Life term for ‘pickled head’ sister murder
Print Edition
Taiwan’s top court yesterday upheld a life sentence handed down to a man who murdered his sister and pickled her head.
Chen Chia-fu, 39, was arrested and later indicted on suspicion of murdering and dismembering his sister in 2012 for an insurance payout of around US$200,000. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, saying that Chen showed no remorse.
A district court in 2014 sentenced him to life in prison on the grounds that he had no prior criminal record and grew up in an “abnormal” family with a history of violence and mental disorders.
Both prosecutors and Chen, who had pleaded not guilty, appealed to the high court, and then the top court, which both maintained the previous sentencing.
“The court rejected the appeal due to insufficient reason for the defendant’s claim of a lack of evidence to convict him of murder,” the supreme court said in a statement, adding that it also disagreed with prosecutors’ request for a death sentence.
The case came to light in March 2013 after police in southern Chiayi county received a note claiming that the body of the woman, missing since December 2012, was in a public toilet near a temple. It also asked for a “proper burial” for her.
The note, which led to the discovery of her head, became critical evidence as the writing matched Chen’s, prosecutors said. The rest of the body has yet to be located.
Police suspected Chen of taking a train from Taipei, where the siblings lived, to southern Taiwan possibly to dispose of her head.
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