Woman charged with murdering infant niece through salt poisoning

[WedgeAntilles]

Woman charged with murdering infant niece through salt poisoning

2013/12/26 20:00:31

Taipei, Dec. 26 (CNA) A New Taipei woman was charged with murder Thursday in the Nov. 15 death of her 3-month-old niece caused by consuming a lethal amount of salt that had been mixed into her baby formula.

The indictment filed by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said that Tsou Ya-ting mixed the salt into the formula repeatedly between September and October, apparently out of spite for her brother-in-law's wife.

Tsou, 33, is alleged to have continued her behavior even after Baby Hsiang-hsiang made hospital visits because the high salt content left her restless and caused a high fever.

The indictment said that following the death of the infant, Tsou wrote a rambling account with unfactual information in an attempt to shift the blame.

Prosecutors said that Tsou wrote she was "diagnosed to die" by a doctor -- a claim that her medical records later proved false -- and had only taken responsibility for poisoning Hsiang-hsiang to "protect a certain someone," without providing further information.

The letter sent to the prosecutor after Tsou was first questioned by the authorities reportedly did not include a confession, nor did it address her motive for the salt poisoning.

The indictment asked for "due punishment" for Tsou, noting however that she was the breadwinner for her two children as her husband has been out of work.

The case will be turned over to the Taipei District Court Friday at the earliest.

Murder charges bring a capital punishment or prison sentence of up to life imprisonment and no less than 10 years behind bars if convicted, according to the Criminal Code.

Tsou's motive was allegedly jealousy of Chen Mei-chen, the victim's mother and the wife of Tsou's brother-in-law.

Chen and her husband, a younger brother in the Shen family, were showered with affection by the family, living in the Shen home while Chen and her family had to live on their own, according to statements Tsou made to prosecutors.

Tsou apparently resented being forced to do chores in the Shen household despite not even living with the family.

She allegedly first mixed about 25 grams of sea salt into Hsiang-hsiang's formula on Sept. 18 -- almost a full month after the baby girl's birth on Aug. 20 -- and put 25 more grams into a second can of baby formula on in early October.

She tainted a third can with the same amount on Oct. 9, after which the infant became agitated and had to be rushed to the hospital again for emergency treatment but was released home, prosecutors said.

After Chen yelled at Tsou's two young children on Oct. 15, an upset Tsou allegedly tossed another handful of sea salt into the third formula can, followed by around 30 grams of refined salt.

After weeks of sustained health problems, Hsiang-hsiang died just five days short of 3 months old on Nov. 15. The cause of death was listed as a high level of sodium in her blood.

Prosecutors and family members initially suspected problems with the formula company, but an inspection of its offices and warehouse in Kaohsiung turned up with no leads.

Following a Nov. 19 autopsy, prosecutors began to look into the victim's family and conducted interviews that eventually led them to single out Tsou.

(By Huang Yi-han, Liu Shih-yi and Lilian Wu)