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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS