Authorities in Tainan yesterday continued their investigation into a family tragedy in which a couple allegedly committed suicide by burning charcoal inside their rented apartment, taking the lives of their three children with them.
Police said they are interviewing neighbors, the landlord and the building’s security guard to determine if foul play was involved.
The bodies of the five members of the family were discovered inside the master bedroom on Tuesday afternoon, and police identified them as a man surnamed Wang (王), 40, his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 36, and their three sons, aged seven, six and two.
Investigators and forensic doctors re-examined the site yesterday, saying they will likely conduct an autopsy.
Preliminary assessment indicated the apparent family suicide might have taken place a few days before, since they had not been seen outside of the house for some time and the elder children had not attended school since Friday last week.
Advocates for children’s rights said children have a right to live, regardless of their parents’ circumstances.
Taiwan Fund for Children and Families executive Lee Pao-liang (李保良) said he was saddened by the tragedy.
“Children are innocent; they must not be deprived of their life. They are our nation’s assets, and not the private property of the parents,” he said.
When a family encounters difficulties, they should discuss the problem with friends and relatives, or seek assistance from the social welfare system, and must have the courage to face problems to give themselves an opportunity to turn it around, Lee said.
Police said the couple allegedly committed suicide due to financial difficulties, since they had not paid rent for four months and might have had other debts.
Friends said that Wang had lost money in bad investments, and was working at a low-paying job at a car rental company.
Investigators said the couple wrote on the walls with a brush pen phrases about “hate and bitterness” and “for our next life, we don’t want to come back as humans.”
Friends said they only married earlier this year, with the two elder children coming from the wife’s previous marriage.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS