Ghost Hunter Dies One Year After Smashing ‘Goddess of Mercy’ Statue to See If ‘Curse’ Would Follow

A Chinese influencer known for exploring the paranormal has died following a car crash.

The Sun reported on Wednesday, August 12, that Jiang Xiaorou, 24, was a passenger in a rideshare vehicle involved in a serious crash on July 15 while traveling from Guangxi to Guangzhou in southern China.

Doctors at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital worked to save her for weeks after the accident left her with massive trauma, heavy blood loss, organ failure and severe brain damage. The Community leaders from her hometown confirmed her death on August 10, as per the outlet.

Jiang built a following of over 1.3 million online fans through content centered on ghost hunts, abandoned locations and folklore-based challenges.

Months before that, Jiang went viral for a video in which she smashed a statue of Guanyin, the Chinese Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, as part of what she called an “anti-superstition” challenge, swinging a hammer at the figure while daring fans to see if a curse would follow, as per The Sun.

The clip, shared in August 2025, drew both backlash and support at the time, with critics calling it disrespectful while many of her followers praised her willingness to defy the taboo.

Following news of her death, that old video resurfaced, and some social media users began describing the crash as “karma.”

In an eerie coincidence, her final video, posted July 9, just days before the crash, showed her dialing a phone number rumored to belong to someone who had died in a road accident, according to another Chinese news outlet, Sing Tao Headlines. The call reportedly connected, but all she heard on the other end was her own voice echoing back.

Jiang’s family issued a brief statement on August 11 asking the public to stop speculating about her content online and to let her rest in peace, as per The Sun.

An investigation into the crash remains ongoing.