Three people were found dead on Sunday in a rented vehicle in Taichung, in what police suspected was an apparent suicide.
Police said that there was no obvious link between the three people — a woman and two men — and their families are not aware of any relationship between them.
The woman, 29, was from Kaohsiung, while the two men, 28 and 25, were from Changhua and Taichung, police said.
The vehicle was spotted by a soldier at 1:54pm near a military camp, on a backroad in Guguan (谷關) mountains in Heping District (和平).
Police said that they when they arrived on the scene, they found the woman dead in the driver’s seat, holding a suicide note, and one of the men in the back seat was also lifeless.
The other man in the back seat showed signs of life, but died shortly afterward at a hospital, police said.
It was evident that charcoal had been burnt in the vehicle, police said, adding it was not clear why the three people might have committed suicide.
In the suicide note, the woman said she was “under a lot of stress” and could not take it any longer, and mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic dragging on, police said.
After a background check, Taichung police identified the woman, surnamed Lin (林), and the two men as Huang (黃) and Chang (張), who was a squadron captain at the Taipei Traffic Police Corps.
Chang’s colleagues were shocked on hearing the news, saying that Chang had good interaction at work, and that they had not seen any unusual signs in the past few weeks.
One officer said Chang had said he was having health problems and filed for several months’ leave.
Huang’s mother was quoted by police as saying that he had a mental illness and had been unemployed.
Lin’s mother said that Lin had given birth to a baby girl in October last year and that she had attempted to take her own life four years ago because of a mental condition.
A preliminary investigation by police showed that the three first linked up on an online chat site and later started a Line group where they chatted regularly, talking about their unhappiness, pessimistic outlook and having negative thoughts.
That could have led to a suicide pact, police said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
RSS