TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An African-American and a Taiwanese friend who helped him buy knives were the latest key suspects in the dismemberment of a Canadian teacher, while a third man was still on the run, reports said Saturday.
Since the discovery of the body parts of Ramgahan Sanjay Ryan, 43, last Wednesday, the investigation has taken many turns, though it kept focusing on the teacher’s side occupation as a drugs dealer.
According to the latest media reports, several of Ryan’s clients suspected he was working as a police informant and betraying their drug deals to the authorities.
On Saturday morning, police interviewed a 30-year-old African-American man who had been revealed by Ryan’s smartphone data as one of his angry customers, the Apple Daily reported.
In addition, his smartphone placed him near the river in Yonghe, the district where Ryan lived and where he was killed, at the time of the events, late on August 21. He was unable to provide a coherent explanation for his activities and whereabouts around that time, the Apple Daily reported.
Later Saturday, police questioned a Taiwanese man surnamed Wu, 21, who reportedly admitted he had helped the African-American man, named as Ewart B., buy machetes similar to those found near Ryan’s body.
Wu told police he visited a store in Taipei City’s Wanhua District on August 16 to look at the knives on offer, before returning two days later to buy two of them. He said he had handed them over to his American friend later that day.
Wu reportedly wrote on his Facebook page that August 29 would be his last night in Taiwan, inviting his friends over for a drink at a pub. The post indicated that he was planning to flee the country after the crime, the Apple Daily reported.
A third man was believed to be on the run, though depending on media reports Saturday night, it was not clear whether he was a U.S. national surnamed Sun or a Russian citizen.
On August 21, the men rode bicycles to the river park, where they first attacked Ryan with a chain, according to the Apple Daily. As the teacher’s dog, Lulu, barked, the assailants also attacked him with the knives, sending him running home, where the following day he would help guide two of Ryan’s friends to find the body.
In the meantime, the search was still continuing for missing body parts. A man’s right arm was found in the river shortly before noon Saturday, but DNA tests would have to determine whether they were Ryan’s, the Apple Daily reported.
The Canadian lost his wife in a swimming accident off Yilan County last year. According to reports in the Canadian media, he was preparing to end his more than 10 years in Taiwan in October and return to Canada, where he owned a house in the province of Ontario.
