Taiwanese teen millionaire dies two hours after getting married

A Taiwanese teenager, who had recently become heir to an estate worth a cool $24 million, was found dead at the foot of a building two hours after he registered his marriage to a 26-year-old real estate agent assistant.

The student, known as ‘Little’ Lai to family and friends, was a softly spoken 18-year-old who dreamt of attending university, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Instead he got married and within a day he was dead.

The relationship between Lai and his husband, Hsia, 26, who now stands to gain Lai’s $24 million fortune, is now being heavily scrutinised.

In a press conference with Taiwanese media, Lai’s distraught mother said his father had passed two months before his death and had transferred some of his significant property portfolio to his son.

She urged investigators to look at foul play.

Taiwanese media initially reported that Lai had fallen from the 10th floor to his death.

But Lai’s family commissioned a forensic doctor to examine Lai’s body and the location of where his body was found.

It is understood the expert deciphered it was unlikely Lai died by falling from the 10th storey, as initially thought.

The expert noted that the injuries Lai had sustained were too light, with only a fractured right elbow and no haemorrhages in his head and abdominal cavities.

Instead the theory being espoused is that Lai was likely to have been poisoned instead and might have vomited shortly before his death, as indicated by the patch of dead grass where his body was found.

“It is the strangest case I have ever been involved in,” said Michael Hsu, a lawyer for Lai’s mother who usually specialises in copyright disputes, not homicide, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The case has shone a spotlight on one of the thorniest topics Taiwan faces – same-sex marriage.

Taiwan was the first country in East Asia to legalise same-sex marriage in May 2019, although there is still significant resistance to it.