Tipoff leads police to body of missing man

Taichung police said yesterday they had solved a murder case, but did not know who tipped them off and helped them find the victim's body.

Police said that the wife of Changhua resident Chen Tsun-tsai (陳存在), 54, who had been missing since February, received a phone call on Tuesday from a man telling her Chen had been killed and his body could be found in a building in Taichung.

remains

After Chen's wife reported the matter to the authorities, police proceeded immediately to the building described by the caller and found the skeletal remains of a body on the balcony.

Police said the remains were likely Chen's, as they found his driving license in the clothes' pocket and his scooter outside the building.

Chen's wife later told police the belt on the pants was Chen's.

suspicious

After going through the evidence and with a little bit more of detective work, police said they found a friend of Chen -- Hsieh An-chuan (謝安全) -- to be suspicious and arrested him.

Police said Hsieh later admitted that he killed Chen with a knife on the sixth floor of the building and then left his body out on the balcony.

He told police he killed Chen because the latter owed him money but refused to pay him back.

Hsieh said he was not the one who called up Chen's wife about the body's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Chen's wife told police her husband called her up on Feb. 13, saying he must leave home for a couple of days.

But two or three days later she received a phone call from a man telling her "your husband owes me NT$500,000 [US$15,000]; pay me back or your husband will never get home," police quoted the wife as saying.

money transfer

Chen's wife said after negotiations through a couple of phone conversations, she finally transferred NT$200,000 to her husband's bank account.

A few days later she received a call from her husband, saying: "I got the money. I'm OK. Don't worry."

She never heard from her husband again.