Taroko Park remains identified as tourist missing since April 3 quake

Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) Skeletal remains found earlier this month in Taroko National Park have been identified as those of a foreign tourist who went missing with his wife after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Hualien on April 3 last year.

According to police statements at the time, the man, Sim Hwee Kok, and his wife, Neo Siew Choo, were Singaporean-Australians in their 40s who had traveled to the Hualien area as tourists.

They were last seen exiting a tour bus at the entry to Shakadang Trail in Taroko Park less than an hour before the quake on April 3, likely putting them near the trail's Wujianwu section, around 1.5 kilometers from the entrance, when the earthquake struck, authorities said.

Due to the extensive damage to the trail, multiple searches by Hualien police failed to locate the couple, and in December 2024, the Hualien District Court issued death certificates for the couple following requests by their family members.

In a statement Sunday, the Hualien County Police Bureau said a farmer had reported finding suspected human bones in a riverbed near Wujianwu on Jan. 11.

After hiking four hours into the area to retrieve the remains, authorities compared the DNA from a hip bone to samples they had collected from the missing couple's family members, allowing them to identify the bone as Sim's, the police bureau said.

Although much of the trail area was buried by landslides during the earthquake, typhoon rains later that year may have washed the remains into the riverbed, the police bureau said.

Despite searches of the surrounding area, no other human remains, including those of Sim's wife, were found, the bureau said.

The magnitude 7.2 Hualien earthquake struck at 7:58 a.m. on April 3, 2024, killing 18 people and injuring over 1,100. It was Taiwan's largest earthquake since 1999.