Shanghai nanny charged with murdering baby girl
By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-16 06:46

SHANGHAI: The Shanghai No 2 Intermediate Prosecutor's Office has charged a nanny with murdering a 15-month-old girl.

According to a statement from the office yesterday, Xu Yingmei, 50, added a spoonful of nitrite, a chemical used in pickling, to the baby's milk formula on June 23. It was a fatal dose.

After the death of the baby, Xu returned to her hometown, Haian County in Jiangsu Province, where she was arrested two days later. She has confessed to the killing.

The murder is said to have been the result of a feud between Xu and the baby's mother, Yu Ying.

A hearing, to be held at the Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court, has not yet been scheduled.

If convicted, Xu could face the death penalty.

Yu Ying and her husband hired Xu Yingmei in September 2004 to take care of the baby, the baby's grandmother, and to do housework.

According to the baby's grandmother, Xu worked very hard and got on well with everyone in the family, until Yu Ying began frequently criticizing her for not being careful enough with the baby.

Xu told the prosecutor that Yu was always trying to find fault with her.

The baby was the mother's first and only child.

Xu could never be careful enough. The nanny became so infuriated by Yu's constant sniping that she began to ignore whatever she told her to do.

In an argument on June 22, Xu told Yu that she would stab her to death.

The next morning, Yu Ying sacked Xu and sent the baby to a friend in Pudong to make sure she was safe.

Xu left, but went back to chat with the baby's grandmother. Xu was asked by the older woman to cook salty pork for the last time.

While she was in the kitchen, she added a spoon of nitrite powder, used to pickle pork, into the baby's milk powder. She then left for her hometown.

Later that evening, Yu Ying took the baby home and made her milk.

The baby girl began sweating soon after drinking the milk and turned purple. She died soon after being sent to hospital.

Suspecting Xu might have done something to her daughter, Yu called the police, who found nitrite in the baby's bottle.

(China Daily 11/16/2005 page3)