A man the police were investigating after a female junior-high school teacher was found dead in her dorm room in Hualien County was arrested at noon yesterday while attempting to commit suicide, local police said.
The police said they arrived just in time to prevent the man, surnamed Liu (劉), from hanging himself in the woods along the coast, and took him into custody for questioning.
Police on Saturday at about 4pm received a report of the suspected death of a tenant in a rental room in a dormitory of a local church, to which Liu belonged, the Hualien County Police Bureau’s Sincheng Precinct said yesterday.
Photo: CNA
The body was found in the room with contusions around the neck, the precinct said.
A police task force was then established by the local prosecutors’ office to investigate the death of the teacher, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and investigators began checking surveillance camera footage of the area around the dormitory.
A churchgoer, surnamed Wu (吳), said earlier yesterday that several members of the congregation had called the police a day earlier after receiving a message in a Line chat group stating that “a female teacher was murdered.”
Wu said the message was sent from the victim’s phone, but the church congregants were unable to locate the teacher.
After looking into the relationships the teacher had, the police found that Liu had allegedly pursued and sexually harassed her, and decided to make him the target of their investigation.
The teacher began living in the church dormitory after reporting for duty at the school in Sincheng Township (新城) some time in August or September last year, Wu said.
The school’s principal said the teacher had only started working in Hualien last year, describing Tsai as a very dedicated and excellent educator.
Teachers and students at the school will be deeply saddened and heartbroken when they learn of her death, and the school would provide counseling services, the principal said.
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