The Supreme Court on Monday upheld 14-year prison sentences that were handed down to three people who were last year found guilty of in 1998 murdering a teenage girl in Taoyuan.
The Supreme Court upheld the High Court sentences of Pan Tzu-chien (潘子鑑), Chen Yu-shih (陳諭詩) and a woman identified only by her family name, Chen (陳), who was initially tried in a juvenile court because she was a minor at the time of the murder in December 1998.
The sentences are final and cannot be appealed.
The High Court last year sentenced Pan, 42, and Chen Yu-shih, 43, to 14 years and six months in prison each, citing the cruelty of the crime, and sentenced the younger Chen, 38, to 14 years and two months in prison.
The murder of the 17-year-old girl, surnamed Lin (林), also involved a fourth suspect, a man surnamed Wu (吳), who investigators said has fled abroad and is listed as wanted.
At the time of the murder, Lin was an employee at Pan’s betel nut stand in Taoyuan.
Court filings showed that Pan, at the time completing his mandatory military service, suspected that Lin was stealing from his business and that she would likely report his drug addiction to the military.
The Supreme Court said Pan had been caught several times taking leave from the military without permission and returning late to his barracks.
He decided to “teach her a lesson,” the court filings showed.
Pan and his girlfriend, Chen Yu-shih, and their friends Wu and the younger Chen tortured Lin to death and used gasoline to burn her body to cover up the crime, the Supreme Court said.
Remains of a human suspected to be Lin were were found in a bush near Taoyuan’s Pingjhen Road later that month, but were too charred to be identified, the court said.
Investigators in 2019 received a tip-off that enabled them to link the victim to the four culprits, who were then charged with murder, it said.
DNA samples of the body showed that she was related to Lin’s family, it said.
Local media reported that Lin had run away from home, and court documents did not mention her family’s reaction to the verdicts.
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