Allison Langdon is left speechless after man reveals why he opened his dead brother’s coffin, pulled out a set of pliers and cut off his EAR: ‘I’m not sure what to say’
A suspicious uncle cut off his late brother’s ear in a failed attempt to prove that his cousin was the illegitimate heir to a million-dollar fortune.
Jian Zhong Li, 69, had long suspected that his cousin, Cheng Zhang Li, was not the biological son of his brother Jiang Ming Li.
His suspicions apparently stemmed from his cousin’s thick beard – a trait that no one else in the family shared.
Li’s attempts to get his cousin to take a paternity test were rebuffed, so when his brother died in March 2022, he hatched a plan with another relative to obtain his DNA to prove his suspicions once and for all.
On the day of the funeral, Li and his accomplice sneaked into the South Chapel at Rookwood Cemetery, where they opened the coffin, unzipped the body bag, and used pliers to cut off part of Jiang Ming’s ear.
He kept it in a glass jar in his freezer while he launched legal action against his cousin in the NSW Supreme Court.
Jian Zhong Li, 69, had long suspected that his cousin, Cheng Zhang Li, was not the biological son of his brother Jiang Ming Li, so he cut off part of his brother’s ear in a failed attempt to confirm his paternity (photo: Li poses with the sharp pliers he used in the gruesome act)
Li attempted to justify his actions in an interview with A Current Affair, leaving host Allison Langdon temporarily speechless.
“Wow, I’m not sure what to say about that… And it was all on a beard,” she said.
Li’s macabre act remained secret for more than a year before Li surrendered to the undertaker who informed the police.
Last week, Li lost an appeal against a $1,500 fine for improper interference with a corpse.
But he defended his actions in the bizarre interview on Monday.
Current Affairs host Allison Langdon (pictured) was left temporarily speechless by the report
“How did you feel about cutting off your dead brother’s ear? It’s pretty gross,” reporter Hannah Sinclair asked him.
“I’m also very concerned about doing these things. I don’t like doing it,” Li said.
The reporter then asked if Li knew what he had done was wrong.
“There is no other way to solve this problem,” Li replied.
However, a subsequent biological test revealed that Cheng Zhang Li is the biological son of Jian Ming Li.
But Li refused to believe it and hopes the ear can be used to verify the claim.
‘I test. Please check again,” he told the programme.
Li claimed his 91-year-old mother was owed some of the money from her late son’s estate.
“Mother needs some maintenance… because the condition of the house is in very poor condition,” he said.
He previously wrote an apology letter to the court, claiming he was only trying to protect his family.
“I am sorry to the court for doing this, I did not mean to break the law, I did not think things through at the time, I am sorry to the community,” he wrote.
The family’s court battle over the million-dollar property in Petersham in Sydney’s west continues.