The body of a man who died three months ago remains frozen at a funeral parlor as his family and the police argue about whether he committed suicide.

She Shouliang, 50, a coal miner from Pingdingshan, Henan province, was taken into police custody on Aug 16.

Reports said that after a bout of drinking, the miner beat an old man until he had a heart attack.

Local police said the miner killed himself by cutting his wrists after he escaped from the police station. But the family suspects he was beaten to death by the police while he was in custody.

The family was asked to claim his body at a funeral parlor on Aug 18. The body is still there in a refrigerating room.

The dispute remains unresolved as the provincial procuratorate and the provincial public security department started an investigation last month after wide coverage by local media.

An autopsy showed he died of serious external injuries, not from cutting his wrists.

However, the investigation report did not say whether his death was a suicide or homicide.

"His arms were broken and there are two holes in his head, and bruising on the knees. More ridiculously, two footprints were on his chest. Do you think that (the suicide claim) follows logic?" his wife Xie Huaping told China Daily yesterday. "It doesn't make sense that my husband would have abused himself before suicide."

Xie said her husband did not have any mental problems or abnormal behaviors before his death. At present, she has an 80-year-old mother and a daughter to feed, with an income of 700 yuan ($102) each month. But her husband was able to earn an average income of about 2,000 yuan per month.

Xie said she is demanding at least 500,000 yuan from the police to compensate her for her husband's death. But her demand was rejected.

"We also require a fair explanation by identifying the real cause of my father's death," said his daughter She Wenwen, who is studying at a college in Xinyang, a city south of the province.

Cui Jianping, head of the Pingdingshan public security bureau, refuted the allegation that they had abused the miner. However, he denied the man died because he slashed his own wrists, refuting what the police had said previously.

Cui said he had been to the scene.

"She (Shouliang) obviously fell on a rugged hillside and died after running out of the police station. One thing can prove he was not beaten at all: He was photographed before he fled. In that picture, he was intact."

The only problem was the police officers did not fulfill their duty in carefully watching over him, Cui added.

The local police said two policemen on duty have been suspended from their positions and the family would not get any compensation until they admit the miner committed suicide.

Cui said compensation might be given because they are sympathetic to the family's loss.

Xie said she doesn't know her next step.