In the meantime, the younger Chen, like his brother a graduate of Herndon High School, sold the family's home in Seneca Knoll for $310,000. Bramblett was executed by electric chair on April 9, 2003. Hello, listeners. The flooring had been replaced in the master bedroom, but they asked if the flooring underneath had been replaced, it hadnt. It was determined that it was Wu-Hungs blood. Jin Feng Chen, 39; his wife, Hai Yan Li, 38; and their children, Anthony, 10, and Eddy, 7, were found bludgeoned to death October 8, 2014 inside their bungalow in Guilderland, a suburb of Albany, New York. Detectives also looked into local crime syndicates and reports of human trafficking. On the other hand, people living near the Chen residence mentioned that after 1995, Edward often came over to maintain the houses exterior to give it a lived-in vibe. Raymond Chen began working in real estate, including overseeing five Fairfax properties his parents bought, and Edward Chen enrolled at the University of Virginia. As reported by A&E, the brothers both enjoyed working with plants and were part of the school's garden club. Do you still find out new things about old friends that are surprising, like military school or bachelor party destinations? Soares said law enforcement officials are dealing with "one of the most complicated sets of circumstances [they] ever experienced in an investigation.". [5], Bramblett's case was featured on the popular CourtTV crime show Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 16: "Private Thoughts"[6] and Discovery Channel's The New Detectives - Season 4, Episode 4: "Dead Wrong".[7]. The elder Chens lived mostly in Taiwan and were not reported missing. The. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. ", In addition to local authorities, The Daily Gazette reports that the FBI, Homeland Security, and state police have assisted in the investigation into the Chen family murders. The Chens were very successful business people, they lived in a nice mansion in a very wealthy neighborhood. However, Mandy never turned Ed in, they got married, had a child together and were married for about two years. He requested the services of a public defender, but Judge Jane Delbridge found he has sufficient financial resources to pay for an attorney. The judge agreed and the confession was thrown out. Chen family killings Cheshire home invasion murders Chisolm Massacre Clutter family murders Darnell Collins Kevin Cooper (prisoner) 2011 Copley Township shooting Corbly Family massacre Manuel Martnez Coronado Covina massacre Cowden family murders Lugano District shootings D Dardeen family homicides Dawson murder case 2011 murder of the Ding family People who knew the family stated how they routinely traveled to Taiwan to meet their relatives, despite the fact that they were thought to be kind-hearted and relatively kind. The wave of murders, known as the " Golden Years Killings", included more than a dozen elderly women in total, some of which remain unsolved cases. When authorities arrived on the scene, they found 39-year-old Jin Feng Chen dead on the first floor of his home. A McLean man killed his wife and son Friday before shooting himself, police in Fairfax County said Saturday. The Unsolved Chen Family Murders of Upstate New York Remain Shrouded in Mystery, https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/chen-family-murder. [6] Even so, Soares admitted at a news conference around the anniversary of the Chens' deaths that very little progress had been made. Fairfax County police believe Hong Chen fatally shot Zhou, his wife, and James Chen, his son. Chen then locked up the house and avoided suspicion by making sure that the lawn and exterior were maintained. In 1998, according to court records, Chen assumed his brother's identity and began selling the family's homes. She declined to set bond. Their . As reported by A&E, one of Chen's coworkers went to his home to find out why he did not show up for work. In addition, two women testified that, in the 1970s, Bramblett had given them alcohol and molested them when they were eleven and fourteen years old.[1]. He also said the only person who can answer all of the detectives' questions is the killer. It's been 20 years since the Short family was killed. Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible: The Mysterious Murders of Teenage Best Friends, The Yogurt Shop Murders Cold Case: Revisiting the Scene of the Crime, The Cold Case Murders That Keep Retired Detectives Up at Night. Realizing that something was afoot, the police immediately got in touch with the Chens relatives from Taiwan, who insisted that Edward had informed them how a car accident claimed Wu-Hung, Weh-Mei, and Raymonds lives. HARRIS COUNTY, Texas A man accused in a 2014 quadruple murder in the Cypress area was arrested Sunday, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. The Chens were a very traditional family, but they came to the U.S. so that the boys could go to school. Ed had told Vickie his parents and brother had all died tragically. . Eventually, the police discovered blood splatters belonging to Wu-Hung at the Chen family home, but the bodies were never recovered. The Chens were in Taiwan more than they were in Virginia. You have to actually be sitting across from the person who did that to ask that question.. Investigators have considered links to Chinese American organized crime; there is evidence the Chens may have been involved in illegal gambling and/or the human trafficking of undocumented immigrants from China. The guard . He and his wife spent most of their time in Taiwan, giving rise to the assumption that is where they were, Horan said. Soon police gathered additional incriminating evidence against Bramblett. Police are asking anyone with information to call Detective Spooner at (703) 246-7800, or contact Crime Solvers by visiting http://www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or text-a-tip by texting TIP187 plus your message to CRIMES(274637). Police said the Fostins have fully cooperated with an investigation that revealed enough forensic evidence to charge Edward Chen on three counts of murder. Contents of this site are Copyright 2023 Ellington. I hope Eds rotting in his prison cell thinking about he did. Also, how do you WILLINGLY help someone cut up bodies and dump them. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. A hearing was set for 1:30 p.m. on May 3. All Rights Reserved. [2], Earl Bramblett, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, was a close friend of the Hodges family. Lets dive into the details surrounding the incident, shall we? He went to the Chens' house a half-mile (1km) away, on Western Avenue (U.S. Route 20), a busy four-lane highway, and found the bodies. Ed admitted to everything. One day, Vickie found passports that belonged to his parents, and the last stamp on the passports was from the U.S. Vickie told the police there was another person who could back up her story, Eds ex-wife, Mandy. Hong Chen, 52, Shirley Zhou, 48, and James Wenjie Chen, 16, were found dead in their. Although the police were reluctant to believe Vickie initially, she stuck to her story and even claimed to have more witnesses. I personally think 36 years is a light sentence for 3 brutal murders. Chen said he shot them because they were trying to break up his relationship with his girlfriend. Still, law enforcement officials could not find any evidence of complaints or criminal records related to the Chen family, and their neighbors did not report seeing any conflicts between family members. Not just that, he later sold the house in 1999, when a pipe burst caused flooding. [5], Funeral services were held in Chinatown a month after the killings, to allow relatives from China to obtain visas and flights in order to attend. GUILDERLAND . Authorities eventually determined the murders occurred in the early morning hours of October 8, 2014. Wu-Hung and Yei-Mei were constantly traveling to Taiwan, often leaving the two boys at home in their large home. Ed was with his five year old daughter, Samantha, at the time and he said he wanted to say goodbye to her. [6] They attended the local elementary school. The police also took Vickies story with a grain of salt at first, because they maybe thought she was a jealous ex. During their time there, a number of mysterious events occurred, including the "disappearance" of an illegitimate baby birthed by one of the students and the death of Mary's son, John, found burned to death in his bed. People still talk about it., As for whether he believes the Chens will ever get justice, Gosh, he says, after pausing a beat. For example, Guilderland police had to find an interpreter who spoke the appropriate Chinese dialect to communicate with some of the people who knew the Chen family, local media reported. Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher ruled last month that Chen's confession was inadmissible because he had told detectives "I don't want to talk about it" before relating details of the crime. On October 8, 2014, 39-year-old Jin Feng Chen failed to report for work at a Chinese restaurant near his Guilderland, New Yorkhome. Muller said the tragedy affected the entire community. However, their relationship ended after two years. I dont believe hes sorry about what he did. "That's satisfactory.". At this rate, the police still didnt have the bodies, but they did decide to do one more thing. She immediately asked her then-partner to explain, and he stated that he had bought a rifle and murdered his brother and parents. Tips can also be submitted by calling 1-866-411-TIPS(8477), or call Fairfax County Police at (703) 691-2131. Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. I feel very guilty for what I did.". [4], Investigators were also looking at possible connections with two other unsolved killings of Chinese immigrant families that had occurred elsewhere in the U.S. during the 2010s. "I've never seen anything like it", said Carol Lawlor, the town's police chief. The brutal, unsolved quadruple homicide has affected the community deeplyand is still on peoples minds, Pastor Charlie Muller told A&E True Crime. Kingstowne 6489 Windham Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22315 - Judith M. Caudill was shot here by her son, Ralph. But after the March 19 phone call to police by Chen's ex-girlfriend, Vickie Henry, detectives quickly investigated and arrested Chen on March 29. [3] A pair of jeans were found soaking at his place of employment, discovered by another employee after noticing water leaking through the door, and were determined to contain stains of the same flammable liquid used to start the fire at the Hodges's home. They didnt have bodies or evidence, besides the word of two of Eds exes. [1] Further investigation determined that the barrel of the murder weapon had been removed after Blaine had been killed, and that Blaine had been killed before the rest of his family. Ed had to tip toe around his relationship with Mandy, even buying two apartments so his parents wouldnt find out. The police could tell when she was telling them about it she was being honest, and she was having to relive the horrific day. This page is not available in other languages. With a trial set for yesterday, Chen's attorneys, Peter D. Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro, negotiated a deal. Its season 4 episode 6, titled Ghost of Great Falls.. [3], From the beginning there were allegations that the Chens had been involved in illegal business activities in addition to, or even instead of, the restaurant, such as human trafficking, money laundering, or illegal gambling. The police needed more evidence before they could rip up the flooring. Michael said he and Ed met, and Ed had told him weird stories and asked him strange questions about dead people, and what he would do to get rid of dead bodies. She had grown up not only in the town but in the neighborhood where the Chens lived, which made it affect her even more. Mandy was confused, until Ed said they were dead and he could prove it to her. In spring of 2002, the Fairfax police received a tip from Eds ex-fiance, a woman name Vickie Taylor. Interestingly, the court initially considered Edwards confession in police custody inadmissible, but Mandy, Michael, and Vickies testimonies helped strengthen the case. Asked how they could be located after so much time had passed, Horan said Thats an art form all by itself.. In the early afternoon of October 8, 2014, a coworker of Jin Chen, 39, of Guilderland, New York, United States found the bodies of Chen, his wife and their two children in their home. Horan said he would not seek charges against Chen's ex-wife, who saw the bodies but did not report the killings, or Reese. Investigation Discovery released this preview of the program: To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com. All of the Chen properties were held in a family trust, with Raymond Chen appointed as trustee. Chen, the newspaper said, had allegedly been involved in large transfers of unrecorded cash used to pay undocumented Chinese workers at restaurants in the New York City area, the Capital District and beyond,[9] transporting them from Chinatown to their jobs and back and providing accommodation in cities too far away for day bus trips. My brother and my parents." In the weeks following the murder, local Pastor Charlie Muller's church donated $5,000 for a reward. Earl Conrad Bramblett (March 20, 1942 April 9, 2003) was an American mass murderer, convicted for the killing of four members of the Hodges family in August 1994 in Vinton, Virginia. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. The company eventually complied, but Soares said their dealings with it "set us back considerably". Ed had become very unhappy and even confrontational. [7] At the beginning of 2014, another Chinese family of four were found shot in the heads in their home outside Houston, Texas. Despite more than 600 leads in the case, investigators couldnt zero in on any suspects. "[4], Bramblett was a suspect in the 1977 disappearances of Tammy Akers and Angela Rader, who were both 14 years old and worked for him at the time. . Police are continuing to investigate and said autopsies will be done to determine the victims' exact cause and manner of death. He and a friend dumped the bodies in the Chesapeake Bay, and Chen sold the house, keeping the crime not just unsolved but unknown. Chen Jinfeng () and his similarly aged wife, Hai Yan Li (), natives of Houyu[5] in the province of Fujian on the southeastern shore of mainland China, came to the U.S. in the early 2000s. [2] Firefighters and police found fire burning throughout the house. The bullets used to kill the victims were determined to be of the same composition as bullets found in a vehicle belonging to Bramblett. The combined plea and sentencing hearing brought an abrupt end to a case that unfolded just as suddenly nine months ago, when Chen's ex-girlfriend called Fairfax County police and revealed Chen's secret. Anthony and Eddy Chen attended Guilderland Elementary School, where they were both described as happy and thoughtful students. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/12/10/fairfax-man-admits-killing-parents-brother/5008dc2d-f891-41bf-bcff-c3f1aaeb9148/, https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/true-crime/murders-of-wu-hung-weh-mei-and-raymond-chen-by-edward-chen-spotlighted/, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/04/05/bodies-left-in-home-4-years-police-say/0b278b65-6233-4641-9a92-9db52de7ab2d/. [3], In 2018, Robert Patnaude, commander of state police Troop G, which covers the Albany area, reiterated earlier pleas for help from the public, noting that sometimes even apparently trivial and innocuous information has solved cases. In a strange and surprising development, one Vickie Henry called the Fairfax County police department and claimed that she had information about the murders of Wu-Hung, Weh-Mei, and Raymond Chen. Rosalyn Kowalski, who was a neighbor of the Chens, told 6 News, "I'll never forget that day, never." [3] The family offered a $5,000 reward,[5] and Soares promised that, to the extent he could, his office would not initiate any actions that would result in deportation against anyone who had information to share, but neither offer induced much cooperation with the police. [1], Local law enforcement officials said later that the investigation progressed very slowly during its first 48 hours, a crucial period. Bramblett's sister provided police with a box he had left with her, which contained several audiotapes on which he spoke of his sexual attraction to 11-year-old Winter Hodges, and of his belief that the family, including Winter, was conspiring to set him up for child molestation charges. 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