28/08/2026
THE HUALIEN FAMILY MYSTERY: 5 SIBLINGS FOUND, PARENTS VANISHED FOR 9 YEARS 😔
September 2006, Hualien, Taiwan.
Two elementary school students didn't show up for class - 9-year-old Liu Qien and her 8-year-old brother Beichen. No call from family.
Teachers went to their home. No answer.
Neighbors began noticing a foul smell.
On September 8th, police forced entry into the locked house.
Inside on the 3rd floor bathroom - which had been sealed with tape - they found five children: 18, 17, 12, 9, and 8 years old.
The eldest, Yuchen, had just been accepted to college. He never got to attend.
Inside the locked house, police found two SOS notes saying the family was being held hostage.
But the notes were left INSIDE where no one outside could see them.
The parents - Liu Chih-chin, 48, and Lin Chen-mi, 35 - had vanished. Their car was seen on camera at 2 AM on Sept 6th, just the two of them. No signs of kidnapping.
At first police thought it was a debt-related crime. Chih-chin had millions in debt from his photography business.
But evidence began to look staged:
- Cigarette butts with another man's DNA were found placed upstairs, not dropped naturally
- The house showed almost no signs of struggle
- The SOS notes made no sense for a real hostage situation
- Most disturbing: Two photos on the family camera showed the father with one of the children during the crime
The timeline was heartbreaking: The children didn't die at once. Some went to school on Sept 5th and returned home. When a teacher called to ask why one son was absent, the mother calmly said he was sick - while investigators believe he had already passed.
Police launched a massive manhunt. For almost 9 years, nothing.
Until June 10, 2015. A hunter in the mountains less than 2km from the family home found two skeletons.
DNA confirmed: It was the parents.
Toxicology found pesticide in their remains. Investigators believe they took their own lives.
On September 11, 2015, prosecutors closed the case, believing the parents were responsible, staged the scene to look like a kidnapping, then died by su***de.
But there was never a trial, no confession, and no clear motive. Debt may have been a factor, but no one knows why the children.
Some online still call it Taiwan's most unsettling unsolved family case.
Rest in peace to the five siblings 🕊️
What do you think happened? Was it planned after researching a similar 2001 case, as investigators suggested?
