Criminal Investigation Bureau officers and Penghu County police yesterday launched an investigation into the death of two people suspected of committing suicide by burning charcoal in their home.
Police said the bodies were those of 25-year-old Chen Yu-han (陳鈺涵) and her 59-year-old father, Chen Chun-hsi (陳春溪), who had sealed their windows and doors with tape, preventing air flow into their house in Penghu.
Chen Yu-han had been part of a group suicide attempt with four other female relatives — her mother, sister, aunt and cousin — on Jan. 6, police said. Four of the women died, with only Chen Yu-han surviving.
Photo: CNA
Police and the fire department yesterday broke into the residence and found charcoal residue and the two bodies, which were in a state of rigor mortis, indicating that some hours had passed since their deaths and the suspected suicide had taken place late the previous night or in the early morning hours.
Bureau investigators said there were indications that it was a planned suicide that had followed the same method used on Jan. 6.
A family member telephoned Chen Yu-han yesterday morning. When she did not answer, the relative asked a friend, surnamed Su (蘇), to check on the family.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
The deaths occurred in the same Magong City (馬公) home as the Jan. 6 group suicide.
Su said she found the door locked and received no response when she knocked.
She called the police and the fire department for help, she said.
The bodies were found in the second-floor rooms, officials said.
Police said that following the Jan. 6 incident, Chen Yu-han had received psychiatric help.
Local government health officials said they had checked on the family at their home in the past few months and had reported that they were both in “stable condition” without signs of abnormal behavior.
Help is freely available on the suicide prevention hotline (08) 0078-8995 and life advice hotline 1995, health authorities said in a statement.
No problem is too big to be solved and there are agencies and health professionals to provide help 24 hours a day, they said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS