(Yicai Global) July 15 -- Baidu, China's search engine giant, has apologized for publishing an unauthorized eulogy, supposedly from a father to his kidnapped nine-year-old girl.

Zixin's father did not approve of publishing a condolence message, the Beijing-based firm said in a statement on July 13. It has fired the editor who was involved in the incident. Baidu had earlier asked permission from the father to open the account to help find the victim.

Many netizens considered Baidu's message out of line after it came out that the victim's parent did not write the note, as her uncle-in-law told local newspaper Urban Express on July 13.

"I just learned that my Zixin has left this world and gone to heaven. While we are not fated to be father and daughter in this life, I hope she will still be my daughter in the next life," says the note on the 'Zhang Zixin's Father' Baidu account, published on July 13, after the body was found.  

Zhang Zixin lost touch with her family in Hangzhou on July 7 when two tenants of her grandparents requested her to join them for a wedding in Shanghai. The police found the middle-aged tenants who appeared to have committed suicide in Ningbo, about 80 kilometers away from Hangzhou, and Zhang's body was found five days after. 

Editor: Emmi Laine