Expert seeks answers to Hsichih case

World-renowned forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺) yesterday examined the exhumed remains of the couple murdered in the Hsihchih Trio case.

Lee, however, said in a press conference afterward that the brief visual examination at the Forensic Science Research Center in Taipei was only preliminary and that there was still no significant finding, adding that further examination with the assistance of sophisticated scientific instruments is needed.

Lee also said he would need to examine the knife or knives allegedly used in the murder of the Wus to determine whether there was any correlation between the tool and the wounds on the

bodies.

"Without the alleged murder weapon or weapons, I couldn't draw any conclusion simply by examining the remains of the murdered couple," Lee explained, adding that if necessary, he would be willing to assist in solving the riddle surrounding the couple's tragic deaths.

Key to the 1991 murder case is whether the 79 wounds on the victims, Wu Ming-han (吳銘漢) and his wife Yeh Ying-lan (葉盈蘭), were caused by a single weapon.

"In the preliminary examination I found that the skulls [of the victims] exhibited multiple injuries from many different directions, making a decision on what weapon caused what injury a matter of much scientific analysis," Lee said.

His comments did not go beyond what had been confirmed by previous forensic examinations.

Responding to the request of the defense, the Taiwan High Court on May 31 exhumed the bones of the victims.

The defense argued that the Hsichih Trio, Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳), would be proven innocent if the wounds on victims are found to have been inflicted by only one instrument.

It would be unfavorable to the trio if it were found that more than one weapon was used in the crime, as that would strongly indicate that the already-executed Wang Wen-hsiao (王文孝) had accomplices in the murder.

The defense believes that marine soldier Wang alone commit-ted the crime with a Chinese kitchen cleaver.

Defense counsel Su You-chen (蘇友辰), however, also said that even if there were multiple weapons used it still would not lead to the conclusion that the trio had been the accomplices -- at least in absence of other supporting evidence.

Another difficulty in determining whether the wounds were caused by a single weapon is that the cleaver that had been identified as a weapon used in the crime has been lost.

The cleaver came from the victims' kitchen and was used as evidence in Wang's trial in the military court. However, after his trial the military failed to return the cleaver to the victims' family or transfer it to the criminal courts.

Instead, according to Su, the military buried the cleaver, along with other evidence used in unrelated cases, at a site in Tsoying (左營), Kaohsiung City.

Su said the military had responded to the court's request to excavate this piece of evidence. Last Tuesday the military announced that a cleaver "a bit likely" to be the one used in the military trial had been recovered.

However, Su said, it has yet to be proven to be the cleaver in question.