SHANGHAI, Sept. 12 -- A MAN who failed to marry his lover and bludgeoned her to death with a hammer in the hope of marrying her in the afterlife was arrested yesterday.

Shi Jun will soon face charges of murder, Hongkou District Prosecutors' Office revealed yesterday. Shi hammered his lover to death but failed to go through with his plan to commit suicide, prosecutors said.

Shi, 34, who is married with a daughter, was laid off from his job in 1993 and had been mostly jobless since.

Without a stable income, Shi didn't get on with his wife and was unhappy until he met the victim, Yu Qian, he told prosecutors.

Shi and Yu, 27, got to know each other through a Website in April this year. Shi soon fell in love with Yu but told her that he was already divorced.

Yu believed him and lived with him, but she soon discovered his lie. She said she was willing to stay with him only if he got divorced.

Shi told prosecutors he planned to sell his apartment and gave the money to his wife. As for him and Yu, he planned to hold a grand wedding ceremony and open a restaurant with her.

But his father objected strongly. Prosecutors alleged Shi was so upset that he decided to die with the woman so that they could get married in the afterlife.

"No one can part us in the afterworld, I thought," Shi told prosecutors. He allegedly carried an iron hammer to visit Yu in early hours of August 27 this year and hit her head until she died at about 10:30am.

Shi ran away from the body, surrendering himself to police two days later.