Yang Yaling was an employee at the Pharmaceutical Company of Jilin Province. She began practicing Falun Gong in 1997 and gradually became obsessed with it. "She lost interest in her child after she took to Falun Gong," one of her neighbors said. "As a natural result, the child became estranged from her. By and by, Yang's mind turned abnormal. She did not show any interest in her family and her mind was full of the idea for suicide."
During the Spring Festival of 1998, Yang thrust her hands into boiling water three times, saying that she wished to "dispel" herself of "karma," hence causing herself serious burns. On June 27, Yang again attempted suicide by throwing herself in front of a speeding car, but she narrowly escaped death thanks to the driver's presence of mind. The next day when others were not watching, she suddenly hurled herself down from the fourth floor and died.
A month later, her husband was struck down with cerebral thrombus from grief, and had to be cared for as a confined invalid. A once happy family thus ended up in tragedy.
