People should call the 24-hour 1995 hotline if they have suicidal thoughts, police said following two cases involving suicide last month.
On July 11, a couple was found dead at a hotel in Taoyuan in what investigators said were suicides using poison.
That case followed one a day earlier in which a man in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) allegedly stabbed his wife to death before driving to Yangmingshan National Park, where he allegedly strangled his baby son before committing suicide.
Photo: Screen grab from Taiwan Lifeline International’s Facebook page
Police and social workers said that the 24-hour toll-free 1995 Hotline-for-Life should be used if people are experiencing emotional or psychological stress, are unable to cope with problems or are contemplating taking their life.
Alternatively, they can use the “1925” hotline, which is run by health agencies, they said.
Both numbers have counselors who offer support to callers to help them deal with personal problems, they said.
Police said that there was no sign of foul play in the room where the couple’s bodies were found in the poisoning case in Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮).
A half-finished soft drink was found, which investigators said might have been laced with a deadly chemical.
The couple’s two young children, who were in the room, told police that their parents said: “We are very sorry,” before drinking the beverage.
They did not wake up, the children told investigators.
Friends of the couple told police that the husband, surnamed Chou (周), 46, and the wife, surnamed Tai (戴), 42, had intermittent work in Hsinchu City, but had incurred debt of NT$1 million (US$30,592).
The couple had moved to the hotel in Taoyuan in May, where the proprietor offered a room in exchange for cleaning and other work at the establishment, investigators said.
Following the deaths of the parents, Taoyuan social workers have helped the children, ensuring they are attending school and are being taken care of by relatives.
Financial stress likely led to the suicide, friends and relatives told police.
In the Sanchong case, police responded to a call on the night of July 9 and found the wife, surnamed Liu (劉), 43, dead in a bathroom at her home with seven knife wounds.
Officers searched the area and asked neighbors about the husband, Liao Hsuan-yung (廖軒詠), 42, who had been seen taking the couple’s nine-month old away in a car.
Police located the vehicle near a bridge underpass in a mountainous area of Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) and the bodies of Liao and the child.
Investigators said that Liao apparently strangled the infant then killed himself by hanging.
The couple had been getting financial support from their families, as both had lost their jobs at companies in Taipei’s Nangang Software Park, investigators said.
However, family members and friends said that the murder-suicide arose from an argument over Liao’s previous marriage.
Liao’s former wife had contacted him and wanted to patch things up, they said, adding that Liu had discovered the two were communicating on social media.
The investigation continues.
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS