Lin Yu-ju (criminal)

Lin Yu-ju (born 1981) is a Taiwanese serial killer responsible for the Nantou Serial Murders between 2008 and 2009. As part of an insurance scam to get rid of her gambling debts, Lin poisoned her mother, mother-in-law and ex-husband in Puli. On June 14, 2013, the Supreme Court sentenced her to death, making Lin the fourth female death row prisoner in the country. She is currently detained in the Taichung Women's Prison, awaiting execution. Due to the cruelty of her crimes, which shocked the Taiwanese population, she was nicknamed The Nantou Poisoning Wife and The Puli Poisoning Wife.

In May 2009, Lin searched on the internet for a way to poison her mother-in-law, Cheng Hui-shen. She first administered it into Cheng's food, after which the woman was driven to the hospital. There, Lin tampered with the IV drip by mixing it with antidepressants, ethanol and methanol. The deadly concoction successfully poisoned her victim.

On August 16, 2008, under the threat of suspending the operations of the stinky tofu stand because of her unstable income, Lin burned the establishment down during the night by dousing it with kerosene and lighting it up.

A Tainan native born in 1981, Lin worked at a former vocational school-turned-cabaret club, as did her sister. Liu became addicted to gambling at Mark Six lotteries, struggling to make ends meet. She met Liu Yu-hang, a national badminton player, at the cabaret club, and terminated two pregnancies before choosing to carry their third pregnancy to term and marry him. The family operated a small, but honest stinky tofu stand in Puli. Lin and Liu continued to accumulate large gambling debts playing the Mark Six lottery. Since she could not pay off her debts, she devised a plan to defraud insurance money through murder.