The remains of a Singaporean man who disappeared alongside his wife following a devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan’s Hualien county in April 2024 have been recovered.
Mr. Sim Hwee Kok and his wife, Ms. Neo Siew Choo, were officially declared deceased by the Hualien District Court in December 2024, at the request of their family. This came more than 200 days after they were last seen entering the Shakadang Trail in Hualien’s Taroko National Park.
According to reports from Taiwanese news outlet China Times, Mr. Sim’s remains were discovered by a farmer on the morning of January 11 near Wujianwu, approximately 1.5 kilometers from the trail entrance. The farmer noticed a piece of bone in a riverbed below an area affected by a landslide and promptly alerted the authorities.
Local police accompanied the farmer to the site to investigate. Due to severe damage to the trail caused by the earthquake, it took nearly four hours for the police and a forensic team to retrieve the bone. Initial visual assessments suggested the bone was likely part of a hip.
The bone was later subjected to DNA testing, comparing it to samples previously provided by the couple’s son, who had traveled to Taiwan following the tragedy. On January 24, the test results confirmed a match, confirming the bone belonged to Mr. Sim.
Further investigations by local authorities concluded that the earthquake had triggered a massive landslide behind the trail’s main water pipe, likely sweeping Mr. Sim’s body into the river valley. Despite additional searches in the area, no other remains belonging to the couple have been found.
The China Times reported that Mr. Sim and Ms. Neo’s family have been informed of the findings and will soon receive the remains.
The couple, who also held Australian passports, were last seen on surveillance cameras disembarking from a bus near the Shakadang Trail on April 3 at approximately 7:20 a.m., just 40 minutes before Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years struck.
Search-and-rescue teams from the Hualien Fire Department conducted extensive efforts to locate the couple, even using sniffer dogs provided with clothing worn by Mr. Sim and Ms. Neo to track their scent. However, these efforts proved unsuccessful.
In April 2024, after the search was suspended due to safety concerns, the couple’s family participated in a religious ceremony with spiritual evocation rites, hoping for closure.
Photos: Sunny Sandro Wang/Facebook, Yip Wai Yee
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