Police have arrested four alleged members of a criminal gang in connection with the death of a teenager in Taichung, where the victim’s body was found covered in burn marks and wounds consistent with torture.
Police said they suspect the victim, Lin Hung-yu (林泓佑), 19, was tortured for more than 10 days, as preliminary examinations showed he suffered from cuts and burns.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said the gang was made up of people in their teens and early 20s who were allegedly involved in telephone scams.
Prosecutors detained four suspects for questioning yesterday, including a 24-year-old woman surnamed Hsu (許) whom police allege was the ringleader of the gang, along with her 21-year-old brother, a 25-year-old man surnamed Lin (林) and a 19-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳), who was later transferred to the local juvenile court.
Police said the victim allegedly joined the gang with a friend, a 17-year-old surnamed Liao (廖), to work as money collectors.
However, police said that the gang believed the two teenagers did not hand over all the money they collected, pocketing NT$550,000.
Investigators allege the two teenagers were seized by gang members on Sunday last week and taken to Hsu’s residence in Taichung.
For about 10 days, the two teenagers were allegedly beaten and tortured before Liao escaped and went to the police for help.
When police arrived at Hsu’s residence with search warrants on Thursday, they found Lin’s body with burns and more than 100 cuts.
Liao said he and Lin were tortured by gang members, alleging they were beaten with a baseball bat, burned with cigarettes and a blow torch and shot at with a pellet gun.
In the postmortem examination yesterday, police said Lin likely died of asphyxiation, as objects were found in his nose and mouth.
Authorities, who are searching for other gang members, said the suspects will be charged with murder.
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