Yue Yuetong Photo: A screenshot from Sina Weibo

The missing son of a migrant worker in Beijing who was defined as a silent carrier of COVID-19 was found dead in August 2020, but the boy's parents refused to accept the result of DNA identification, police from Weihai, East China's Shandong, hometown of the worker, announced on Friday, with the story of the worker touching many Chinese netizens.  

The worker, surnamed Yue was identified as an asymptomatic case after he took a nucleic acid test on Monday, the day before his train headed back to hometown Weihai. 

His epidemiological survey, which was called "the saddest epidemiological survey in China" by some netizens, went viral after health authorities released the details of his tough schedule. Netizens on Thursday also created a topic on Weibo, titled "finding Yue Yuetong with the help of the Chinese internet." Yue Yuetong is the name of his missing son.

However, Weihai police announced on Friday that the police in Rongcheng, Wehai, received reports from Yue's wife, surnamed Li, about their son Yue Yuetong who went missing on August 12, 2020. Police listed Yue Yuetong as missing as they could not find any sign of him after investigation. 

Rongcheng police then found a highly decomposed body on August 26, 2020, in a pond. They investigated the site and examined the body but found no crime, so did not place the case on file, read the announcement.  

Rongcheng police and Weihai police respectively conducted DNA identification and both results showed that the body was that of Yue Yuetong, 19 at that time. But Yue and his wife refused to accept the results, according to the announcement.  

Police said that Yue Yuetong's body is still in a local funeral parlor.

Since 2021, Yue and his wife have tried several times to find authorities at a higher level to help look for their son. Although the local public security authority had explained and comforted them, they still refused to accept the fact that their son was dead, Weihai police said in the announcement, noting that they would continue to explain the situation according to the law to the family and help them.     

Amid nationwide attention on the issue, the announcement soon topped the trendy topics on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, attracting nearly 200 million reviews in about one hour.

Some netizens expressed understanding and sympathy to the parents, who could not accept the death of their son and have been looking for him despite the DNA identification results.

Others thanked the police for their efforts to help the couple look for the son and tried to explain and help them in the last year or so.

Global Times