He was unable to find her after he was given custody.
When a man with the surname Lai reported that he could not find any records about his missing daughter attending school, the Chiayi County Police Department‘s Shuishang Precinct in Shuishang, Taiwan, became involved in what would be a heartbreaking discovery.
In May 2007, Lai’s wife, Huang, ran away from home, taking the couple’s three-year-old daughter. Even after Lai filed for divorce and gained custody of their child, Huang refused to return her and disappeared shortly after.
Lai’s report came six years later, when no school records could be found for the child who was old enough to be enrolled at that point. Police investigation into the disappearance was complex, but ultimately revealed that Huang had run away with a cousin, Yang, though their whereabouts were unknown.
Eventually, a tip led the police to Huang and Yang’s rental apartment in Southern Taiwan, where they were arrested on drug charges, though there was no sign of Lai’s daughter, who should have been around nine at the time.
Huang confessed that she had fallen out with her husband six years prior, so she ran away to live with Yang, with whom she had developed an incestuous relationship.
According to Huang, the cousin couple lived an unstable life, with little income and no permanent home. These troubles turned into abuse directed at her young daughter, who was beaten repeatedly by Yang.
The child was lethargic and had frequent high fevers, but due to the fear of being exposed, neither Huang nor Yang took her to the hospital. On October 23, 2007, the young girl reportedly called out to her mother before she passed away, after which Huang and Yang discussed how to dispose of her body.
The pair placed her body in a bag and threw it into a stream behind a crematorium, but were shocked to discover it missing after returning a month later to burn incense.
Despite the confession, because the body was not found there was no way to conduct an autopsy to determine guilt. During the trial, Huang placed blame on Yang and was sentenced to a combined three years in prison for abduction, negligent homicide, and body abandonment and ordered to pay 1.57 million yuan (around 257,000 USD at the time) to her ex-husband in restitution.
In Yang’s case, he was arrested and charged, after evading arrest for three years, for an unrelated gun case and the murder of the child, receiving 13 years and ten months in prison.
