Police in the northern province of Thanh Hoa have just detained a woman for killing her 23-day-old granddaughter following her acting on advice from a fortune-teller.

Police investigate the house where the baby was killed by her grandmother on November 28

Speaking to the media on Tuesday evening, lieutenant-colonel Trinh Huu Thanh, head of Bim Son Town Department of Public Security said that Pham Thi Xuan, 66, killed her 23-day-old granddaughter and hid under her bed then made wild claims there had been a kidnapping.

The woman told police on Tuesday she did that following advice from a fortune-teller who said her granddaughter was a demon and would threaten the family's life.

The baby was killed on the evening of November 25 just after her father left their home in Bim Son Town to pick up his older child from an extra-class. 

The father, Le Huu Thuan, then returned home to find his mother lying unconscious at the door. He called his wife, who was working on the computer in the next room but knew nothing about the incident, to take her in.

Xuan then woke up and told her son and daughter-in-law that the baby had been kidnapped by a woman and a man who attacked her with anaesthetic and took the baby away on their motorbike.

After meeting with the police that evening, Xuan put the body of the baby in a bag and left it at a dustbin some few hundred metres from their home.

The baby's body was then found two days later at a dumping site 10 kilometres away from her home by a metal scrap collector. 

Police are further investigating the case.

dtinews