Odane Bent, the American suspect in the Aug. 21 murder and dismemberment of Canadian resident Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan, was taken to the location of the crime to help reconstruct the crime scene and clarify details, police said.
Bent confessed to the murder only after Israeli-American resident Oren Mayer, another suspect in the case, was extradited to Taiwan, Criminal Investigation Bureau officials said.
A bureau official, who declined to be named, quoted Bent as saying that he and Mayer had planned to kill Ramgahan because they believed that he had become a police informant, as people who bought cannabis from him were later arrested.
He quoted Bent as saying that they called up Ramaghan to buy cannabis, proposing to meet at their usual spot in the riverside park by the Sindian River (新店溪) in New Taipei’s Yonghe District (永和).
They rode there on YouBikes, Bent was quoted as saying.
They had a casual conversation and went to the embankment, where they drank beer, Bent was quoted as saying, adding that when Ramgahan became tipsy, Mayer took out a wire saw and strangled Ramgahan, after which they cut his limbs off with machetes, put them in plastic bags and threw them into the river.
The official said that when Bent was taken to the location where the body was found, he quivered and broke down in tears.
“Please don’t make me to go back and recall such a horrible event,” the official quoted the suspect as saying.
Investigators said they plan to submit the third suspect, Taiwanese-Canadian Wu Hsuan (吳宣), to a polygraph test.
Wu might have known of the murder beforehand, as he allegedly bought the two machetes at Mayer’s request, they said.
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