Ms. Geng Xuezhi worked at Dongge Residential Committee of Downtown Government Office in Pingdu City, Shandong Province. In December 1999, Ms. Geng went to appeal in Beijing for Dafa. After she was taken back, she was detained in an empty room in an old building (waiting to be torn down) of the Downtown Hospital of Pingdu City. The windows of the old building were mostly broken, and cold wind blew right inside. The persecutors brutally tortured Geng both mentally and physically: in the freezing winter, they poured water on the concrete floor of the room; they forced the practitioners to stay awake, did not provide any food, and did not allow them to use the restrooms. They also stripped all the clothes off the practitioners so they would suffer more in the freezing weather. As a result, Geng Xuezhi became very ill from the extended exposure to extreme cold. She continued to suffer from her illness after she was released, and medical treatment over a long period of time failed to save her life.