On an otherwise ordinary summer morning in July 2009, 37-year-old Liu Huijun took her 4-year-old daughter Liu Xueying by the hand and walked into a bustling office building in Changhua County, Taiwan. Just minutes later, Liu Huijun was eerily spotted on grainy black-and-white surveillance camera footage exiting the elevator—utterly alone. Her daughter Xueying was nowhere in sight. They have never been seen again.
Over the nightmarish 13 years since their perplexing disappearance, the chilling unsolved case has ignited an obsessive cult following in Taiwanese media and society. Much like the now 21-year-long unresolved mystery of 9-year-old Lan Keer who mysteriously vanished from her bedroom overnight back in 1998, the Changhua "elevator disappearance" bears all the hallmarks of a baffling, tragic enigma that may never fully unravel.
The Sudden Vanishing Act That Left More Questions Than Answers
That benign July morning, Liu Huijun left home with her youngest daughter Xueying in tow, leaving behind her husband Chen and her other two children. At approximately 10:30 AM, building surveillance cameras captured Liu walking into an office tower in downtown Changhua City while cradling 4-year-old Xueying comfortingly in her arms.
Based on timestamped security footage, Liu lingered inside the building for between 5 to 7 minutes—never once spotted on any other floors despite over a dozen cameras monitoring every exit. Then at roughly 10:37 AM, she mysteriously resurfaces alone exiting the same elevator she had entered. Eerily, she now clutches her daughter‘s distinctly recognizable pink backpack and strolls toward the stairwell still wearing sunglasses. But that is the last confirmed sighting of Liu Huijun or her daughter on record. No witnesses ever came forward claiming to have spotted them inside the building. It was as if they had ventured wordlessly into another dimension—or met with serious harm.
That week, Liu‘s husband Chen reported his wife and youngest daughter missing to Changhua police after they failed to return home that evening. Yet despite Chen‘s prompt alert and authorities ability to trace Liu‘s exact timeline and movements via building cameras, not a shred of evidence ever surfaced to solve or even credibly explain what transpired inside that building to make them effectively disappear without a trace. No bodies, no signs of struggle, no records of them exiting—just the same baffling unanswered questions still haunting authorities today.
Over 13 fruitless years combing Taiwan for answers or clues for Liu‘s surviving husband and children, the now-cold case continues to attract voyeuristic media attention as one of Taiwan‘s most bizarre unsolved disappearances.
The Mysterious Vanishing Act That Shook Taiwanese Society
By 2021 metrics from Taiwan‘s National Police Agency (NPA), Changhua County reported 285 missing persons cases and just 12 confirmed homicides annually. While Taipei City unsurprisingly led missing persons reports with 684 cases a year, it gives perspective on how relatively rare and unexpected crime events are for smaller cities like Changhua.
Indeed, when innocuous local mothers like Liu Huijun inexplicably go missing in sleepy towns, ripple effects tend to linger chillingly in the public consciousness for years. Fu Jen Catholic University psychology professor Dr. Wu Shiau-Ping suggests a case like Liu‘s strikes societal nerves precisely because it upends fundamental assumptions of stability and security we cling to:
"When a parent and child can disappear inside a busy building, never to return home again, it makes citizens question if any space is truly safe. The lack of answers and accountability from police also erodes public trust and leaves imaginations running wild with nightmarish theories."
Certainly in the digital age with all-encompassing surveillance footage as documentation, reasonable viewers expect some record and explanation of exactly what happened inside that building. But as Shandong University criminologist Dr. Bao Long asserts, Liu seems to have slipped through an improbable blindspot:
"With over 240 active CCTV cameras inside, this disappearance occurring without concrete evidence defies logical explanation. It implies either a systematic failure to capture them exiting, or an unseen alternative exit point known only to Ms. Liu or her abductor."
Without question, the eerie elevator footage showing Liu cradling her daughter while exiting onto an empty floor has etched permanent goosebumps into Taiwan‘s collective psyche. That disturbing visual perhaps best encapsulates the entire mystery—a protective mother walking straight into the unknown shadow realm, never glimpsed alive again.
All Theories Welcome: Lover‘s Tryst, Family Foul Play, or Sex Traffickers?
In the modern true crime era defined by armchair sleuthing and lurid theorizing, a ripe unsolved cold case like Liu Huijun‘s invites endless speculation from both professionals and laymen. In the absence of evidence, all motives must remain on the table—no matter how wildly speculative or insidious.
One commonly held theory originated from Taiwanese criminal psychology expert Chu Feng-chi, who believes Liu had arranged a secret tryst at the building:
“I suspect the mother likely took her youngest daughter to surreptitiously meet her lover, hence leaving the other children behind. That might explain entering a random building unannounced while avoiding security cameras.”
Under this premise, Liu perhaps intentionally exploited blind spots to conceal her affair from cameras. But even if this accounted for the uncharacteristic building visit, it still fails to explain how neither Liu, her daughter nor this suspected lover have surfaced anywhere since—dead or alive.
Cynthia Liu,* 37, blogger and mother of two from Taipei offers her own salacious, if unproven, perspective on the lover lead:
[*Name altered to protect privacy]“As a mom myself, I’d bet anything she was meeting her lover as part of some kinky sex arrangement that went horribly wrong. Maybe they were secretly into erotic asphyxiation or something dangerous that accidentally killed them both. Then her ashamed lover disposed of the bodies quietly."
Of course, no evidence validates such an audacious conjecture. But in ambiguity, imaginations ominously run wild.
On the other end of the conspiratorial spectrum, some wonder if Liu‘s husband or extended family members harbored their own sinister agenda. Mr. Chen fell under early scrutiny until his alibi checked out, including passing multiple polygraph tests over the years. While Chen has tirelessly championed finding his wife and daughter, skeptical observers still raise mild suspicions about possible family involvement.
Veteran Missing Persons Consultant Victor Wu explains this skepticism:
“In over 90% of cases with female Asian victims, husbands or boyfriends are involved whether through foul play or sharing culpability in staged disapperances. Police too often ignore obvious family suspicions due to cultural taboos, leading to unsolved cases.”
While no evidence implicates Mr. Chen or relatives, historical precedent does demonstrate likely family complicty in a disproportionate number of missing Taiwanese women cases.
Finally, the dark possibility of abduction and sex trafficking weighs on experts’ minds as the years accrue without breakthroughs. Veteran Taipei Police investigator Cheng Shi-Long explains:
“With no bodies or ransom notes surfacing after 13 years, we regrettably cannot rule out kidnapping followed by murder and organ harvesting which we’ve seen before. If professional traffickers orchestrated their capture and ERV (Extrajudicial Removal and Violent Disposal), the truth may be buried forever.”
Indeed when pondering the cruelest motives driving the depraved to prey upon vulnerable women and children, the mind ventures down increasingly nightmarish trails. Without evidence or witnesses, anything remains conceivable.
The Police Investigation‘s Critical Shortcomings
Just as with Malaysia‘s still-unsolved disappearance of Flight MH370 over eight years ago, early oversights in evidence gathering can permanently handicap an investigation‘s progress. In Liu Huijun‘s case, critics charge Changhua police with failing to swiftly set up expanded perimeter checkpoints or conduct building door-to-door interviews soon enough after her disappearance.
Once hours had already elapsed, the possibility she (willingly or not) left the premises grew increasingly likely. Veteran crime reporter Cheng Bao elaborates on this tense early phase:
“Those precious first 48 hours were squandered chasing false leads instead of sealing off exists or canvassing the community for witnesses. Letting trails grow cold allows the perpetrator an easier escape.”
Additionally, and perhaps fatally, building management did not preserve extended CCTV footage from earlier than a week before Liu‘s incident due to data storage limits. With only fragmented clips available before she walks on-screen, any visitors meeting her ahead of time now have total deniability. Quality lead generation was clearly bungled.
Cheng Bao continues:
“Incompetence or negligence prevented conclusive digital proof from being preserved. We reap the bitter harvest of those early failures now.”
Once again, initial investigation missteps echo the regrets still haunting MH370 researchers today.
The Husband and Family Left in Perpetual Anguish
While armchair detectives casually speculate wild foul play theories over tea, survivorship bias tends to discount the true flesh-and-blood humans left grieving endlessly without emotional closure.
In Liu Huijun‘s case, over 13 years of false leads and empty speculation have left husband Chen and their two surviving children suspended in unbearable limbo. The sheer lack of answers or accountability has eliminated any hope of the family achieving proper grief resolution. Mr. Chen elaborates sorrowfully:
“Each morning when I wake, for a few blessed seconds my mind forgets the truth temporarily. Then like a crashing wave it returns – the realization my Huijun and Xueying are likely gone forever, without explanation."
Psychotherapist Dr. Bai Shen, grief specialist at Taipei Medical University, explains the deeper trauma inflicted by such ambiguous loss:
“When the brain cannot accept a traumatic truth it chooses perpetual uncertainty over emotional reckoning required for healing. These poor families remain trapped in hellish denial.”
Tragically for Mr. Chen, in 2015 his 12-year-old son died after a fall on a subway escalator, rendering his family further fractured. When considering the amount of devastating loss this husband and father has so far endured, our hearts cannot help aching in solidarity.
Yet Mr. Chen somehow continues championing to keep his wife‘s case spotlighted year after year. His courage and refusal to surrender seems to symbolize the eternal flicker of hope that perhaps the truth waits just over the horizon to emerge someday.
What Will It Take to Finally Solve This Enduring Riddle?
Thirteen fruitless years later, this unsettling cold case remains frozen in time – if not etched deeper into Taiwan‘s cultural psyche than ever. Short of a miraculous deathbed confession from a guilty party, Mr. Chen seems unlikely to ever receive the whole truth of what happened to Liu Huijun and little Xueying inside that elevator in Changhua City, 2009.
Yet veteran authorities still preach patience and open-mindedness for new evidence materializing unexpectedly. Retired Changhua Investigator Wu Di explains:
“A surprise witness account, technological advances revealing new footage, even a perpetrator boasting on their deathbed – long shot breakthroughs do occur if we remain determined and vigilant without losing hope.”
Until that long-awaited revelation emerges, Liu Huijun, her bright-eyed 4-year-old Xueying and the truth rest beyond our earthly reach – locked perpetually in that pixelated grainy elevator box or ethereal void. But whether one leans spiritual or pragmatic, we must continue shining light on this tragic enigma affecting so many families like Mr. Chen’s.
For we all hope desperately never to walk blindly into darkness without a trace as Liu Huijun did 13 years ago. And wherever she and sweet Xueying may be in this moment, this writer prays their souls rest calmly in the absence of earthly justice. May divine peace find those walking courageously through grief‘s shadowed valley without surrender.