Shaanxi, China: 35-year-old Yang Donghai and two accomplices have been arrested after they murdered a woman purchased from a poor family and a prostitute in order to sell them as 'ghost brides'.
The woman from the poor family thought she was entering an arranged marriage but was instead killed and sold for a profit of 4000 yuan. The prostitute was sold for 8000 yuan. Yang said he would have killed more women for money if he had not been caught.
The ghost bride trade is fueled by the belief in certain parts of China that if a man dies unmarried a dead woman should be buried with him to give him a wife in the afterlife. Normally ghost brides die of natural causes.
