The family of a Malaysian university student who was killed, allegedly by a Taiwanese man, last year is to receive NT$1.8 million (US$56,495) in compensation, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said on Friday.
The Malaysian student, surnamed Chai (蔡), had met the Taiwanese man, Chen Po-yen (陳柏諺), on Instagram and was killed a week after they started dating last year.
Chai’s family sought the compensation with the help of the Association for Victims Support, which provided legal assistance.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
The sum was determined by the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office in accordance with the Crime Victim Protection Act (犯罪被害人保護法) during a conference late last month.
Chai, who was 24 years old at the time of her death, was studying at a university in Taipei.
Her body was found in her apartment on Dadong Road in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) on Oct. 13 last year.
An autopsy performed on Oct. 16 found that Chai died of suffocation, and she also had a broken neck.
Prosecutors said they determined that Chen strangled Chai with his hands, while using a pillow to cover her face.
New Taipei City police on Oct. 13 said they learned of Chai’s death through Chen, who mentioned it while being rushed to a hospital after what police said was a suicide attempt.
When Chen was discharged from the hospital on Oct. 17, he was arrested and held by police for questioning. He later confessed to killing Chai, police said.
He told police it was an accident and that he had only wanted to scare Chai after she refused to give him NT$99,999.
Chai had been working part-time as a model and a livestreamer on social media, police said, adding that the couple met in April last year on Instagram before they started dating on Oct. 7 last year.
Prosecutors later discovered that Chai had told her friends the day before she died that she was having second thoughts about dating Chen.
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