Relatives and funeral home staff went to retrieve the bodies, and it took them until around 6 p.m. last night to carry both men down the mountain together. Photo from Taiwan’s United Daily News.
According to Taiwan’s United Daily News, a Taiwanese man surnamed Pan and his cousin went out hunting eight days ago but are believed to have accidentally fallen down a 400-meter-deep valley. Their bodies were found on the 19th, infested with maggots and confirmed dead.
Relatives learned of the cousins’ deaths yesterday and expressed both grief and disbelief. “They knew these mountains and forests so well—how could they have fallen to their deaths? It’s unbelievable.”
Pan’s older brother said the 46-year-old man made a living doing odd jobs and often drank and socialized with his cousin, who was four years younger. On the morning of the 14th, the two left early with animal snares, planning to set them up on Daping Forest Road in Penglai Village, Nanzhuang Township, Miaoli County, aiming to catch a wild boar for dinner. They told their family they’d be back by the afternoon—but never returned that evening.
With the cousins missing for days, worried relatives sent out three people to look for them the day before yesterday. They only found Pan’s white motorcycle at the entrance of Daping Mountain but no sign of the men.
Yesterday, they resumed searching and kept calling out the men’s names toward the valley, shouting “Come home, Up!” Around 10 a.m., they spotted rice balls, backpacks, and other items on a rock face. Looking down into the valley, they caught sight of the two men’s figures in a crevice farther down.
Because the area is remote and densely forested, the group had to walk from the trailhead deep into the mountains. The terrain was steep and slippery, taking nearly an hour to reach the site. The man surnamed Pan and his cousin were wedged in a crevice, less than five meters apart, their heads facing roughly left and right. Their bodies had decayed and were covered in maggots, emitting a strong stench. Authorities estimated they had been dead for about a week.
Police said the rock wall had a slope of about 70 degrees and was very steep. It is believed that as the two crossed the wall, they stepped on a wet spot and accidentally slipped, tumbling down 400 meters into the valley below. Due to the sharpness of the rocks, both suffered multiple abrasions. Pan’s underwear is believed to have been pulled down to his shins by friction against the rocky surface during the fall, leaving his lower body exposed.
Relatives and funeral home staff went to retrieve the bodies, and it took them until around 6 p.m. last night to carry both men down the mountain together. Reflecting on how the two died in a mountain range they knew so well, one person sighed, “Maybe it was because they were too familiar with it that they got careless and fell.”