The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted a 37-year-old woman for allegedly scalding her mother to death in a bathtub.
On June 9 last year, the mother, who was in her 70s, was reported dead in the bathroom at home.
While relatives initially thought she had died from a bath-related accident, prosecutors who inspected the body noticed that there was swelling and peeled off skin.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
A forensic report concluded that the mother had second-degree burns over a large part of the lower half of her body, which sent her into cardiogenic shock, leading to her death.
Prosecutors said the daughter, surnamed Pan (潘), who was unemployed, initially denied knowing what happened to her mother, but later allegedly confessed to her involvement after the coroner concluded the autopsy.
Prosecutors quoted Pan as saying that she was upset with her mother for not buying her Golden Ray puppetry discs, adding that she had added cold water to the bathtub and it had not been her intention to hurt her mother.
Police and prosecutors found many A4 sheets of paper pasted around the house and on the bathroom walls blaming Pan’s mother for not keeping her promises to do things for her.
Prosecutors reconstructed the scene based on the water stains in the bathtub and the places where peeling skin had stuck to the bathtub and the edge of the door.
The hot water coming out of the faucet, as well as in the bathtub after being in contact with air, could reach up to 60°C, prosecutors said.
The mother’s severe burns could only have been caused by sitting in the hot water for at least five hours, they said.
Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Pan with intentionally injuring others, resulting in death, stating that Pan, aware that her mother’s sense of temperature in the lower half of her body was impaired due to a stroke, still allegedly demanded her mother to get in the bath and stay there for a long period.
Chi Ching-chi (紀景琪), a doctor at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Department of Dermatology, said that it would usually take water of more than 70°C to inflict second-degree burns.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS