Woman presumed dead for 10 years had been living and playing games in internet cafés

A Chinese woman who was presumed dead after she went missing 10 years ago has been found after allegedly spending the last decade living and playing games in internet cafés. The woman, known as Xiao Yun and now aged 24, left her home in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang 10 years ago after a quarrel with her parents.

Presumed dead by her family, she was finally found by police officers on Nov 20 after a routine check on an internet café in the wee hours of the morning. Xiao Yun, who was carrying a fake identity card, was taken to a local police station for questioning where she revealed that she had been living in internet cafés for the past decade.



A fan of the multiplayer first-person shooter game CrossFire, she spent her days playing the game and slept mostly in cafés and bath houses. She relied mostly on handouts from fellow cafe patrons and occasionally worked as a cashier at some cafés to earn additional income. She told the police that she had been brought up by her grandparents.

The police fined her 1,000 yuan (£100, £150) and after initial resistance from her, contacted her parents so they could be reunited with their long-lost daughter. Her mother said that she had not changed her phone number since Xiao Yun left home, in the hope that she would contact her. "I have a stubborn personality and a short temper, so I used to scold her. But it's been 10 years and now she's an adult. I will never scold her again," she said.