The Hongcouver: "'I strangled her by accident in a blindfolded pillow fight': A killer’s explanation that only Beijing’s high court buys"

"Is it possible to kill someone in a pillow fight? And if so, is it possible to do so by accidentally strangling them to death, a process requiring several minutes of intense effort, without realising what is happening?"

“Li Jiaming and Zhao played ‘pillow fight’, which involved blindfolding of their eyes with pillow cases and attacking each other without knowing which part of the body was exactly hit,” the court ruling said as it described the results of Li’s interrogation.

“As the pillow fight went on, Li Jiaming felt that Zhao had increased her force and strength when she hit him, so Li Jiaming did the same to her. They hugged each other and rolled on the bed, harassing each other with the pillow…Li Jiaming hugged Zhao from behind, with his hands pulling both ends of the pillow that covered Zhao from her head to chest. He pulled the pillow tight from behind, so tight and strongly that he felt Zhao’s body turning weak.”

But it was only after a few minutes, when Zhao had finally stopped moving, that Li “sensed she might be dead” and released his grip. Li and his cousin Zhang Han, who lived with the couple in their basement flat, then crammed Zhao’s body into a 60cm by 80cm suitcase and dumped it 100km away on the shores of Stave Lake, where it was found by hikers.

"Beware of Japanese waitress bearing fortune cookies"