The body was later identified as Hu Ching-ling and appeared to have been dead for days, police said. According to neighbors, Hu led an isolated and antisocial life in a house on --in-an Road in --inyuan Township.

Police were called to his home when neighbors reported Hu missing. He was found lying on a bed in a confined room and appeared, from the dried condition the body, to have been dead for days.

In a separate incident earlier this year, Hu was not seen for a month, and was later discovered by concerned neighbors and police to be starving at home alone. Authorities provided him with food. A neighbor surnamed Huang claimed he saw Hu once during Typhoon Morakot. About two weeks ago, Huang became suspicious that something had happened to Hu after noticing strange odors around Hu's house and saw Hu's scooter covered in dust and parked in front of Hu's locked home.

Some neighbors suspected the cause of Hu's death to be hunger; a small electric hot plate was found in the room where Hu's body was found. Investigators will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of the death.