A married couple was found dead in their bed in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲) on Thursday last week, while their four-month-old daughter was in the next room.
As there were no signs of a struggle at the scene and neither of the 21-year-olds showed obvious external injuries, the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said autopsies would be conducted on Thursday to determine the cause of death.
The Taichung Social Affairs Bureau said the couple had been classified as high-risk and were scheduled to meet with a social worker on Monday last week to have their daughter vaccinated, but they failed to show up and could not be reached by phone.
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
The social worker tried to contact them and, using surveillance footage from cameras in the apartment building where they lived, discovered that they had not left their home for three days.
The social worker reported the incident to the police, who went to the home with the borough warden and firefighters at about 7pm on Thursday last week, finding them both dead in bed.
The couple’s daughter was found lying on the floor in the next room and rushed to a hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, police said.
Forensic expert Kao Ta-cheng (高大成) on Saturday said that infants generally cannot survive more than two days without food or water, so the couple likely died no more than two days earlier, adding that they might have fed their daughter before they died.
Sources said the couple moved from New Taipei City to Wuci earlier this month, with the father doing odd jobs and the mother staying at home to care for their daughter.
Some speculated that difficulty finding work and financial hardship might have contributed to the incident.
Raising a child is especially hard for young couples facing financial difficulties, North Taichung Family Support Center director Peng Li-chen (彭麗真) said, urging struggling families to seek assistance through Taiwan’s 1957 welfare hotline.
Additional reporting by Tsai Shu-yuan
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