Possibility of murder ruled out for dead vice mayor of E China city

HANGZHOU, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Local police have ruled out the possibility of
homicide on a vice mayor of Huzhou city in eastern China's Zhejiang Province,
who died after falling from the 29th story of an apartment building on early
Saturday morning.

The judgement was made after on-the-spot investigation, interviews of
witnesses, reviews of video data and autopsy, the Huzhou Public Security Bureau
said on Sunday.

Witnesses said the deceased, Ni Lingmei, had got into a dispute with at
least one of her family members before she died.

The police initially identified that Ni fell from the building after she
ascended the windowsill of the toilet room of her home.

According to the security bureau, Ni accompanied her hospitalized mother
from Thursday night to Friday morning, had lunch with her husband and
parents-in-law on Friday noon and treated guests from Shanghai at a hotel on
Friday night. After the dinner, she visited her mother again at hospital and
went back home at around 10:00 p.m.

A guard surnamed Shen who was on duty Friday night told the local police
that he heard voices of a quarrel between a man and a woman out of Ni's home
prior to her falling from the building. Ni's husband admitted that he and Ni had
a quarrel at that night.

It is said that Ni's son, who studied abroad, sent a text message to ask
his parents to keep calm about 20 minutes before Ni's falling.