The Expat English Teachers' Murderous Triangle

They seemed like fun-loving foreigners living it up in Taiwan. But below the surface was a gruesome story.

Illustrations by Matt Rota

Taipei is a safe city. The streets of the capital of Taiwan are so quiet, even at night, that they could be considered almost banal. In the city’s seedier quarters — the back alleys of Wanhua, the talking bar drag of Linsen North Road, at one time known as the Combat Zone — the glue sniffers and the gangsters peering out from their gambling den doorways leave most folks well enough alone. For many, especially the thousands of Westerners who call the city home, Taipei feels like the safest place in the world, except for the usual hazards of traffic and smog.

But in any metropolis where you stack a few million people on top of one another, even the brightest corners can go dark. When the contempt, competition and suspicion that are the side effects of city life combine and ignite, you get a bloody, senseless tragedy — the kind that unfolded near the Zhongzheng Bridge in New Taipei City in late August 2018. Just across the Xindian River from Taipei, a foul murder…