Taichung authorities said Tuesday that autopsies conducted on the bodies of two small children, who police suspect were murdered on Feb. 13 by their father, found that they had both suffered physical trauma.

Medical examiners found that one of the children, a 2.5-year-old boy, had a stab wound in his neck, while his 18-month-old brother appeared to have been strangled, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office said.

The findings will be passed on to the Institute of Forensic Medicine to determine the exact cause of death, prosecutors said.

According to the prosecutors office, the children’s father, a 25-year-old Air Force mechanic identified only by the surname Hsiao (?), was the main suspect in the case and is currently in intensive care following an apparent suicide attempt.

The bodies of the two children were found Sunday morning, when paramedics rushed to an apartment building in Taichung’s Tanzi District, where a man reportedly had fallen from the roof.

While Hsiao was being rushed to a nearby hospital, local police went to his home on the third floor of the building and they found the two children on a bed, covered with a bloodstained sheet.

Investigators later found a suicide note, believed to have been written by Hsiao, and a knife that they think was the murder weapon used on the older child.

In the note, the writer said he had refused to sign divorce papers and would leave his family quietly.

According to local media, Hsiao’s wife surnamed Liu (?) had asked in December to end the marriage after years of quarrels.

Police said the latest quarrel between the couple took place at their home in Tanzi in the early hours of Sunday.

Liu left the apartment after the fight with her husband, and he allegedly murdered the two small children then jumped from the roof of the building in an apparent suicide attempt, police said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel