Maxine Russell, however, said Chinese authorities could not provide consistent witnesses and a time of death. According to the congressional report, which was the outcome of a family request to look into the Russell case, a California mortician who handled Russell's body said he had suffered a blow to his head and his body did not have bruises and fractures consistent with a car accident. The mortician, Jerry Marek, is a former coroner.
While Maxine Russell and the former Decai employee say Russell was a beloved teacher, Luo, the manager, insists he was often absent from class and his "teaching methods failed to meet the requirement of the school and fit the students." She said he had been hired on probation, which he failed partly because of a drinking problem.
"It was very strange and irresponsible for them to blame us for their son's death," Luo said in a telephone interview.
Maxine Russell denies Darren drank while teaching at Decai.
For Davis, coming to China meant an opportunity to see the world outside of Ystradgynlais, her Welsh village of 1,000 people. She said she loved her students, but long hours, foreign food, an ant problem, leaky pipes and a toilet that wouldn't flush became too much.
In the end, the school said Davis and her boyfriend could forgo the last two months of their assignment, as had been verbally agreed after they signed their contracts in June last year, but the principal changed his mind the day before their departure and refused to be reasoned with, Davis said.
Repeated calls to Jizhou school were not answered.
"We were miserable," Davis said. "We'd come all this way and there was this feeling of helplessness."
The couple left behind books, 200 DVDs and most of Davis' winter clothes -- now all too big for her because she had dropped 15kg from her 1.54m frame.
When they left the school that March morning, she said, they went to the railroad station to take a train to Beijing, but were so fearful they would somehow be made to stay that they instead hired a cab for the 320km trip.
On their way from school to the station, their cab driver happened to be playing the theme from The Benny Hill Show on tape.
"We just burst out laughing," Davis said.
They never collected their salary for their last month of work.
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