As the investigation into the murder of a young Hong Kong woman who came to Taiwan for a vacation last month continues, police officers yesterday said her autopsy results indicated she might have been strangled.
The body of 20-year-old Poon Hiu-wing (潘曉穎) was recovered yesterday morning from an overgrown field just outside Zhuwei (竹圍) MRT station in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水).
Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested Poon’s boyfriend, 20-year-old Hong Kong college student Chan Tung-kai (陳同佳), media reports said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Poon and Chan arrived in Taiwan on Feb. 8 for a holiday and to spend Valentine’s Day together, Taipei police said.
The couple visited several places and on Feb. 13 checked into the Purple Garden Hotel in Taipei.
Chan checked out of the hotel alone on Feb. 17 and returned to Hong Kong that night, they said.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
Investigators believe the pair got into an argument, and suspect that Chan, in a fit of anger, strangled Poon, stuffed her body inside a pink suitcase and disposed of it outside Zhuwei MRT Station.
Surveillance cameras show Chan towing a pink suitcase on the morning of Feb. 17 and taking the MRT to the station, where police believe he disposed of her body and abandoned the luggage at another location.
Video footage shows Chan returning to the hotel in the evening without the suitcase, and then checking out.
Poon’s parents filed a missing person’s report with Hong Kong authorities.
Hong Kong police found that Chan had used Poon’s bank card to withdraw money on two occasions, on Feb. 17 in Taiwan and on Feb. 20 in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong police have begun negotiations with Taiwanese authorities to transfer Chan to Taipei for investigation.
As Hong Kong and Taiwan do not have an extradition treaty, Hong Kong media have quoted officials as saying that the negotiations might take some time, because a special provisional bill might be needed for an extradition request, which has to be approved by the territory’s Legislative Council.
Police and investigators yesterday went to the hotel where the couple had stayed to search for possible evidence.
Chan has reportedly confessed to Hong Kong police that he killed Poon and has told them where he disposed of her body.
Local media reports said that Poon’s father, who came to Taiwan to ask the police to look for his daughter, was distraught as he was accompanied by officials to a Taipei morgue to see her body and wait for autopsy results.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS