A second-year student from Providence University who went missing at the end of last month has been found in Myanmar, and has said that she does not wish to return to Taiwan, police said yesterday.
The student, surnamed Lin (林), was en route to London on March 30 when she boarded a plane for Yangon, Myanmar, during a stopover in Thailand, police said.
Lin’s parents had initially reported her disappearance to police after she failed to arrive in London and failed to contact them, police said.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public
After tracking Lin down in Myanmar, police said she told them that she had gone to meet her boyfriend, who she had met online, and that she was not being held against her will and did not wish to return to Taiwan.
Police said Lin’s boyfriend, a Taiwanese man, was suspected of being involved in fraudulent activity in Myanmar.
Lin told police she was engaged in “administrative work” in the country and had no desire to return to university, and she agreed to a request from police that she contact her family in Taiwan to explain the situation to them.
Lin was found in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in northern Myanmar, which borders China’s Yunnan Province, police said, adding that she was working for a company registered to a Chinese national in an industrial park in the area.
“We have ruled out any involvement by human traffickers, and can confirm that Lin is there by her own volition,” police said.
After Lin’s disappearance was first reported, the organization that her boyfriend allegedly works for posted pictures and short video clips online of her with members of the organization at a karaoke bar, police said.
“She appears very shy in the video clips, but there are no signs of distress, and no signs that she is being held against her will,” police said.
Police said they created several opportunities for Lin to indicate if she was in danger or wanted to leave, but she clearly indicated each time that she wanted to stay.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS