Police are looking for a man surnamed Su (蘇) in connection with the execution-style killing of two men in Taoyuan believed to be connected to a money dispute.
Police yesterday said that preliminary findings pointed to Su, 36, who has a previous conviction for property damage.
There are likely to be accomplices in the killings, which took place on Thursday night, police added.
The bodies of two men, surnamed Yang (楊), 28, and Chen (陳), 27, were found in an apartment suite on Taoyuan’s Zhonghua Road, police officials said.
Each had a bullet wound in the head and likely were shot at close range, they said.
Su was identified from surveillance camera footage, which showed him walking up stairs to meet Yang and Chen in the apartment, police said, adding that three other people — who reported the killings — were in the room when Su arrived.
He entered and departed the building alone carrying what might have been a handgun in a plastic bag, police said.
Su apparently knew Yang and Chen, as telephone records showed he had called them to arrange a meeting on Thursday evening, police said, adding that he told the three other people in the room to leave.
When the three people returned after a few hours, they found the bodies and called the police.
Preliminary findings indicated that Su was a hired by gangsters to kill Yang and Chen over suspicion that they pocketed money from a fraud operation, police said.
Taoyuan Prosecutor Liu Wei-hung (劉威宏), who is leading the investigation, said that Su likely was hired and had accomplices, as video footage showed he made a phone call as he left the building and was picked up by others in a car.
Police are tracing Su’s contacts and checking his phone records, Liu said.
In other news, family members said they do not believe information released by Cambodian police saying that three Taiwanese men found dead with bullet wounds in an apartment in Phnom Penh were killed in a murder-suicide incident.
Reports from Cambodia said that Phnom Penh police on Sunday found the three bodies, and recovered a Glock 19 pistol and 41 bullets at the apartment.
Taiwanese authorities later said that the three men, surnamed Lin (林), Yeh (葉) and Cheng (程), were from Tainan and had criminal records with involvement in organized crime.
The three men traveled to Cambodia separately this year, with people who knew them saying they worked for telecom scam groups and possibly human trafficking operations.
A man surnamed Hsu (徐), an uncle of one of the three, told reporters he did not believe the information released by the Cambodian police.
“The three were good friends, with Lin seen as the elder brother who took care of them well,” Hsu said. “The other two respected Lin and helped each other to live and work in Cambodia.”
“When they were in Taiwan, they were often together and I never saw them quarreling, so it is not likely that they would fight over a woman then kill themselves,” he said. “They must have opened the door to someone they knew who turned out to be a killer.”
Forensic expert Kao Ta-cheng (高大成) said that the report from the Cambodian police changed several times, with their initial report being a killing due to a dispute over money, likely involving drug trafficking.
Photographs from the scene that were circulated online also indicate that the murder-suicide idea is flawed, Kao said.
“If they were shooting at each other, the bodies would not have fallen the way they are shown,” he said.
“Most suicides are performed in a kneeling position,” he said, adding that there were no signs of fighting in the room.
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