Kaohsiung resident Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌) was yesterday questioned by police after a Malaysian woman studying at Chang Jung Christian University (CJCU) in Tainan was strangled to death.
Liang, 28, was arrested late on Thursday and police found the woman’s body shortly afterward.
Yesterday afternoon, police escorted him in handcuffs and leg shackles from Tainan’s Gueiren Police Precinct to Kaohsiung’s Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office for further questioning.
Photo: Wu Chung-feng, Taipei Times
Precinct Chief Yang Ching-yu (楊慶裕) said that the woman, surnamed Chung (鍾), was abducted as she walked home from classes at about 8pm on Wednesday.
Liang told police that he abducted Chung, intending to sexually assault her, and eventually drove to a hillside in Kaohsiung’s Alian District (阿蓮) to dump her body.
Chung’s friends reported her missing and Tainan police said that on Thursday, they identified Liang’s vehicle from CCTV footage near the abduction site, tracing the license plate to Liang’s residence in Kaohsiung.
Police said they found bloodstains and a bag of female underwear in Liang’s car.
Yang quoted Liang as saying that he strangled Chung to death by accident.
Liang allegedly said that he ambushed Chung from behind and dragged her to his car with a twine rope around her neck, and only later realized that she was dead.
He then had to find somewhere to put the body, Liang added.
When the police found Chung’s body, it was naked, except for underwear and the twine rope, Yang said.
Liang also confessed to the unsuccessful abduction of another female student in September, Yang said.
Liang told police that he “did not have the necessary tools, and the woman struggled and escaped.”
The woman reported the incident to police, but had not gotten a good look at the perpetrator in the darkness and the case was dropped.
Liang has a previous conviction.
He was convicted of six counts of breaking and entering to steal women’s underwear in 2012 and 2013, but, as it was his first offense, the court sentenced him to six months in prison, which was commutable to a fine.
Yesterday, prosecutors said that Liang could be charged with murder, sexual assault and abandonment of a corpse.
Members of the public yesterday denounced the police, the university and the Tainan government, saying they were doing nothing to improve public safety, despite the earlier report of an abduction attempt at the same site.
Chung was an only daughter, sources said, adding that when she was invited last year by her high school in Sarawak, Malaysia, to share her experiences of studying at CJCU and living in Tainan, she told them: “Taiwan is very safe.”
Chung’s death is suspected to be a random attack by Liang, who had reportedly loitered on the road outside the university, and has tarnished Taiwan’s image in the international community as a “safe country” for visitors.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday demanded that the police and the Ministry of Education swiftly clarify details of the case.
The police and CJCU must make changes, as they were negligent, the party said, urging President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her administration to better safeguard a safe environment for the public.
Additional reporting by Wan Yu-chen and Shih Hsiao-kuang
COMMITMENT: The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said that its new 2nm chips, as well as next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4nm chips, will be produced in Taiwan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025. The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it
PASSAGE DISPUTE: A US and Canadian transit was a provocation and an attempt to ‘exercise hegemony of navigation,’ China’s defense ministry told a forum in Singapore The Ministry of National Defense yesterday urged the Chinese Communist Party to avoid provocative behavior after a Chinese navy ship crossed the paths of a US destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese ship on Saturday “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of [the USS] Chung-Hoon,” an American destroyer, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The vessel “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards [137m]. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 [knots, 18.5kph] to avoid a collision,” the statement said. It then “crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time
HARD-WON FREEDOM: Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protesters has not been and should not be forgotten, as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Lai said Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom and have multiple ways to express their creativity, and hopefully young people in China would also one day have the freedom to sing and express themselves, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing in 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident. Tsai posted a photograph taken in March in a subway station in Guizhou, China, where hundreds of young people gathered to sing People With No Ideals Don’t Get Hurt (沒有理想的人不傷心), saying that they
GUILTY AS CHARGED: Chen Hsueh-sheng repeatedly pressed his belly against a DPP lawmaker and made derogatory remarks when confronted over his behavior The Taipei District Court yesterday upheld a verdict against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生), finding him liable for sexually harassing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) during a physical altercation on the legislative floor in 2020. The DPP lawmaker accused Chen of pressing his belly against her back three times in a sexually suggestive manner during a scuffle between lawmakers from both parties. Chen must pay Fan NT$80,000 in damages as stipulated by a summary ruling of the district court at the first trial, the court said in a news release. The verdict is final as the