A single mother living in Taoyuan was indicted on Monday for starving her baby daughter to death in a case dating backing to 2016, according to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office.
The woman in her 20s, identified by her surname Wang (王), was charged with impairing the development of a minor and abandonment resulting in death, both in violation of the Criminal Code, the office said in a press release.
According to a statement giving to prosecutors by the woman, she said she took separate three-day trips in October and November 2016, leaving her daughter at home alone both times.
When Wang returned home after the November trip, she found that her young child had stopped breathing and that she could not revive her, prosecutors said, based on her statement.
Wang later disposed of the little girl’s body on her own without reporting the incident to related authorities, who have yet to locate it, prosecutors said.
It was not until 2020, when a hospital discovered that the girl had not received her required vaccines for several years and it could not get in touch with the family, that anybody in a position of authority realized something was amiss.
The hospital reported the situation to the Taoyuan health bureau, which passed the information to the Luzhu precinct of the Taoyuan police department.
After taking on the case from police and launching a detailed investigation in 2020, prosecutors found that Wang should be held responsible because she was reluctant to take care of the one-year-old child that she gave birth to in October 2015.
Wang had remained silent on what happened since first being questioned by police. It was not until recently that prosecutors, armed with evidence they had uncovered in pursuing the case, were able to get her to tell them what happened, prosecutors said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel