Investigators yesterday continued their probe into the death of Jung Shen Co (巨陞公司) chairman Chen Hung-yu (陳宏育) and his wife in Taroko National Park, with prosecutors saying that the wounds on the couple’s bodies were consistent with falling from a height, but some uncertainties remain unsolved.
Coroner Hsiao Kai-ping (蕭開平) conducted an autopsy with officials from the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office amid suspicions of foul play in the deaths of Chen and his wife, Fan Chin-mei (范錦美), who were found on a roadside cliff along the Central Cross-Island Highway (Highway No. 8).
“The wounds on the couple’s bodies are consistent with falling from the roadside down into the cliff and also matched the conditions found at the scene,” Hualien County Chief Prosecutor Wang Yi-jen (王怡仁) said. “Judging by the autopsy results, we believe that the two were alive, ventured out of their car and plunged to their deaths.”
The bodies have been transferred to a forensic medical laboratory for more detailed examination and to find out whether the two had ingested toxic substances, drugs or medicine that might have contributed to their deaths, he said.
Due to other evidence and uncertainties in the case, there had been questions about whether the couple had died from suicide, an accidental fall, or foul play, he said.
The couple was found on Wednesday last week after their families reported that they had gone missing along a stretch of the highway and that the car Chen had been driving was found parked on a shoulder.
Rescuers said that the bodies were found together 200m down the cliff and investigators first believed that the couple might have been taking pictures and slipped or that they might have committed suicide.
However, a dashboard camera believed to have been in the car at the time was missing and the investigation failed to locate the couple’s camera and mobile phones, leading to suspicions that a third person might have been involved.
Family members scoffed at the suggestion of suicide, saying that the couple had no reason to kill themselves, did not leave a suicide note and did not act differently before their trip.
The company was operating normally and had no financial problems, they said.
Prosecutors said that they would continue to gather evidence and continue to question family members.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater