Jealous husband kills wife’s Facebook friend

A jealous Taiwanese husband led an assault on a Facebook user who had flirted with his wife online, beating him to death with baseball clubs, police said Monday. 

Chou You-huang, a 34-year-old resident of south Taiwan’s Pingtung county, told police that he had requested a meeting with the 40-year-old victim, Chuang Shih-chang, after he found out about the online relationship. 

 When Chuang turned up at the agreed spot outside a restaurant early Saturday morning, Chou and two of his friends attacked him with baseball bats, according to police. 

 The three men beat him ferociously and then left him there, believing he had not suffered life-threatening injuries, according to police statements. Chuang was discovered dead shortly afterwards. Police subsequently arrested the three allegedly involved in the assault.

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Even while I'm dying, I still want Facebook': Taiwanese woman, 31, kills herself live online on Facebook

Friends of a Taiwanese woman pleaded with her not to kill herself as she chatted to them live on Facebook, giving them a running commentary of her own suicide.

But not one of them alerted the authorities as Claire Lin, 31, told them she was inhaling poisonous fumes.

Police in Taipei said her final Facebook entries show her chatting with nine friends, describing her gradual asphyxiation.

One picture posted from her mobile phone shows a charcoal barbecue burning next to two stuffed animals. Another shows the room filled with fumes.

Police officer Hsieh Ku-ming said today that Miss Lin took her own life on her birthday, March 18. Family members reported the suicide soon after her death but were unaware of the online conversations that accompanied it.

One friend, identified as Chung Hsin, told Miss Lin: 'Be calm, open the window, put out the charcoal fire, please, I beg you.'

She replied: 'The fumes are suffocating. They fill my eyes with tears. Don't write me anymore.'

Her last words, written in Chinese, were: 'Too late. My room is filled with fumes. I just posted another picture. Even while I'm dying, I still want FB [Facebook]. Must be FB poison. Haha.'

Miss Lin's chilling messages indicated she was unhappy because her boyfriend was ignoring her, and had failed to return home to be with her on her birthday. He found her body the following morning and alerted her family.

Mr Hsieh said he regretted that none of Miss Lin's friends called the police for help during the 67-minute episode.

But he added: 'It could be true that it would be hard to track down a Facebook friend without her address or phone contact.'

Chai Ben-rei, a sociologist at Taiwan's Feng Chia University, said the incident reflected social isolation in the internet age.

'People may have doubts about what they see on the internet because of its virtual nature, and fail to take action on it,' he said.

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