Viral infection, not poisoning cause Tainan student's death: Autopsy

Taipei, April 24 (CNA) An autopsy conducted on a 13-year-old boy who died in February amid allegations of school bullying found no signs that he was poisoned, concluding instead that he died from complications related to a viral infection, Tainan prosecutors said Thursday.

In a statement, the Tainan District Prosecutors Office said an autopsy and toxicology report by the Ministry of Justice's Institute of Forensic Medicine found no traces of drugs or toxins in samples of the boy's hair, blood and urine.

The boy's cause of death was determined to be myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, and heart failure, which were caused by a viral infection, prosecutors said.

The autopsy results were presented to the boy's family, which requested further investigation, the office said, adding that it would put its "full efforts" into probing whether any illegal activities took place.

Meanwhile, the Tainan Bureau of Education said in a separate statement Thursday evening that an outside investigation into the case found no evidence that the boy had been bullied.

The probe, which was conducted by a committee of special education teachers, psychologists and lawyers and based on relevant evidence and witness interviews, was completed on April 8 and distributed to students' parents on April 14, the bureau said.

The case in question came to light on Feb. 27, after the boy's mother posted on Facebook that her son, a seventh-grader at Houbi Junior High School surnamed Lin (林), had died on Feb. 24.

She said a subsequent blood test conducted by a hospital had found "signs of poisoning from a toxic substance."

The mother also claimed that some students had said her son was bullied for a long time and even taken to the restroom by other classmates who allegedly force-fed him drug-laced coffee powder.

In a separate social media post the same day, the school's principal said the student had not attended school since Feb. 20 due to being unwell, and that he only later learned from the boy's parents that he had died at the hospital.

In its statement Thursday, the Education Bureau said that with permission from their parents, all 164 students at the school were tested for drugs on March 10, and that the results had all come back negative.