A teenager and a 31-year-old man were found dead in a hotel room in Taitung County on Friday last week, police said.
The police investigation indicated that the 15-year-old junior-high school student surnamed Chang (張) was in a romantic relationship with the man, surnamed Hsu (徐).
Their “fatal attraction” resulted in the doomed couple carrying out a suicide pact, police said.
Chang and Hsu met online.
Instead of attending school on Thursday, the 15-year old skipped class to meet Hsu at a nearby convenience store.
Hsu drove them in his car to a hotel in Taitung County’s Jhihpeng Township (知本).
They committed suicide by burning charcoal in the sealed room.
Chang left diary entries telling of her love for Hsu starting on April 25.
She wrote that her parents were against the relationship.
“I don’t want to be torn apart,” she wrote, adding: “We shall die together, that ought to give us happiness.”
After receiving a call from the hotel, police arrived on the scene to find the room filled with charcoal smoke, where they found Chang and Hsu dead on the bed.
Several bags of charcoal and a lighter were left on the balcony. Police also found the girl’s school bag containing textbooks and her diary.
Hsu is suspected of using illegal drugs, as a small plate with a white powder that police identified as ketamine residue was found.
Ho Cheng-yu (何振宇), secretary-general of Taiwan Lifeline International, urged parents to spend at least half an hour every day talking to their children to show concern for their schoolwork and daily lives to prevent such tragedies.
“If your child begins a relationship with an online friend, parents should provide positive guidance instead of acting out of fear and trying to stop it, because that will only discourage children from communicating openly,” he said.
“An adult making an underage teenager commit suicide is wrong. The adult has to bear most of the responsibility in such cases,” Ho said.
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