Official's fatal fall said to be a suicide

By Dong Hui and Liang Yiwen  |   2009-1-1  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A HIGH-RANKING state assets management official in Shanghai's Huangpu District died in a plunge from her 20th-floor apartment yesterday morning that an acquaintance said was suicide.

Police last night were still investigating the death of Shen Zhengjuan, 50, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in Huangpu District and did not confirm the suicide report.

The district's media office said only that homicide had been ruled out.

An acquaintance of Shen, who declined to be identified, told a Xinhua news agency reporter that the official had killed herself. Xinhua said Shen left a suicide note for her family in which she said she faced great pressure from work.

Shen died at about 10am yesterday in front of a residential complex at 186 Dagu Road. Neighbors said they heard a crash and saw that a woman had fallen in front of the high-rise. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

An hour before Shen's death, the district government began a day-long meeting, but Shen failed to show up.

The district media office later said Shen had been staying home "recently" for health reasons.

A neighbor of Shen who retired from Huangpu District government said, "Everyone respected her as she was really on the ball."

Shen was renowned for her professional abilities, said the neighbor, who asked to remain unidentified. "She was an outstanding official," the neighbor said.

Shen lived with her husband and a son, who was studying at a local senior high school.