Taiwanese couple cited debts in suicide notes

MANILA, Philippines–The Taiwanese couple believed to have killed their three children before taking their own lives over money problems may have wanted to spare their kids from having to shoulder the debts they would leave behind.

According to San Juan police chief Senior Supt. Ariel Arcinas, a representative from the Taiwan Embassy told him that under their country’s inheritance policy, the children would not only inherit their parents’ property but also the money they owe other people.

On Saturday morning, policemen discovered the bodies of Roxsanna Hsieh, 53; her husband Luis; and their children Amanda, 18; Jeffrey, 14; and John, 12, in their unit at the Midland Park Manor condominium building on Ortigas Avenue in Greenhills, San Juan City.

The couple and their sons, students at Xavier High School, were lying on beds inside the master bedroom while Amanda, a third year psychology student at Ateneo de Manila University, was found inside her room.

All of them had clear plastic sheets wrapped around their heads while several sleeping pills were scattered on the floor of the master bedroom.

In a briefing with reporters on Sunday at the San Juan police station, deputy chief of police for operations Chief Insp. Melchor Rosales said that they have yet to rule out foul play pending the release of autopsy reports.

Probers, however, suspected that Luis was probably the last one to die because the bag around his head was not tied as neatly as it was on the other victims.

They added that the victims most likely took sleeping pills before the plastic bags were wrapped around their heads.

Arcinas said that in one of the two alleged suicide notes found by the family maid, Livina Econia, on the kitchen sink near her quarters, the couple said that the family’s handicraft export business had encountered “financial difficulties,” making them turn to loan sharks.

They added that the “high interest rates had made it impossible for us to survive,” saying that they believed that their  children “[would] be more comfortable leaving with us than to be left behind and face the world with uncertainty.”

Just how much the family owed has yet to be determined but a police source, who requested anonymity for lack of clearance to talk to the media, told the Inquirer that a relative familiar with the victims’ business said that the port congestion problem may have contributed to the losses they suffered.

“The relative said that delivery [of the handicraft products] was delayed by at least three months,” the source added.

Rosales, meanwhile, said that there were no signs of a struggle in the victims’ house. There was also no evidence of forced entry, leading probers to suspect that their deaths were due to a murder-suicide pact.

A note found by their maid, Econia, asked her to hand over the two envelopes placed on the kitchen sink to the building’s administration and to their neighbor Dr. Grace Chua.

The envelopes contained the alleged suicide letters, one written in English and the other in Chinese, citing the reason they took their lives and their burial wishes. The letter asked that they be cremated and kept together inside a Buddhist temple.

Rosales said that Econia didn’t notice anything unusual about the family’s behavior on the night of the incident, except that she was given her salary for the month.

The family, which owned two brand-new Toyota Innova vans, also gave their driver his overtime pay.