Couple detained after death of two-year-old

A Kaohsiung court on Saturday approved a request by prosecutors to detain a couple in incommunicado on suspicion of fatally abusing their two-year-old daughter.

The Kaohsiung City Fire Department said it responded to a call for an ambulance at the family’s Sanmin District (三民) home at 8:28pm on Thursday, and arrived to find a child in sudden cardiac arrest.

The girl was later pronounced dead, and the case was transferred to prosecutors to investigate.

A doorplate at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times

The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ office yesterday said it conducted an examination and autopsy on the child on Friday to establish whether a crime had been committed.

In addition to the child’s death, a one-year-old boy was found to have likely been abused, prosecutors said.

On Saturday, prosecutors questioned the father, surnamed Hsiung (熊), and the mother, surnamed Deng (鄧), and determined that both had likely intentionally harmed a child, impeding the development of a child younger than seven.

Hsiung is also suspected of drug use, prosecutors said.

As of yesterday, the one-year-old boy remained in hospital under observation, while another sister, who is younger than seven years old, was placed in protective care, prosecutors said.