A Gansu criminal judge and his family members as well as their nanny were killed at home yesterday, Lanzhou-based Western Economic Daily reported today.

Chen Yiming, chief judge of No.2 criminal courtroom of Linxia People's Intermediate Court, was found by his daughter-in-law at 8 AM yesterday. She found Chen lying facedown in a pool of blood in a bedroom.

She then found her son's body, sitting on a chair, bound, with his mouth taped. Chen's wife and nanny's bodies were found knelt down on a bathroom floor.

Local police said Chen and the three others were murdered and an investigation has been launched.

Chen and his wife are both 58, the grandson is 7 and the nanny was supposedly 16. Chen was set to retire in two years, according to China's civil servants age limitation. He acted as the chief of No. 2 criminal courtroom in 1994, two years after being dispatched to the court.

This is the second family murder case of Chinese officials in the national press spotlight after Wen Jianggang, the head of Xingren County, Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Ethnic Minority Autonomous Prefecture, Guzhou Province, was found murdered together with his wife, son, mother-in-law, elder sister and the family babysitter on November 27.

(Shanghai Daily December 14, 2006)