A pregnant woman allegedly abducted a 17-year-old girl so her husband could have sex with her, and then helped him kill the girl to cover up their crime, according to police [zh] in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province on July 25, 2013.

On the afternoon of July 24, Hu Yixuan, a 17-year-old student nurse, passed by the Forestry Compound in Jiamusi on her way to a schoolmate's house when she spotted a pregnant woman squatting on the ground. The pot-bellied lady, clearly in pain, asked Hu to help her upstairs to her home.

“Helping a mother-to-be home. Just arrived.” Sent at 15:18, the text message she sent to a friend from Wechat, a mobile text and voice messaging service, turned out to be a farewell message.

According to Dbw.cn [zh], the biggest local news portal in Heilongjiang, Mrs Tan allegedly led the girl inside and gave her a bottle of yoghurt to which she added some sleeping pills. A source told the website that the couple later allegedly tried to rape the girl but failed when they found out that she was menstruating. According to the website, although the woman wanted to let her go, her husband refused and allegedly suffocated Hu with a pillow.

The couple was then allegedly seen carrying the case that held Hu's body into a car and drove away. The police received a call from the victim's family on July 26 and the couple was arrested two days later. The woman, eight-months pregnant, was put into a hospital.

Picture of the victim Hu Yixuan, from Sina Weibo.

The woman's motive was highly disputed. A local policeman told the state media Global Times that the suspects confessed to the abduction as an attempt to make up to the husband for his suspicions that the wife was cheating on him.

Dbw's source, however, seemed to differ. “That's not true. She's pregnant, and as they can't have sex, she wanted to find a girl for a man (to have sex with). She's been having that idea for a long time.”

The couple's brutality triggered not only outrage among Chinese users of popular microblogging website Sina Weibo, but also discussion about self-defense.

Wang Zhuo [zh], a member of the Standing Committee of People's Political Consultative Conference, was outraged:

必须严惩这对狗男女

This unchaste couple must be punished severely.

Shanghai based lawyer Wang Yinyi [zh] felt it was a shame that the death penalty cannot be applied to the woman:

老婆怀孕，帮老公找个处女发泄性欲，还是一个好心帮助他们的少女，之后再先奸淫后杀，我无法想象这还是人类社会做出来的事情，萨特曾说，他人即地狱，在这里每个人都可能成为你的地狱，通往地狱的道路有时候竟然是那人性中最真善美的怜悯之心。真可惜了那个女犯罪嫌疑人是个孕妇，不能适用死刑。

A pregnant woman finds an outlet for her husband's sexual desire in a girl that tried to help her, before killing her brutally. I cannot imagine this is done by human beings. Sartre said “hell is other people”, but here hell can be anyone, and it may even be kindness that leads you on the way to it. Such a shame that the woman is pregnant and can't be sentenced to death.

Internet company CEO Ma Yan [zh] begged to differ:

开错药。应该开放色情业

Wrong solution. It's prostitution that needs to be legalised.

Chinese Go master Nie Weiping [zh] was highly disappointed with humanity, or the lack of it:

一个孕妇都能做出这种事来，令人发指。冷酷无情、人性无存的法盲，犹如禽兽，防不胜防，实在可怕。

It's unimaginable that a mother-to-be would do this. Cruel, heartless, legally illiterate and inhumane. You can't guard yourself against them.

Historian ‘Shanshui You Yan’ [zh] expressed his concerns:

这种事的结果，就是街上孕妇求助不会有人敢帮忙了……

The consequence of this tragedy is pregnant women on the street won't be able to get any help in the future…

Writer Bai Xiaofan [zh] recommended that girls learn from the popular American TV series “Criminal Minds” to stay safe:

这就是为毛我总推荐妹子们看CM。看完以后自身防御体系UP好几个等级。比如遇到迷路的小孩，抱着垂危宠物求救的主人，看似不舒服的孕妇，正确的做法都是——报警+联络家人+在足够热闹的地方等待+求医。不要送他们到指定的地点，切记切记。

This is exactly why I recommend girls watch Criminal Minds. It improves your safety consciousness by so many levels. For example, when you see lost children, or people with their injured pets, or painful pregnant women, the right way to respond is call the police, contact their family, wait at an area with enough crowds and send them to a hospital – not to a place they ask you to. Bear that in mind.