Investigators probing the death of a teenage girl whose body was found in a Taichung hotel room on Monday, yesterday said that more people might have been involved in the case, in addition to the four men who have been listed as suspects.
The 17-year-old, referred to by the alias Hsiao-chen (小珍), spent last weekend partying at several locations, and might have been unconscious when she was carried into a hotel in Fongyuan District (豐原) where her body was discovered by hotel staff on Monday afternoon.
Investigators believe her death was related to the use of recreational drugs in the form of a “narcotic coffee powder” mix.
They said “Hsiao-chen” had gone to several places to party with various groups of people.
When she left home in Tainan on Thursday last week, she told her family she was going to meet friends in Taichung, they said.
She wound up at a “sex and drugs party” with six men at a Taichung motel on Saturday, as she reportedly she had worked for a modeling agency and was hired out as an escort girl, they said.
Prosecutors have questioned six men who allegedly partied with her on Saturday and Sunday, listing four of them — surmaned Ho (何), Chuang (莊), Wu (吳) and Lai (賴) — as suspects and releasing the other two.
They took her by car to the hotel, where video footage showed her being carried into a room, apparently unable to move herself, they said.
Prosecutors said that the four could have contravened provisions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條).
The men’s attorneys have denied that their clients forced sex on the teen.
Ho, Chuang, and Wu reportedly admitted to taking a “narcotic coffee powder” mix and having sex with “Hsiao-chen,” and claimed she had also brought drugs for personal use, prosecutors said.
Lai allegedly admitted to using his cellphone to film the sexual activities, and prosecutors said they have confiscated it.
Prosecutors said they are working to determine if teen died during sex with the men, or from the drugs, and are waiting for an autopsy to confirm the time of her death.
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