Skeletal remains found earlier this month in Taroko National Park have been identified as those of a foreign tourist who went missing with his wife after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Hualien on April 3 last year.
According to police statements at the time, the man, Sim Hwee Kok, and his wife, Neo Siew Choo, were Singaporean-Australians in their 40s who had traveled to the Hualien area as tourists.
They were last seen exiting a tour bus at the entry to Shakadang Trail in Taroko Park less than an hour before the quake on April 3, likely putting them near the trail's Wujianwu section, about 1.5km from the entrance, when the earthquake struck, authorities said.
Photo courtesy of the police
Due to the extensive damage to the trail, multiple searches by Hualien police failed to locate the couple, and last month, the Hualien District Court issued death certificates for the couple following requests by their family members.
In a statement today, the Hualien County Police Bureau said a farmer had reported finding suspected human bones in a riverbed near Wujianwu on Jan. 11.
After hiking four hours into the area to retrieve the remains, authorities compared the DNA from a hip bone to samples they had collected from the missing couple's family members, allowing them to identify the bone as Sim's, the police bureau said.
Although much of the trail area was buried by landslides during the earthquake, typhoon rains later that year may have washed the remains into the riverbed, the bureau said.
Despite searches of the surrounding area, no other human remains, including those of Sim's wife, were found, it said.
The magnitude 7.2 Hualien earthquake struck at 7:58am on April 3 last year, killing 18 people and injuring more than 1,100.
It was Taiwan's largest earthquake since 1999.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS