Girlfriend masterminded tech executive's murder

Chen Jen-cheng (陳人誠), vice-executive manager of Chunpao Electronics Co (鈞寶電子), was murdered by his girlfriend, local media reported yesterday, citing police investigators.

Police also believe Lo Mei-yun (羅美雲) was helped by several accomplices.

Lo confessed to the Taoyuan Criminal Investigation Corps late Thursday evening that she killed Chen because of an emotional dispute between the two.

Chen's corpse was found in a pond beside Yushih Road (幼獅路), Yangmei, Taoyuan on Oct. 26 after an unidentified person made a call to his company, saying that the victim was killed as a result of a bungled kidnapping.

In her confession, Lo claimed that after a dispute with Chen, she slipped him some sleeping pills and slit his throat after he had fallen into a deep sleep, the report said.

Lo told the police that she was the informant who told the company where Chen's body was located. Lo said that after she had killed Chen, she made the call speaking in the voice of an old woman.

"I told his colleagues that my grandson kidnapped the wrong man, and the man had already been dumped into a pond at the back of the Yangmei Senior High School. `Please hurry to the scene; he may still be alive,'" Lo told the company.

Police say that Lo was supposed to get engaged to Chen on Nov. 5, but they are still unsure why she decided to murder him.

While Chen's corpse was not far away from the murder scene, Lo alone was unlikely to have the strength to tie Chen's body so firmly with ropes and drag it to the pond, police said.

Police discovered that Lo, who was using the alias Chang Yi-wen (張奕文), never told Chen her true identity. Police say that they are now looking for another suspect -- a man police say is Lo's husband.