A couple living in Taichung have been arrested on suspicion of strangling an 11-month-old girl to death and then dismembering the body, Taichung police said yesterday.
The 32-year-old woman, surnamed Su (蘇), and her 23-year-old partner, identified only by his family name, Hsu (許), were detained at the request of prosecutors on Saturday, three years after the baby girl was allegedly murdered.
The first precinct of the Taichung Police Department said that it started its investigation into the case after receiving a report from the city’s domestic violence center in August that the girl had gone missing.
Su also reported to a local police station in September, claiming that her daughter had gone missing at the Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港) on June 12.
However, based on accounts from social workers that Su and Hsu had moved away and that they had not seen the baby for more than two years, police tried to locate Su, who falsified her daughter’s whereabouts in order to make police believe that she was in China.
After checking immigration and customs records, police found that Su had made false statements and eventually tracked her down on Oct. 7 in Taichung’s Wufeng District (霧峰).
Su finally admitted that her daughter had been strangled to death by her boyfriend in October 2012 because she was crying too much, police said.
The woman said she was forced to help Hsu dismember the body and dump the parts in a neighborhood trash bin, according to police.
“I am an inhumane mother … I killed my own daughter,” Su said, adding that she had not been able to sleep at night for the past three years, according to police.
Police also alleged that Hsu often suspended the girl on a wall, beating her and slapping her in the face.
The girl was murdered shortly after her mother brought her to live with Hsu in 2012, according to police.
After questioning, Hsu, who has been behind bars since September last year, admitted that he had dismembered the girl with a knife, but denied killing her, investigators said.
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