TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A man from Taichung who had been missing for almost two months was found dead under a burnt-out car down a slope in the Hualien County mountains, reports said Saturday (May 18).
A team from the Highway Bureau was fixing a problem with a bulldozer by the side of Provincial Highway 8 on Friday (May 17) morning when one of the workers spotted the wreck 80 meters down the steep slope, the Liberty Times reported.
When police from the Hehuan Precinct of Xincheng Township went down to the vehicle, they found the burnt body of a man lying below. Based on the car’s license plates, they concluded the man was surnamed Chang (張), aged 42, and had been reported missing in Taichung City on March 27.
Further investigation led to camera footage of the vehicle passing Hehuan Precinct in the early morning of March 25. Police explained Chang and his car had not been found for some time because the site of the accident was in an area prone to dense fog and rockslides.
Drivers would pass by, but never stop at the site, police said. Guardrails at the location had long been damaged during typhoons, earthquakes, and rockslides, and had been replaced by traffic cones.