Case file · Abduction
Mosien-a: the Xizhi cemetery disappearance
In April 2003 a 68-year-old woman vanished two minutes after stepping out of a car at a hillside cemetery in Xizhi; her body was found nine days later 3 km away.
2003 CE · 25.07, 121.67 · status: account
The account
Relatives blamed the mosien-a, small mountain demons of Taiwanese belief said to lead people astray and feed them insects and dung disguised as food. Researchers Lin Mei-rong and Lee Chia-kai list dozens of such news cases since 1899.
The sceptical view
Disorientation, dementia and terrain explain most cases; the belief gives them meaning.