Boy killed after botched kidnapping

A junior high school graduate from Taichung County was killed after a likely mistaken kidnapping, Taichung police said yesterday after the boy's parents identified his remains, found in a sluice earlier in the day.

"A 15-year-old junior high school graduate surnamed Wang was killed. Police suspect he was kidnapped and then killed, because his parents received a threatening phone call after he went missing," Tsai Chin-ba (蔡金霸), vice director of the Taichung County Police Bureau said yesterday.

Wang disappeared on July 21. The day after he went missing, his parents, from Shalu Township (沙鹿), received a phone call in which the speaker said their son had mistakenly been kidnapped, but asked for NT$3 million ransom anyway, the Wangs told police.

The Wangs immediately reported the kidnapping to police.

Police said the Wang family received only one call from the perpetrators after Wang went missing.

Police believe the perpetrators may have kidnapped the wrong person, as the Wangs are not wealthy.

The Wangs told police that their son had been attending a senior high school in Talih City (大里), Taichung County, this summer.

On July 21, he went to a senior high school orientation, but then disappeared, they said.

Wang's father told police that his son liked to make friends through the Internet and often went out with people he met online. Wang's parents suspect that their son was abducted after meeting someone on the Internet, and then was killed.

Police are looking into whether the kidnappers may be from the Taichung area and said they are examining Wang's computer to track who he had been in contact with online.

"Wang was seriously injured and then killed. The suspects were very cruel," Tsai added.

Wang had been tied up and was killed by strangling, according to police.

Police have not yet identified any suspects, but believe that more than one person was involved in the kidnapping because they were able to abduct Wang, who was about 170cm tall and a bit overweight.

Police yesterday morning found Wang's corpse in a sluice in Fengyuan City (豐原), Taichung County. The body was up-side down with the head sunk into the mud.

Wang's parents went to the site, weeping openly as they identified the body as being that of their son from the shirt and jeans he had been wearing.

Police were not able to gather any fingerprints from the body.

Police yesterday called on the public to exercise caution regarding people they've met through the Internet, adding that crimes related to the Internet have been increasing.