There were signs of progress in the investigation into the murder of prominent women’s-rights activist Peng Wan-ru (彭婉如) 19 years ago as the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said they are investigating a taxi driver after forensic evidence showed that he matched six fingerprint characteristics of the main suspect.
Peng, then-director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) department of women’s affairs, was reported missing after she left Kaohsiung’s Jianmei Hotel by taxi after attending a DPP provisional national party congress on Nov. 30, 1996. Her body was found in Kaohsiung’s Niaosong District (鳥松) on Dec. 3.
While previous investigations had identified a taxi driver as a possible suspect, surveillance footage of the taxi had been blurry and the taxi’s license plate number could not be seen clearly, police said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Internet
More than 130,000 taxi drivers in the five counties and cities in the south were fingerprinted, but to no avail, the police said.
Police said that the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) had recently received tips from an ex-girlfriend of a man surnamed Yang (楊), saying that Yang claimed to have killed Peng.
Yang, who turns 50 this year, had been a taxi driver in the Kaohsiung area two decades ago, but moved to the Taichung area a decade ago.
Photo: CNA
He was recently detained for driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.
CIB Director Liu Po-liang (劉柏良) yesterday said that while Yang did not match the DNA samples collected from the crime scene, he matched six characteristics of the primary suspect’s fingerprints.
Usually, cross-analysis of finger prints needs a match of at least 12 characteristics, but leeway can be allowed — 10 characteristics — if the fingerprint is unique, Liu said, adding that Yang, having matched six characteristics, required further investigation.
Accordingly, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said Yang has not been confirmed as the primary suspect.
New information on the case surfaces every couple of years and investigators are committed to looking into information as it arises, it said.
Meanwhile, Peng Wan-ju Foundation president Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) yesterday said that the police’s devotion to cracking the case is to be commended and she hoped similar tragedies could be avoided.
DPP Tainan City Councilor Tang Pi-e (唐碧娥) yesterday said she only wished she had stopped Peng on that fateful day 19 years ago, as she was one of the people sending her off at the hotel as Peng got in the taxi.
Noting Peng’s day of death is coming up in 19 days, Tangsaid she hoped the culprit could be apprehended on that day.
DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) yesteday praised Peng’s contribution to women’s rights, adding that many people in the DPP has missed her a lot.
Cheng said that so far, prosecutors and the police have not confirmed the reports, however, if there are new developments, he and all the concerned friends would hope the long-time mystery could be solved as soon as possible.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin and Wang Chieh
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS