Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday said the ministry would take measures to strengthen suicide prevention work after learning of a mother who killed herself and her teenage daughter by burning charcoal in a closed room.
The National Police Agency will also be asked to ensure police officers respond with more urgency when they receive reports of similar cases because the 13-year-old victim failed in her attempt to find help after learning of her mother’s plans, Jiang said.
In response to media inquiries, Jiang said that action would be taken to remedy defects in the existing suicide prevention reporting system.
The girl, identified only by her surname Tsao, and her mother were found dead at their home in Taichung County’s Taiping City (太平) on Saturday, with police reporting that they had succumbed to hypoxia as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The tragedy was publicized by the Chinese-language United Daily News on its front page yesterday, saying that although the girl sought help at school, the mother was still allowed to take her home.
The girl left two letters for classmates and one thank you note for her teacher bidding them farewell, the report said.
Citing the director of student affairs — surnamed Chen — at the private boarding school in Nantou County where Tsao studied, the report said: “I begged the mother to leave the child here, but she refused.”
“After learning that both mother and child were dead, the image of the girl crying her eyes out terrified at angering her mother kept replaying in my head,” Chen said.
According to the report, Tsao told the school on April 1 of her mother’s plan to commit suicide during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday from April 3 to April 5. On the same day, Tsao’s mother picked the girl up from school despite Chen asking that she leave Tsao with her.
Chen said she informed the police and county social workers of the possible suicide attempt, but “both failed to show up” before the mother and daughter left.
“Despite the fact that I tried to keep her here, I could only watch them leave,” Chen said.
The report said that Nantou County social workers transferred the case to their counterparts in Taichung County where the mother lived, and that Taichung County police and social workers did not take action until April 6, when they visited the mother’s home, but left when no one answered the door.
Police and social workers then visited the house three days in a row with no reply before finally breaking down the door on April 17, only to find the bodies of the mother and daughter who had been dead for days, the report said.
“It was a serious mistake by social working units,” said Peng Huai-chen (彭懷真), an assistant professor at Tunghai University’s Department of Social Work.
Peng blamed social workers’ lack of alertness for the tragedy, saying they should not give up when they fail to reach someone involved in such a sensitive case.
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