Japanese police issued a wanted notice yesterday for a Taiwanese man in connection with the murder of two Taiwanese students in Tokyo last week.
The police are looking for Chang Chih-yang (張志揚), 30, a student who has been missing from a language school in Tokyo since Thursday, the day the two women were found dead.
The pair, 23-year-old Lin Chih-ying (林芷瀅) and 25-year-old Julia Chu (朱立婕), were found covered in blood in their dorm building at the Intercultural Institute of Japan in the Taito ward. One woman was found dead at the scene, while the other died shortly afterward from neck injuries, the police said.
At a news conference yesterday, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department released a wanted notice that carried a photo of Chang and listed his height and other personal data.
Japan’s Fuji TV reported earlier in the day that police suspected that Chang might be in the Tokai region, which covers Aichi, Gifu, Mie and Shizuoka prefectures, and were looking for him.
Japanese police have also asked Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to provide them with Chang’s criminal record. Chang was sentenced to three months in prison in 2000 for an Internet-related sex crime, Taiwanese police said.
Meanwhile, Chang’s father said that he believed his son was innocent and that he hoped he would report to the police as soon as possible.
“My son should begin school on Jan. 12. If he returns on the 11th, it’s likely that he’s not involved in the crime, but if he doesn’t show up by then, there’s nothing else I can say,” the Taipei resident said in an interview on Taiwanese TV.
He described his son as someone who is “afraid to see even a rat bleed or be killed.”
“I cannot imagine a person like him doing such a thing [as committing a murder],” Chang’s father said.
“If he really killed the two women ... I have no clue under what circumstances it could have happened or why,” Chang’s father said. “It is not at all logical.”
He pleaded for his son to come forward if he did commit the crime.
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