Police make arrest after discovery of body in northern Taiwan
The aunt of a Thai woman found dead on a hill in Taiwan suspects she was murdered by her employer following a dispute.
The victim, named only as Sutthida, 31, was found with stab wounds to the hands and feet near Ta Wulun, overlooking the northern city of Keelung.
The aunt, identified as Duangporn, believes Sutthida was taken to the scene by the Thai wife of her Taiwanese employer on Saturday night.
Duangporn said Sutthida had called by phone earlier that day to say her employer had asked her to go up the hill to pick vegetables at 8pm on Saturday.
On the following day, Duangporn said she received a phone call from Sutthida’s Thai boyfriend, who also works in Taiwan, to say she had been found dead on the hill.
The Thai wife of Sutthida’s employer, a naturalised Taiwanese named only as Mrs Lin, has been arrested by police on suspicion of murder, according to the local United Daily News website.
Duangporn said Sutthida was a single mother with two sons, aged four and 14.
She said Sutthida travelled to Taiwan to work as a massage practitioner in April 2023 before overstaying her visa.
Sutthida had recently changed jobs to work as a maid for a Taiwanese man with a Thai wife from Lampang, she added.
Duangporn said that on the night she died, Sutthida had quarrelled with her employer about being overworked and denied dinner.
Sutthida’s mother, Pong-ampai, said she did not believe her daughter had committed suicide by jumping off the peak, as Taiwanese police initially suspected.
The mother said Sutthida loved her sons too much to take her own life.
