Wu Chen-chi (吳振吉), father of Wu Hsiao-hui (吳曉蕙) -- a primary school teacher who was murdered in 1994 -- said yesterday that he could not bring himself to forgive the two suspects in the case, arrested Wednesday, despite public expressions of remorse by the suspects' parents.
"I am pleased to hear that the parents of the suspects are able to distinguish right from wrong," said Wu, the victim's father and director of the Keelung City Police Headquarters. "But they deliberately used mud and sand to suffocate her. That I can not forgive."
The two suspects, Huang Chi-feng (
PHOTO: CHU YU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
The Criminal Investigation Bureau under the National Police Administration said at a press conference on Wednesday that the two suspects had confessed to the crimes. Huang was 15 years old and Wang was 11 at the time of the murder.
Yesterday morning, Huang's father called a press conference to apologize to the public and to Wu's family for "the crime my son committed."
Wang's parents also told local media on Friday that if it is proven that their son was involved in the murder, they would apologize.
But, Wu said he could not bring himself to forgive the suspects.
"The way the two murderers killed my daughter was so brutal that even after eight years, I have not gotten over what they did," he said.
"If they had killed my daughter unintentionally, I think I could forgive them someday. However, they strangled her and covered her face with sand and mud while she was still breathing."
Wu made the remarks at a press conference organized by the Peng Wan-Ru Foundation (彭婉如文教基金會). The conference was held to urge the establishment of a national fingerprint databank and to promote community care centers to prevent youngsters from committing crimes.
At the press conference, Wu stressed the importance of establishing a national fingerprint databank, citing the only evidence the police investigating his daughter's case had was a fingerprint found on her car.
However, since both Huang and Wang did not have any criminal record, the police failed to find them through a fingerprint match-up.
With a database, Wu said, the matching of the fingerprints would be easier and the police investigation would be much more efficient.
"Some human rights groups are against the idea [of building up a national fingerprint databank]. Although I also uphold the human rights, I believe that women's personal safety is even more important," he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it