son and then came back at 11.20 having dropped him off. Then you realized your son hadn’t taken his tie to school.
‘At 11.50 you took the tie to the reception area at school.
‘Then you went to the pharmacist where you picked up medication for your wife. Around 1300 hours you knocked on the door of the bedroom which you found locked.
‘You broke the door using a hammer to gain entry and then you found your wife and Xing Duan Yuan on the bed. You then called emergency services.’
Mr. Yuan corrected the statement and said he called the police before he broke into the door.
DS Martin Slattery, from Hendon Serious Crime Unit, provided a statement read out by the coroner.
He said police received a 999 call to the home on Brookside South: ‘The caller said that his wife had killed herself and her son in the room and their throats had been cut and they were cold to touch.
‘Mr. Yuan was understandably incredibly distressed.’
The officer explained the found a ‘fist-sized hole’ by the door used to unlock it from the outside.
A bloody knife and a note in Mandarin were discovered at the scene.
The note includes a statement: ‘I am not afraid of death, I want to end the physical and mental pain I am suffering, I have taken Xingduan with me. I am a bad person.’
The coroner ruled Xingduan died by unlawful killing and Mrs. Chen by suicide.
He said: ‘On 21 June 2022 Yi Chen inflicted on her son and herself a fatal injury using a knife.
‘Xingduan was found on the cot bed having suffered a fatal injury to his neck bluntly caused by his mother who was suffering from a depressive illness.’
‘Mrs. Chen was suffering from depressive illness at the time of the incident and that mental illness would seem to have grown worse in the period before her death.’
Both of the deceased were physically healthy at the time, and there were no drugs or alcohol involved.