Kaohsiung: A single mother surnamed Chen has been indicted on charges of murder after allegedly leaving her four-month-old daughter alone for a week, leading to the child’s death by starvation, according to a statement by the Ciaotou District Prosecutors Office on Monday.

According to Focus Taiwan, Chen, aged 31, had given birth to the baby girl in May of the previous year and was residing in a rented en-suite room at a church in Kaohsiung’s Dashe District. On the evening of September 15, Chen reportedly left her daughter unattended in the room and did not return until September 23. During her absence, Chen was questioned by her mother and social workers regarding the child’s well-being. However, she falsely assured them that someone else was caring for the child.

The prolonged absence and lack of care resulted in the child starving to death. An autopsy revealed severe malnutrition, hunger, dehydration, organ atrophy, loss of body fat tissue, and a lack of liver glycogen, which contributed to the child’s demise. The prosecutors office proceeded with an investigation, summoning the child’s biological father and other witnesses for questioning. Surveillance footage was also analyzed, leading to Chen’s arrest in September.

The prosecutors requested that Chen be held in incommunicado detention, a request that was approved by the Ciaotou District Court. Following the conclusion of their investigation on January 8, prosecutors charged Chen with intentionally killing a child as an adult. The statement from the prosecutors office urged the judges and citizen judges involved in the case to impose a severe sentence, taking into consideration the circumstances of the crime, its consequences, and Chen’s behavior following the incident.