Ex-Chinese dissident found safe in Indiana

Brian Wilson | The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS -- A dissident who spent 17 years in a Chinese prison and had been missing for three days has been found safe on the city's northwest side.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Lt. Christopher Baily said Wednesday Yu Dongyue was located by "concerned citizens."

Yu was reported missing Sunday from Happy Hour Foot Spa, where his sister, Yu Rixia, works.

Yu's imprisonment -- after he threw eggs with red paint on a portrait of Mao Zedong during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 -- drew international attention as human rights groups pressed for his freedom. But he was released a different man, battered by abuse, with diminished mental and verbal abilities.

Yu, 46, was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 2009. He and his sister emigrated to Indianapolis that year, and he has spent much of his time at the spa.

According to police, a woman found Yu on Tuesday in her backyard, sitting underneath a tree with a bicycle parked nearby.

The woman gave the man water and food, she told police, and the man proceeded to spend the rest of the day sitting on the home's patio, she said.

Later in the evening, shortly before 11 p.m., the woman called police and asked them to check on the welfare of a man who had did not speak English, according to the report.

Reached by phone, the man's sister expressed relief her brother had been found.

"There were some nice people who helped take care of him and I am very thankful," said Rixia Yu.

According to a police report, Yu was last seen Sunday. He is described as 5-foot-5, about 160 pounds and was last seen wearing gray shorts and a blue shirt with a whale design on it.

Yu has a scar on the left side of his forehead from his imprisonment and subsequent torture, police said.

That description, along with a picture of him and his sister, was circulated locally by Exodus Refugee Immigration Inc., an organization that helps with resettlement in Indianapolis.

Carleen Miller, the group's executive director, said Yu has a history of wandering off. Her organization and Yu's family have tried to make sure local authorities look out for him.

"He was someone who's really been through a lot and hasn't been the same since," she said.

Yu was also reported missing in July 2009, and was found by Lawrence police.

What followed drew widespread criticism. A Lawrence policeman initially arrested Yu on suspicion of public intoxication due to his mental incapacity, and registered the then-unidentified man's name as "Jackie Chan." He was not charged in connection with the incident, and Lawrence police officials later apologized.