A middle-aged female farmer was murdered while working in her field in Huizhou’s Longmen Village on April 2, Cantonese-language media have reported. Her remains were spread across the field and her breasts and genitals were particularly badly brutalized.

Mr. Deng, the victim’s son

Some scenes in the Cantonese-language news report are particularly disturbing as the family wants to know why a wife and mother with no business interests or political opinions would be attacked so viciously while going about her work.

The victim’s husband, Mr. Deng, said she went out at about 8 p.m. to fetch some water. Her remains were later discovered by her older brother. She is survived by three sons who told reporters of their devastation.

Contributors to a local forum have urged police to concentrate all their resources on catching the killer, saying that if a completely innocent woman could be targeted, then so could any of them.

Police have reacted by offering RMB20,000 to anyone who can find the killer, which is a lot of money in the countryside.

The murder bears some similarities to the case of Luka Rocco Magnotta in Canada last year, whose dismemberment of his Chinese victim prompted psychologists to contemplate the pathology behind such an attack.