The owner of an apartment unit in Greater Kaohsiung came under criticism from police for his refusal to grant officers entry to his home to facilitate the extraction of the body of a 75-year-old man who committed suicide late last month.
The owner, surnamed Cheng (鄭), refused on the basis of the traditional fear that letting a body of the recently deceased enter the home would cause the value of the property to fall, police said.
According to a police report, the 75-year-old man, surnamed Chiang (江), leapt off the balcony of his 12th-floor residence on July 24. Chiang suffered from manic depression and police suspected he had not taken his medication.
The guard at the complex mistook the sound of Chiang falling onto the fourth floor veranda for thunder, police said, adding that the guard had not discovered a gaping hole in the skylight until Chiang’s wife asked him to help find her husband.
As Cheng’s apartment was the only entry point between the building proper and the veranda, police asked the building’s management committee to contact Cheng, who was living abroad.
However, Cheng said that moving a dead body through his apartment would be inauspicious and would cause the price of his property to plummet.
Cheng said that as the veranda is public property, the management committee should seek other means, such as using a fire truck with a ladder to remove the body.
After ascertaining Chiang exhibited no signs of life by shining a light on his inert body from the building, police reported the case to the Greater Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office for a decision.
The office decided to forgo Cheng’s refusal to allow officers enter his apartment and called in a locksmith to attempt to enter the apartment, but despite three locksmiths working for more than five hours, they could only open two of the three locks on Cheng’s door.
Police reported that it had been raining since early morning and, empathizing with the grieving family, requested permission from the prosecutors’ office for permission to call in a fire truck to expedite the removal of Chiang’s body.
The entire process took nine hours before police and firefighters were able to remove Chiang’s corpse and arrange for its transportation to a morgue for an autopsy, before returning the body to the bereaved family, police said.
Police said that Cheng showed no compassion and cared only that the price tag of his property did not suffer.
If Chiang had been alive, Cheng’s refusal to let police officers onto the premises may have seen him charged for obstructing officers in the course of their duty and involuntary manslaughter, police said.
Police said that similar cases had occurred in Keelung and then-Taichung City five years ago, adding that the corpses had all been removed using fire trucks.
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