A 43-year-old man surnamed Wu killed his Thai girlfriend in a hotel in Taipei’s Ximending district before hauling her body halfway across Taiwan to hide it in a freezer.
The tragic murder started with a relationship dispute inside the hotel room. Wu strangled the woman, stuffed her body into a large suitcase, and transported it all the way back to his workplace in Taichung, where he hid it inside a freezer. On the night of the 18th, Taipei’s Wanhua Police Precinct received a report about a missing foreign woman. As officers pieced the trail together, Wu’s erratic timeline and movements raised immediate red flags, prompting Taipei police to coordinate with Taichung prosecutors for an urgent joint search.
Law enforcement raided the Taichung location around 1:30 AM today, finding the freezer and recovering the woman’s body. Forensic specialists from Taipei worked alongside local Taichung police through the night, reviewing CCTV footage and clearing the scene. Preliminary checks show she died from strangulation, with an autopsy scheduled for next week to confirm the exact cause of death. Wu was transferred to the prosecutors' office this afternoon. Citing strong evidence of murder, as well as a high risk that he might flee or destroy evidence, prosecutors have asked the court to detain him in custody.
Sitting at a roadside tea stall after work this evening, almost everyone was looking at the same news on their phones. Out here, you see so many migrant women who leave everything behind just to earn a living, squeezing into tiny rented rooms, pulling late shifts, and riding motorbikes through the cold wind every day. Life is already hard enough. For two people to try building a life together only for it to end in such a brutal tragedy—it leaves everyone in the neighborhood just shaking their heads.
