We have heard many tragic stories about China's "left-behind" children, and the tragedy that struck a poor village in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province, earlier this week is particularly overwhelming.

Four siblings, all minors, were found dead in their village home on Tuesday evening. Local police suspect they committed suicide by drinking pesticide. The four, a 13-year-old boy and his three younger sisters (the youngest was just 5), stopped going to school a month ago. They lived alone because their father works in another place and their mother disappeared three years ago, village residents said.

Details will be known only after police complete their investigation. A media report cited Zhang Shigui, a villager claiming to be a relative of the children, as saying: "The only food they had was corn ... because they were too poor." But other reports said vegetables and preserved meat were found in the house.