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Police arrest four suspects in death of Tainan farmer

Tainan police said yesterday they had arrested four suspects in the death of a wealthy female farmer, who was found along with the body of an unidentified man in a pool in Tainan County last month.

The bodies of the farmer, Ko Yu-mei (柯玉梅), a resident of Nanhua Township (南化) in Tainan County, and the man were found near her fruit farm on Sept. 15.

The two victims had drowned, police said.

Police said that Ko and her husband Wang were working on their farm on Sept. 13 when they saw a strange van on the premises. Ko then took her scooter to see what the "visitors" wanted. She did not come back.

As Ko, 60, and Wang were wealthy, police initially said they suspected the murder might have been a kidnapping attempt.

The unidentified man, police said, could be the suspect, who might have fallen into the pool with Ko or been pulled in by her.

After a DNA examination on Sept. 20, police identified the deceased man as Tainan resident Chen Ching-chung (陳進忠), a landscape gardener, and said they believed he was murdered.

Police found Chen's motorcycle parked along a street in Tainan before he went missing on Sept. 13.

Checking the surveillance videos near the site, they said a man who looked like Chen rode in the van.

After tracing the van to a woman named Chang Shu-chuan (張淑娟), police raided a Tainan pub on Saturday, arresting Chang and three other suspects -- Chiang Wu-che (江武哲), Ko Shih-ming (柯世銘) and Chen Chun-chieh (陳俊傑).

Chang is Ko's girlfriend, police said.

They said Chiang owns a field of sky fruit (桃花心木) in Tainan County, and the victim Chen was interested in the woods.

Police said that on Sept. 13 Chiang brought the victim Chen to the field to see the woods in the company of Ko Shih-ming and Chen Chun-chieh.

When Chen Ching-chung told Chiang that the field of sky fruit was worth less than NT$6 million (US$183,000), Chiang was enraged, police alleged.

The four left together in the van, with Chiang and Chen Ching-chung quarreling in the car.

Police alleged that Chiang, sitting in the back seat, used a leather belt to strangle Chen Ching-chung, who was sitting next to the driver, Chen Chun-chieh.

Ko Shih-ming and Chen Chun-chieh were also involved in strangling the victim, police alleged.

The victim Chen was then wrapped in a bag and dumped, police said.

Police said as the three men took the van to Ko Yu-mei's farm to dump the body, Ko Yu-mei saw the van and rode over to see what was going on.

Police alleged that when Ko Yu-mei saw the suspects preparing to throw Chen into the pool, the three men strangled Ko and threw her in the pool with Chen Ching-chung's body.

Police said although the two had been strangled, they both died from drowning.
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