Police arrest triple murder suspects

Police yesterday arrested two men in Taipei who are suspected in the killing of a local gangster, as well as the grisly murders of their own accomplice and his girlfriend.

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Huang Teh-kuo (黃德國) and Chen Hau-chieh (陳豪傑) in an apartment on Chunghsiao East Road Section 4 yesterday for the murder of Wang Kuan-jen (王冠仁). Wang, a gang boss in Taipei's Sungshan area, was shot dead on Chungpo North Road on March 26. Police had originally traced the murder to Mai Kuo-wei (麥國偉), who disappeared after the shooting.

Both Huang and Chen have admitted that they, along with Mai, orchestrated Wang's murder and that they then killed Mai and his girlfriend on April 3 after police found out about Mai's involvement in the murder.

Chen told police that Huang had asked him to kill Wang after Huang lost several million NT dollars to Wang while gambling.

After the murder, Huang, Chen and Mai went into hiding in a farmhouse in Pinglin (坪林), Taipei County. On April 3, after finding out that Mai had been identified by police, Huang and Chen held him and his girlfriend Wang Feng-mei (王鳳美) at gunpoint and forced them to take tranquilizers. Once the couple fell asleep, Huang and Chen injected potassium cyanide into their arms, Huang said.

On the night of April 3, they pulled the couple's bodies outside, poured gasoline on them and set them on fire, Huang said. When they found the next morning that the bodies were still not totally burned, they put the remains in plastic baskets and buried them in the woods about 800m away from the farmhouse, Huang said.

Police found two half-burnt bodies buried in the woods near the farmhouse, as well as two handguns at the farmhouse.

Police are also investigating the possible involvement of two other men detained in the Chunghsiao East Road apartment yesterday. One of them, Lian Kuo-wen (連國文), has a criminal record and is believed to run an illegal gambling parlor which had been robbed by unknown assailants.