Photos: Mother of 4-year-old girl whose throat was slit writes a touching tribute to her.

A 4-year-old girl was decapitated by a knife-
wielding man in an apparent random attack
outside a metro station in Taipei, Taiwan on
Monday, March 28.

The girl's mother, Ms Claire Wang has touched
many Taiwanese with her composure and loving
message to her slain child, even as public
outrage over the shocking incident threatens to
boil over.

"Fortunately, I had held you tightly and told you
I loved you every day," the 36-year-old posted on
her Facebook account on Tuesday March 29, the
day after the tragedy, together with a photo of
her holding her daughter in her arms and her
husband by their side.

. According to Central
News Agency, she gave the media permission to
use the photos
Ms Wang appeared before dozens of TV
cameras and journalists just hours after
witnessing the killing of her child on Monday
morning on a Taipei street. 

Although visibly
traumatized and tearful, she spoke coherently
about the incident and how she tried but failed
to protect her child, who is identified in the
media only by her surname Liu and family
nickname of Little Light Bulb.

The suspect, 33-year-old Wang Ching-yu,
grabbed the child from behind and decapitated
her with a cleaver as she was riding a bicycle
near Ms Wang.

He has a criminal record for drug offences and
had undergone psychiatric treatment. He was
beaten up by an angry mob on Tuesday while
being transferred from a Taipei police station to
the prosecutor's office for questioning.

Amid widespread calls for the killer to be
executed immediately and for a mandatory death
penalty for people convicted of killing children,
Ms Wang has been one of the few to call for
calm and reason at the same time she mourned
her loss.

"I believe the suspects in these kinds of random
killings lose their minds at that moment," Ms
Wang told TV reporters at the police station on
Monday.

"This is not a problem that can be solved by
passing a law," she said. "I hope we can address
the problem from its root, from the perspective
of family and education, so that there will no
longer be people like him (the perpetrator) in our
society."

Ms Wang and her husband David Liu, 44
graduated from the University of Southern
California, CNA reported. Mr Liu works in the
high-tech sector, while Ms Wang is a stay-at-
home mum. They have three other children, a
nine-year-old girl and two-year-old twins.

Ms Wang, who says she is a free-
thinker, seemed determined to turn the tragedy
of her daughter’s death into a lesson for the
greater good.

"After the incident, many friends advised me to
close my blog and Facebook page, but I really
hope that her death can leave something behind,
stir up some discussion, remind people of the
importance of love, and call attention to the
many issues in society," Ms Wang told reporters
outside the funeral home on Tuesday.

"Please keep trusting people because society is
still beautiful." she wrote on her Facebook page.

"Please give your dearest family members a hug.

That would be the most comforting and caring
thing you could do for us."

"This morning, Little Light Bulb got up earlier
than usual and told me happily that she was
early enough to say 'bye bye' to her older sister
as she left for school," Ms Wang wrote of the
girl's last day alive in a widely circulated essay.

Later, Ms Wang wrote, the little girl sat on the
bed as she nibbled on a fruit and looked out of
the window. Asked what she was looking at, the
girl told her mother: "I'm admiring the scenery
and eating fruit.

"It's so beautiful. The world is so beautiful."
"Maybe it was her final retrospection of the
world," wrote Ms Wang.

On Wednesday, March 30, the grieving mother
announced, with her husband by her side, that
the public was welcomed to visit her daughter's
wake, but asked that mourners come "without
hatred in your heart".

"I have never believed that hatred and
recrimination can solve problems," Ms Wang
said in a message printed on a card placed at
the entrance to the wake.

"That's why we have always educated her (Little
Light Bulb) in a loving, gentle way....She has
accomplished her mission in this beautiful world
and left without a care. I hope she can go on her
way surrounded by love."

Source: Central News Agency/The Straits Times