A BAO’AN man was found drowned inside a fire well on the rooftop of a hotel April 15. Police have ruled out foul play, but the man’s wife raised doubt over the police ruling, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

The man, surnamed Xu, went to Dongguan for a class reunion April 14, according to his wife, surnamed Lai.

Lai said Xu had told her on the phone that he was going to visit a friend’s logistics park and might not go home that night. The next morning Lai was told her husband was dead.

Lai went to the hotel in the afternoon and was told that Xu’s body had been transferred to a funeral home and the local police confirmed it was an accident.

Lai and Xu’s parents did not believe that Xu’s death had been an accident. Lai went to the hotel building’s rooftop again and again, trying to find some clues.

Lai found on the footage that Xu had been in a conflict with a man surnamed Yang that night.

The images recorded by the camera on the seventh floor show that Xu and Yang were carrying their drunk friend, identified as Zhang and they got into a fight. Yang escaped to the rooftop through the fire door and Xu ran after Yang to the rooftop.

Two security guards soon arrived on the rooftop via the seventh floor. The camera showed that one of the security guards had returned to the seventh floor and stayed there for a couple of minutes before leaving, while the other guard stayed on the rooftop for 17 minutes.

A staffer with the building’s property management, surnamed Tang, said that Xu was drunk that night and had fought with his friends on the seventh floor before running to the rooftop. Tang said the security guards went to the rooftop but were attacked by Xu with bricks, an iron bar and beer bottles.

The guards called the police but the police could not find Xu until the firefighters came and found that Xu had drowned inside the fire well. (Zhang Qian)