Taichung police yesterday detained a man suspected of killing a 29-year-old woman and two 10-month-old twins.
Police on Thursday discovered the three bodies at a studio apartment in the city and launched a manhunt for the 30-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳).
They found Chen at an Internet cafe in Changhua County’s Sihu Township (溪湖) at about 11am, said Cho Chia-hsing (卓家興), head of Taichung First Police Precinct’s investigation section.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
During questioning, Chen admitted killing the woman, also surnamed Chen, and babies, Cho said.
He quoted Chen as saying that he had quarreled with his girlfriend in their apartment on Sunday last week and strangled her to death in a fit of rage.
The bodies of the woman and the twin boys were found after neighbors complained of a foul odor coming from the apartment and firefighters were called to break into the house. The bodies had begun to decompose and it appeared that they had been dead for about five days, police said.
With the boyfriend missing, along with other evidence, he became the prime suspect, police said.
The apartment had been cleaned up and showed no signs of forceful entry, while the woman’s purse with her identification cards and cellphone were missing, indicating that the murderer had to be someone she knew and had taken her personal possessions after the killing, Cho said.
He quoted the suspect as saying that after strangling his girlfriend, he wanted to flee and hide, so he pinned the twins under a duvet and wrapped it tightly around them until they suffocated to death.
He returned a few days later to the apartment to clean it and remove incriminating evidence, Cho quoted the suspect as saying.
Prosecutors accompanied by a coroner yesterday conducted a preliminary examination of the bodies. An official autopsy is to be performed on Tuesday.
Samples taken for DNA verification of the twins suggested they were related to the couple, prosecutors said.
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