Suitcase murderer and his accomplice confess

Police said yesterday that Liao Chien-kai (廖健凱), a suspect in the murder of 21-year-old gay student Lin Chih-hao (林志浩), admitted to the crime yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, Liao's close friend, Chen Chia-wei (陳嘉偉), was also involved in the high-profile murder case.

Liao and Chen were both released yesterday afternoon on NT$100,000 and NT$30,000 bail respectively.

Police said that Liao, a 24-year-old computer engineer, repeatedly denied any knowledge of the crime after he was arrested on Friday.

The suspect, however, confessed to police after Chen, a key witness in the case, was arrested later on Friday afternoon.

According to police, Chen, who was involved with Liao sexually, is also a computer engineer who worked with him about six months ago.

On Feb. 4, Liao confessed to Chen that he had picked up a young man in an on-line sadomasochistic chatroom the night before.

Liao, whose chatroom ID is "vicious dog" (虐犬), invited Lin to come over for a tryst with him during their 50-minute conversation in the chatroom.

He told police he accidentally killed him during their practice of autoerotic asphyxiation (窒息式性愛), in which the lack of oxygen causes the participants to experience a heightened orgasm.

Liao also told Chen that he had put the victim's naked body into a black suitcase and dumped it in front of a small temple in Taipei City's Wenshan District.

Liao later asked Chen to help him to clean his bedsheet and his apartment, located on Chungching S Road in Taipei.

Chen stressed yesterday that he was not an accomplice, and he only helped to clean the crime scene in order to remove local media suspicions.

Police, however, took a DNA sample from Chen yesterday in order to clarify his involvement in the case.

Meanwhile, according to authorities, although the victim had sex with Liao voluntarily, the suspect might have committed manslaughter since sadomasochism and sexual abuse were involved. Liao therefore might be sentenced to two years in prison.