Police yesterday for a second time searched the home of the sole suspect in an execution-style killing of four people at Kang Jian Biotech Co in Nantou County’s Caotun Township (草屯) on Thursday.
On the second day of questioning, Lee Hung-yuan (李鴻淵) still did not reveal where and from whom he had obtained the firearm allegedly used in the killing, prosecutors said.
Investigators seized several boxes full of items at his home in the township’s Shuangdong Borough (雙冬里) and questioned his wife, neighbors said.
Photo: CNA
Lee, 55, is accused of shooting five people in the head at his former employer, a developer of mushroom and fungus ingredients for traditional Chinese medicines. Of those shot, only one survived, Kang Jian founder Lai Min-nan (賴敏男). He remained in critical condidition with a bullet lodged in his skull at press time last night.
The four people killed were identified as Lai’s daughter; his younger brother, Lai Chih-ching (賴鋕卿); a section head surnamed Liu (劉); and an accountant surnamed Chang (張).
Prosecutors said that Lee fled the scene of the crime by scooter and returned home, where he left his mobile phone and a modified T75 handgun, believed to be the murder weapon.
He then left for Taichung, where he was arrested at a spa and massage parlor on Friday, 21 hours after the killing, prosecutors said.
Police tracked his phone and searched his home ahead of his arrest, they said.
A Nantou District Court judge denied bail, citing the serious nature of the crime and saying that Lee might attempt to flee and collude with other people potentially involved in the shooting.
The court granted bail of NT$50,000 for the manager of the massage parlor, a friend of Lee surnamed Lai (賴).
The friend is suspected of helping Lee hide, prosecutors said.
Lee allegedly had a dispute with a supervisor at Kang Jian eight years ago, and prosecutors suspect that he held grudges against the firm ever since he left.
Family members of the Kang Jian founder told reporters that they cannot accept the killing and demanded the death penalty for Lee, calling him an inhumane killer and the shooting a heinous crime.
The son-in-law of Lai Chih-ching, surnamed Chen (陳), and other family members told investigators that they believed a person with some connection to organized crime had paid Lee to carry out the shooting, saying that a business rival might seek to harm the company.
Chen said Lee had not had a steady job over the past few years, calling into question whether Lee himself paid for the three handguns and 179 bullets he allegedly had.
“Lee does not have the money for these firearms. Someone else must have supplied him and paid for a contract killing,” Chen said.
His family “strongly believes that a rival businessperson or a criminal group was behind the killing,” he said, adding that Lee might have been chosen as the shooter because he had a motive.
Lee allegedly shouted during his arrest that it was a “revenge killing.”
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