Police yesterday said it was possible that narcotic drug-induced psychosis had led to the beheading of a woman at her home in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), allegedly by her son.
The woman died on Thursday evening, with the sole suspect, Liang Tsung-ming (梁崇銘), 33, allegedly repeatedly stabbing his 67-year-old mother with several knives before cutting off her head and throwing it from their 12th-floor apartment into the building’s courtyard.
“Liang’s urine tested positive for amphetamines. He also has prior convictions for drug offenses and other crimes,” Jhongli Police Precinct deputy chief Fan Yuang-cheng (范源正) said. “We believe that Liang developed psychotic and emotional problems due to long-term use of narcotic drugs, which resulted in the murder.”
Photo: Hsu Cho-hsun, Taipei Times
Prosecutors and coroners investigated the family residence and examined the woman’s body at the scene, recovering a machete, a long-blade knife for slicing watermelons and two kitchen knives, all of which had blood on them.
Neighbors said they were startled by violent sounds coming from the apartment and were shocked to see a human head being thrown out.
They said they called the police as a man tossed home appliances, an air conditioner and other objects into the courtyard.
One neighbor said that Liang had been unemployed and living at home.
He drank at times and frequently asked his mother for money, allegedly to buy drugs, the neighbor said.
Among the items recovered from the courtyard and apartment were receipts and notebooks in which someone had written that they wanted to get rich and wished to own 10,000 gold ingots, in what appeared to be Liang’s handwriting, Fan said.
Police said it pointed to money, perhaps for drugs, possibly being a motive in the matricide.
Police records showed that Liang had a number of criminal convictions and was imprisoned three times as an adult.
When he was 18, he was convicted on fraud charges, and he later served two more jail sentences for working as a money collector for different telecoms scams and criminal rings, the records showed.
He was charged with possession of illegal drugs in 2013, when police raided a motel party and he tested positive for ketamine and amphetamines.
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