An 18-year-old student surnamed Lai in Taichung, Taiwan, was found dead on 4 May.
Source: Sohu
The high schooler had just inherited millions of dollars from his father, who passed away in late April.
To make matters even more baffling, the boy had allegedly registered his marriage to an escrow assistant managing his father’s properties just two hours before passing away.
Mr Lai had reportedly only met the man twice before they got married.
The authorities are currently investigating his death.
Dubbed the “$500 million high schooler” by the Taiwanese press, Mr Lai recently inherited about 30 of his late father’s properties with a market value of NT$500 million (S$21.9 million).
According to The Straits Times (ST), Mr Lai’s father passed away in late April. His cremation and funeral took place just one day prior to the teen’s death.
Source: Sohu
Mr Lai’s mother, Ms Chen, was originally the daughter-in-law of the elder Lai as she was married to his second son, who was disabled.
United Daily News (UDN) reported that Ms Chen and the elder Lai eventually got into a relationship, and their son Mr Lai was born.
After Ms Chen’s husband died, the elder Lai legally adopted Mr Lai so he could pass his property to him.
In a press conference on 19 May, Ms Chen told reporters that an escrow agent, Mr Hsia, went to their home at about 7am on 4 May.
This was a day after the funeral and cremation of the elder Lai, who passed away in late April.
Mr Hsia, 26, then asked Mr Lai out under the pretence of managing his portfolio.
Source: CNA Taiwan
Unfortunately, police told Ms Chen later that day that her son had died after falling off the 10th storey of a building. Mr Hsia was reportedly living on that very floor.
More shockingly, she learnt that her son had legally registered his marriage to Mr Hsia just two hours before he was found dead.
According to Taiwan News, Ms Chen claimed during the press conference that she was unaware of the marriage. She also asserted that her son was not gay.
In addition, Mr Lai had only met Mr Hsia twice before his death.
The Liberty Times noted that the newlyweds had asked two strangers to witness the marriage.
Mr Hsia allegedly asked them to sign their marriage certificate as witnesses. He claimed their relationship did not receive the blessings of their loved ones.
The two, who support same-sex marriage, agreed to help out them of sympathy.
Responding to Ms Chen’s allegations, Mr Hsia told the media that her views were “one-sided”.
The agent, who had a well-established relationship with the elder Lai, reportedly told prosecutors that the latter said he would hand over his property portfolio to the first of his three of his sons who got married.
Thus, Mr Hsia was supposedly helping the young Taiwanese heir to receive his inheritance by registering their marriage, Mirror Media reported.
Source: Mirror Media
However, Ms Chen believes Mr Hsia planned to marry and kill her son in order to get his inheritance through spousal ties.
This is because the elder Lai had already transferred his entire estate before he died, meaning there was no need to help Mr Lai.
Her lawyer also noted that Mr Hsia would have been familiar with the value of the elder Lai’s properties, which were mostly land, since he was holding on to the title deeds of his real estate.
According to Mr Hsia, he was taking a shower while Mr Lai drank beer in the living room.
Then, all of a sudden, the high schooler allegedly committed suicide by jumping from his balcony.
Mirror Media reported that prosecutors found clear fingerprints, palm prints, and shoe prints of Mr Lai on Mr Hsia’s balcony.
Source: Mirror Media
Prosecutors’ preliminary judgement of the cause of Mr Lai’s death is suicide.
However, they did not rule out the possibility of a staged suicide, given the suspicious timing and circumstances surrounding his death.
Authorities questioned Mr Hsia under suspicion of homicide on 5 May before he was released on NT$300,000 (S$13,000) bail.
Mr Hsia and his father, who was assisting as a witness, were interrogated again for five hours on Monday (22 May).
According to CNA Taiwan, forensic expert Kao Ta-cheng opined that it was unlikely that Mr Lai fell from the 10th floor, based on his injuries and the theory of parabola.
Mr Kao pointed out that an autopsy revealed that the boy only sustained a fractured right elbow.
He apparently did not suffer any haemorrhaging in his head or abdominal cavities. These would be more consistent with a fall from that height.
Source: Kao Ta-Cheng on Facebook
What’s more, Mr Kao discovered a patch of bald grass during his visit to the scene of Mr Lai’s death.
This led him to suspect that Mr Lai could have been poisoned and vomited on the grass following his fall.
Source: Kao Ta-Cheng on Facebook
ST also reported that Ms Chen insisted her son had no reason to commit suicide.
Besides recently getting into a local university, he had obtained a motorcycle licence and a new scooter, which he intended to take her out on.
Ms Chen’s legal team is now trying to void Mr Hsia and Mr Lai’s marriage. They hope to prevent Mr Hsia from inheriting Mr Lai’s real estate portfolio.
With such a complicated case, we hope the facts around Mr Lai’s bizarre death will be brought to light soon. May he rest in peace.
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Featured image adapted from Sohu and Mirror Media.
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