FULL TEXT: Taipei – A district court in southern Taiwan sentenced a woman to death yesterday for murdering seven children with cyanide pills. Court officials said Chen Kao Lien-yen, 36, and poisoned nine children between October 1985 and September last year [1987] in the small coastal town of Fan Liao, by giving them “vitamins” that were in fact poison cyanide.
Three boys and four girls aged between three and aged between three and 12 died. Some of the victims were children of friends and some were strangers.
The official said Mrs. Chen had admitted she was envious of families with children, since she had been made infertile by an operation on her womb two years ago. She has a 14-year-old son.
[“Death for poisoner of children,” (AFP, AP), The Straits Times (Singapore), Mar. 22, 1987, p. 5]
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