Kaohsiung: A single mother surnamed Chen, accused of leaving her four-month-old daughter at home alone in Kaohsiung for a week last year, resulting in her starving to death, has been indicted on charges of murder, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors Office said in a statement issued Monday. Chen, 31, gave birth to a baby girl in May last year and moved into a rented en-suite room in a church in Kaohsiung’s Dashe District.

According to Focus Taiwan, on the evening of Sept. 15, Chen left the baby girl alone in the room without arranging for anyone else to care for her and did not return until the morning of Sept. 23. The prosecutors office stated that while Chen was away, she was questioned about the child’s welfare by both her mother and social workers. However, she falsely claimed she had found someone else to care for the baby girl, leading to the child’s death from starvation after not being fed for seven days.

An autopsy revealed the baby girl suffered from malnutrition, hunger, dehydration, organ atrophy, loss of body fat tissue, and a lack of liver glycogen, among other conditions, which led to her death. The prosecutors office reported that Chen was arrested in September after summoning the baby girl’s biological father and witnesses for questioning and analyzing surveillance camera footage. The office requested Chen be held in incommunicado detention, which was approved by the Ciaotou District Court.

Prosecutors concluded their investigation on Jan. 8 and charged Chen with intentionally killing a child as an adult. The statement added that prosecutors requested a heavy sentence from the judges and citizen judges involved in the case, taking into account all the circumstances that led to the child’s death, including the illegal acts involved, the consequences of those acts, and Chen’s attitude after the offense.