The hillside path leading to where the father buried his son's body.— Photo suckhoedoisong.vn

LÀO CAI — A father in the northern province of Lào Cai has been taken into custody after confessing he beat his 12-year-old son with an electrical cord and secretly buried the boy's body when he found him dead the next morning.

Police said on Sunday that Phùng Văn San, 36, was detained on suspicion of intentionally inflicting bodily harm resulting in death. The victim, his son Phùng Xuân An, had been reported missing for nine days.

The case began on April 13, when the Ethnic Boarding Middle School in Mỏ Vàng Commune alerted local police that a sixth-grader had not shown up to class for days.

Officers spoke with San and the boy's grandmother, who said An had left home on April 9 and never returned. A search involving local police and villagers turned up nothing. Missing-person notices posted on Facebook and Zalo drew no response.

Suspicion eventually fell on the father. Officers noted he had been making repeated, unexplained trips to the hills and appeared increasingly agitated. Brought in for questioning on April 18, he confessed.

San told police that on the night of April 9, he beat his son with an electrical cord and forced him to stand in the middle of the house until 3.30am. He left for work a few hours later. Returning home around midday, he found the boy dead in a chair.

He went back to work anyway. That evening, he loaded the body onto a motorbike, drove about 3km from the house and buried his son on a hillside plot where the family grows cinnamon trees.

Investigators have since recovered the body. An autopsy is underway to determine the official cause of death. — VNS