Man suspected of killing Hualien teacher in church dorm arrested

Taipei, May 18 (CNA) A man the police were targeting after a female junior high school teacher was found killed in her dorm room in Hualien County was arrested at noon Sunday while attempting to commit suicide, local police said.

The police said they arrived just in time to prevent the man, surnamed Liu (劉), from hanging himself in the woods along the coast, and they took him into custody for questioning.

On Saturday, police received at around 4 p.m. a report about the suspected death of a tenant in a rental room in a dormitory of a local church, to which Liu belonged, the Hualien County Police Bureau's Xincheng Precinct said Sunday.

The body was found in the room with contusions around the neck, the police precinct said.

A police task force was then established to investigate the death of the teacher surnamed Tsai (蔡) under the local prosecutors' office, and investigators have been checking surveillance camera footage of the area around the dormitory.

A churchgoer surnamed Wu (吳) said earlier Sunday that several fellow members of the congregation had called the police a day earlier after receiving a message in a LINE chat group stating that "a female teacher was murdered."

Wu said the message was sent from the victim's phone, but the church congregants were unable to locate the teacher.

The police then determined after looking into the relationships the teacher had that Liu had pursued and sexually harassed her, and decided to make him the target of their investigation.

The teacher began living in the church dormitory after reporting for duty at the school in Xincheng Township sometime between August and September last year, according to Wu.

The school's principal told CNA that the teacher had only started working in Hualien last year, describing Tsai as a very dedicated and excellent educator.

Teachers and students at the school will be deeply saddened and heartbroken when they learn of her death, and the school will provide counseling services, the principal said.