Police refer tech worker over Thai woman’s death

• By Liu Ching-hou and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

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The Taipei City Police Department’s Wanhua Precinct yesterday concluded an investigation into the alleged killing of a 36-year-old Thai woman and identified a 43-year-old Taiwanese man surnamed Wu (吳) as the suspect, and referred the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.

According to the investigation, Wu, who works for a tech company in Taichung, met the woman, known as Arth, while traveling in Thailand.

The two maintained a long-distance relationship, with each occasionally traveling to the other’s country to visit, police said.

The Wanhua Precinct Station is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: Taipei Times

The couple’s relationship was foundering, and Arth flew to Taiwan on Sept. 2 to end the relationship, police said the investigation had found.

She raised the matter while the two were at the hotel where she was staying, after which she was not seen or heard from, police said.

Arth was scheduled to leave Taiwan on Monday, but her family was unable to contact her, and she did not return home, police said, adding that her family asked friends in Taiwan to report her missing to police.

Police said they reviewed video footage and found that Arth checked into a hotel near Ximending (西門町), while Wu visited her late on Sept. 12 and left in the early hours of Sept. 13 carrying a large suitcase.

The suitcase aroused suspicion, as large suitcases have been used to transport bodies in other homicide cases, police said.

Police detained Wu on Friday on suspicion of criminal activity. During questioning, Wu allegedly told police that he lost his temper after Arth ended their relationship and strangled her, police said.

The police said that Wu told them that because he works in administrative and logistics operations for a tech company in Taichung, he was able to hide her body in a freezer rented by the company.

Wanhua precinct officers took Wu to the company’s office in Taichung early yesterday morning and recovered Arth’s body from the freezer. After a forensic pathologist from the prosecutors’ office conducted an autopsy, police returned Wu to Taipei yesterday afternoon, remanding him to the prosecutors’ office on homicide charges.