Additional Information Regarding Liaoning Woman’s Death Three Days After Prison Admission to Serve Time for Her Faith
(Minghui.org) A 45-year-old woman in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, died on November 8, 2025, three days after she was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison to serve a five-year term for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Chen Yan was arrested on July 14, 2024, and sentenced to five years with a 5,000-yuan fine on June 26, 2025. She was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on November 5 after the Benxi City Intermediate Court denied her appeal.
Tortured in Detention Center
Ms. Chen was brutally tortured while being held in the Benxi City Detention Center. The beatings caused her to suffer memory loss, declining vision, and worsening migraines and dizziness. She also had heart palpitations, lost her appetite, and became emaciated. When her parents visited her in the detention center on October 10, 2025, she was wheeled out as she was still unable to walk. She was in low spirits, and her hair was matted. She fidgeted uncontrollably. A guard said they gave her a physical exam, and she was found to be healthy.
Ms. Chen had one last visit with her parents on October 24. Two female guards moved her from the wheelchair to a chair. Her hair was still matted because it had not been shampooed in a long time. She was unable to take care of herself, and no one helped her. She said that she was very weak and had to lean against the wall to use the restroom. She had to crawl to get around. She doubted if she’d return home alive.
Dead Three Days After Prison Admission
At around 3:30 p.m. on November 5, Ms. Chen’s father received a phone call from the detention center director, Li Tingting, saying that his daughter had been admitted to the prison earlier that day and assigned to Division 12. He asked why the prison would admit her when she was already wheelchair-bound. Li said the detention center assured them that Ms. Chen was faking illness and that she was fit for imprisonment.
On November 8, Ms. Chen’s father received a call from guard Wang Xiyue at Division 12 and was told to hurry to Yongsen Hospital because his daughter was in critical condition.
By the time her parents got to the hospital, she was already dead. There were many prison guards and plainclothes officers who ordered the elderly couple to walk in front of them to the morgue. As soon as they all got there, the guards pushed Ms. Chen’s parents aside.
Ms. Chen’s mother managed to get close enough to touch her daughter’s body. It was ice cold. She also noted that Ms. Chen’s eyes were open, her mouth was agape, and her hair was matted.
Emergency department records from Yongsen Hospital; guard Wang Xiyue was listed as Ms. Chen’s legal guardian
The emergency department records (shown above) stated that Ms. Chen was found to be unconscious at around 5:45 p.m. on November 8 and rushed to the hospital at 6:32 p.m. Per guard Wang, Ms. Chen was treated at the prison hospital at around 2 p.m. on November 7, and given 25mg of Metoprolol (a medication for heart disease and high blood pressure).
The records also indicated that Ms. Chen showed no signs of life when she arrived at the hospital. The prison guards did not reveal the exact time of her death. Guard Wang, who called Ms. Chen’s father, initially said that they found out she’d died on the morning of November 8 when she did not get up. He soon changed his story to say that she died after she’d gotten up and dressed.
Several prison guards claimed that Ms. Chen died of heart failure. They even insisted that her parents send in an “appreciation flag” to “thank” the prison for taking her to the hospital for “treatment.”
No Autopsy Allowed
During the external examination of Ms. Chen’s body the next day, her parents noticed several abnormalities. Her right upper arm was visibly swollen and thicker than her left arm. There was an abnormal inward curvature of 15–30 degrees on her right leg, suggesting a fracture. Two areas of skin necrosis, each the size of a bowl, were present on her right leg. Black fluid oozed from her mouth and nose when her body was turned over. Additionally, her underwear was abnormally clean.
Ms. Chen weighed around 132 lbs before she was arrested. But when she died, she was extremely thin, having lost more than half of her weight.
Ms. Chen’s father returned to the prison a month later, on December 2, 2025, to inquire about the cause of her death. Liu, the former Head of the Prison Administration Section, folded the external body examination report and only showed the conclusion lines, which stated, “No obvious fatal external injuries; death by natural causes.” He refused to provide a copy of the report.
The family called the prison again on December 23 and was told the same “conclusion” stood. They requested an independent autopsy.
According to the Regulations on the Handling of Deaths of Prison Inmates, the family of the deceased can hire an autopsy agency to conduct an independent examination. However, the prison refused to accept the Beijing-based agency that the family had selected and forced them to work with a local agency instead.
When the prison finally connected with the local agency in March 2026, they claimed that it was a “special” case and accused Ms. Chen’s family of “causing trouble.” The agency was forced to drop out of the case. The prison also filed complaints against the lawyer hired by Ms. Chen’s family, forcing him to withdraw from the case too. When the family hired another lawyer and another Beijing-based autopsy agency, both were forced to back off after being threatened by the prison.
In mid-March 2026, Ms. Chen’s family applied to the procuratorates at the district, city, and provincial levels, demanding an investigation into her death. One month later, prosecutor Xu Long orally responded that Ms. Chen’s death was determined to be natural and that it was up to the prison to coordinate the autopsy. He refused to issue any written communication. The family demanded that he recuse himself from the case, but to no avail.
Xu also claimed that the procuratorate could not get involved because the prison did not submit a death investigation report. The prison responded that the death investigation report was not written because no autopsy had been performed.
The prison also changed its position on the cause of Ms. Chen’s death. They initially declared their conclusion regarding Ms. Chen’s natural-cause death “unofficial,” but later insisted it was “official” because her medical records indicated she “died at the hospital.” However, when the family pointed out that Ms. Chen’s medical records indicated that she died in her prison cell, the prison refused to admit it.
Ms. Chen’s family has not yet received her prison admission notice, death notice, external body examination report, or death investigation report. They requested information disclosure and state compensation for her death, but didn’t receive a response. Their complaints against the prison for defaming their lawyer and obstructing the autopsy, as well as their complaint against prosecutor Xu for colluding with the prison to cover up the torture, have been ignored.
Ms. Chen’s body is still being held at a funeral home, and the autopsy that should have been performed within 24 hours of her death has not yet been done.
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Liaoning Woman Sentenced to Five Years for Practicing Falun Gong