Prosecutors seek to hold five for kidnapping, murder

The Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday filed a motion with the Yunlin District Court to detain four Vietnamese migrant workers and a Taiwanese national over the alleged kidnapping and possible murder of Vietnamese national.

The filing came after the five people were arrested on Wednesday for their suspected involvement in the kidnapping and death of a 24-year-old Vietnamese worker, surnamed Vu, who was employed in Taoyuan.

Prosecutors said that they were concerned that if the suspects were released, they would pose a flight risk and coordinate their testimony.

Yunlin Distrcit Prosecutor Chu Chi-jen (朱啟仁) said that his office was made aware of the case by the Taoyuan Police Department’s Jhongli Precinct on Tuesday.

A special task force made up of multiple police departments and the National Immigration Agency initiated an investigation, Chu said, narrowing the list of suspects to four Vietnamese migrant workers and a Taiwanese national.

Led by Yunlin District Prosecutor Yan Li-jing (顏鸝靚), the task force searched the premises occupied by the suspects on Wednesday and arrested three Vietnamese men identified only by their surnames, Le, Hoang and Vu-Duy, Chu said.

It also brought in a Vietnamese woman named Nguyen, and a Taiwanese man surnamed Hsu (許).

In a statement, prosecutors said Le and Nguyen were a couple, and they allegedly began planning to hold Vu for ransom as early as last month after Nguyen became acquainted with the victim online.

Once the couple gained information on Vu’s family finances, they devised a plan to have Nguyen persuade Vu to travel from Taoyuan to Douliou City (斗六) in Yunlin County.

When Vu showed up, Le and the others allegedly forced him into a vehicle and held him against his will in a factory dormitory somewhere in the county’s Sihhu Township (四湖), prosecutors said.

The suspects then allegedly called Vu’s father in Vietnam via video to demand a ransom of 200 million dong (US$7,988).

However, after the elder Vu wired the money, the suspects continued to hold the victim in a motel, intending to extort more money from Vu’s family, prosecutors said.

Investigators found that while captive, Vu had tissue paper stuffed into his mouth and tape wrapped around his eyes, mouth and nose to prevent him from calling for help.

Vu eventually died, which might have been caused by his treatment, the task force said, which prompted the suspects to bury his body on a Baojhong Township (褒忠) sugarcane farm, prosecutors said.

On Thursday, the task force took the suspects to the sugarcane farm where the decomposing corpse was found, prosecutors said.

Fingerprint matching showed that the deceased was Vu, and an autopsy confirmed Vu’s cause of death.

Prosecutors said they believe the five suspects kidnapped Vu for ransom, which violates Article 3481 of Taiwan’s Criminal Code.