A man was detained by the Nantou District Court yesterday on a murder charge for gunning down a woman who he said he thought was a rabbit.
The suspect, Hsu Ching-chao(
Police said Tseng and her boyfriend Chang Wen-ching (
Police said the trio dined and drank at Hsu's residence in the afternoon. Tseng then went out to the vegetable garden outside Hsu's residence to collect some vegetables to cook, Hsu then took a gas gun from his house and shot Tseng.
Tseng was taken to hospital for emergency treatment, but died on Monday.
Hsu told police that as Tseng was crouched down in the vegetable garden, he thought she was a rabbit that was eating his vegetables.
Nantou District Prosecutors Office spokesman Song Kung-liang (宋恭良), however, said prosecutors had decided that it was probably murder after examining the scene.
Song said the incident took place at 3pm with good light. He said Hsu was just 7m from Tseng and the plants in the garden were only about 70cm high, so in the circumstances it was highly unlikely that Hsu's explanation was plausible.
Song said Hsu at first insisted that he thought Tseng was a rabbit, but on Monday he eventually admitted that he had murdered Tseng after they had quarreled.
Song said Tseng had taken out a life insurance policy which her boyfriend Chang stood to benefit from, but prosecutors did not know whether he was involved in the murder.
He said Chang had denied he had any thing to do with the murder.
The prosecutor said a test of Tseng's blood found she took sleeping pills before the incident, and prosecutors suspected Hsu attempted to make Tseng drowsy before he murdered her.
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