Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. As many of the people they sought to interview were Chinese and did not speak fluent English, detectives had to determine which dialect the witnesses used and find appropriate interpreters. [5], Newsday reported a month after the crime that state police had been putting up bilingual fliers seeking information and tips in restaurants and stores along East Broadway, in the section of Chinatown that, due to its high concentration of Fujianese immigrants in recent years, has increasingly come to be known as Little Fuzhou. Although Virginia does not have parole, it does reduce sentences slightly for good behavior. [4] They have also considered whether the killings are connected to two other unsolved slayings of Chinese immigrant families elsewhere in the U.S. during the early 2010s. [2] Bramblett displayed anger and stated that the "son of a bitch offed his family and killed himself", which indicated prior knowledge and immediately made him a prime suspect.[1]. No one had suggested it. [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. Investigators also looked into any possible links to multiple homicide cases involving members of Chinese families in Mississippi and Texas, but found no direct connections, The Altamont Enterprise reported. This was a very intentional act with very intended targets, Soares said in a October 6, 2015 press conference. The company eventually complied, but Soares said their dealings with it "set us back considerably". Although Mandy and Edward kept meeting up in secret, he seemed to be in good spirits in August of 1995 and claimed that no one would stop them from living together ever again. The Chen family, Wu-Hung, 53, Yei-Mei, 52, Raymond, 25, and Edward, moved from Taiwan to Fairfax, Virginia. Wu-Hung and Yei-Mei were constantly traveling to Taiwan, often leaving the two boys at home in their large home. Bramblett reportedly told friends that he wished he had not "hurt Tammy" three years after she went missing, though he was never charged in either Akers's or Rader's disappearances and their whereabouts are still unknown. Edward Chen, the Chens' younger son and Raymond's younger brother, is now charged with three counts of murder. The guard . Ed Chen murdered his moth The bodies of Wu Hong Chen, 53; Shieh Yeh-Mei Chen, 52, and Raymond Chen, 26, have never been found. "It is very unclear whether he was working," said Horan. Two similar houses in the same neighborhood sold last fall for $825,000 and $1,000,000, according to county records. Police reported no past issues at the Chen homes, or complaints from neighbors. [5], A week after the killings, the Times-Union reported that there was some evidence to support those claims as the New York City Police Department (NYPD) began assisting by investigating possible leads in its jurisdiction. The bodies of Wu Hong Chen, 53; Shieh Yeh-Mei Chen, 52, and Raymond Chen, 26, have never been found. I hope Eds rotting in his prison cell thinking about he did. American Chinese-language media, such as the newspapers World Journal and Sing Tao, widely read among recent immigrants, also sent reporters to cover the case. Fairfax County, Va, officials arrest 27-year-old Edward Chen for 1995 murders of parents and brother (S) The brutal, unsolved quadruple homicide has affected the community deeplyand is still on peoples minds, Pastor Charlie Muller told A&E True Crime. Chen family killings - Wikipedia Anthony and Eddy Chen attended Guilderland Elementary School, where they were both described as happy and thoughtful students. 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. Asked how they could be located after so much time had passed, Horan said Thats an art form all by itself.. At the time of his arrest he was living in an apartment he rented at Worldgate in Herndon. As part of a plea agreement, Edward eventually pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and admitted that he had purchased a rifle and shot Wu-Hung, Weh-Mei, and Raymond Chen dead in August 1995. In spring of 2002, the Fairfax police received a tip from Eds ex-fiance, a woman name Vickie Taylor. Its season 4 episode 6, titled Ghost of Great Falls.. Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist and serial killer, confessed to the murders. The house is situated among homes that in today's rising market are valued between $800,000 and $1,000,000. The church runs a childrens home in Guilderland, about five miles from the Chens home. It was the first quadruple homicide to occur in New York's Capital District, the region surrounding Albany, the state capital. On October 8, 2014, 39-year-old Jin Feng Chen failed to report for work at a Chinese restaurant near his Guilderland, New Yorkhome. Chen had owned a restaurant, but the business was all but closed for about two years, leading to questions about how he made a living, sources also told the newspaper. Raymond Chen began working in real estate, including overseeing five Fairfax properties his parents bought, and Edward Chen enrolled at the University of Virginia. 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. Updated: 1:56 PM EDT June 30, 2022. However, Vickie was the one to end the relationship. Although the police were reluctant to believe Vickie initially, she stuck to her story and even claimed to have more witnesses. [2] No suspects have been identified and as of January 2020[update], the investigation is continuing. Police requested an interview with Bramblett, during which they told him the family had died in a fire, without mentioning the evidence of violence. Their children attended Guilderland Elementary School. 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. Samantha was eventually picked up that day by a friend of Eds. What We Know About The Unsolved 2014 Murders Of The Chen Family The disturbing case of the Chen family from Fairfax County in Virginia .If you enjoy my narration, please subscribe to my channel and click the bell icon for more true crime stories every. Short family murders | Special task force finds a few new leads Members of the Henry County Sheriff's Office announced a new task force will take a new look into the murders of the. A young man named Edward Chen was charged with shooting his father, mother and brother with a rifle, stuffing their corpses into duffel bags weighted down with concrete, and dumping them in Chesapeake Bay. He kept his family's remains there until 1999, when a pipe burst and the house flooded. [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. In . Three people found dead inside a home in McLean, Virginia, on Friday died in a double murder-suicide, police said. Edward Chen returned with his family to Great Falls and killed them so that he could continue dating Kolbe, Horan said. A hearing was set for 1:30 p.m. on May 3. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star. It was determined that it was Wu-Hungs blood. It was pretty devastating, Muller says of the crime. No homes or businesses in the immediate vicinity of the Chens had security cameras that might have provided footage to review. Until one day, he told Mandy that she didnt have to worry anymore. A World Journal reporter in attendance later told the Albany Times-Union that she and her colleagues believed the family knew more about what might have led to the killings than they were ready to say publicly. A witness had seen a vehicle similar to Bramblett's driving past the Hodges home during the fire, without stopping. Their . Their daughter is now 6. This page is not available in other languages. 'Ghosts of Great Falls:' Chen Family Murders in '95 Featured on 20 years later: Sheriffs updates unsolved Short family murders - WXII Those barriers are additionally complicated by many of the potential witnesses not only speaking primarily Chinese but, as immigrants from Fujian, "Chinatown community eyed as cops work to solve quadruple slaying upstate", "2 Children Among 4 Found Dead in Home in Upstate New York", "Police, prosecutors stumped over who killed Guilderland family", "Two quadruple killings, two different tales", "Human trafficking, undocumented workers part of Guilderland homicide investigation", "Case of Chinese couple and their two young sons bludgeoned to death in US remains a mystery after a year", "A year after Chinese family murdered, no suspects here or elsewhere", "Mississippi Gulf Coast triple murder getting another look by FBI", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chen_family_killings&oldid=1145067795, This page was last edited on 17 March 2023, at 03:17. The woman told a police dispatcher that on Aug. 17, 1995, when Chen was 19, he shot his father, Wu-Hung Chen, 53; his mother, Yeh-Mei Chen, 52; and his brother, Raymond, 25. Feng Lu, 58, was taken into custody when he landed in San Francisco on a flight from China, Gonzalez said. According to some reports, large amounts of cash which came from various sources financed an underground network of undocumented Chinese citizens living in the area. He could not say yet whether the killings were the work of organized crime, but allowed that "it's certainly a theory".[4]. In 1998, according to court records, Chen assumed his brother's identity and began selling the family's homes. 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. 6 Unsolved Mysteries In Virginia That Will Leave You Baffled [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. Mandy was confused, until Ed said they were dead and he could prove it to her. Related Features: 6624 Sky Blue Court, Alexandria, VA 22315 - Samuel Appiah-Kusi murdered his wife, Monica O. Telfer, then committed suicide here. The bodies were found Friday in a house on the 1300 block of Windy Hill Road.. Read More: Catherine Kitty Pappas Murder: Is George Joseph Cvek Dead or Alive? Tips can also be submitted by calling 1-866-411-TIPS(8477), or call Fairfax County Police at (703) 691-2131. Disappearances of Tammy Akers and Angela Rader, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, List of people executed in the United States in 2003, "Family's Killer Dies in Va. Electric Chair", "Forensic Files Episode List - Forensic Files", "THE NEW DETECTIVES Season 4 Ep 4 "Dead Wrong", Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 16: "Private Thoughts" (22 minutes), The New Detectives - Season 4, Episode 4: "Dead Wrong" (53 minutes), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Earl_Bramblett&oldid=1148180202, People executed by Virginia by electric chair, 21st-century executions of American people, Articles needing additional references from April 2018, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 April 2023, at 15:06. When Leslie Leon Burchart was arrested in 2000, he admitted to murdering at least 7 elderly women in 1996 during a killing spree that spanned 6 months. Chen's brother told reporters there that his brother's body had been found on the first floor of the small bungalow, while the other members of the family were found upstairs, covered by a blanket. He was 20 when his family disappeared, according to police. He denied an early report that they had been shot, and later details emerged that the victims had been beaten with a hammer;[5] later accounts said they were stabbed as well. Chen said he shot them because they were trying to break up his relationship with his girlfriend. I couldnt find any pictures of the whole family. Ugh, its so disgusting. Edward Chen, the Chens' younger son and Raymond's younger brother, is now charged with three counts of murder. All of the Chen properties were held in a family trust, with Raymond Chen appointed as trustee. After a clemency petition to Governor of Virginia Mark Warner was rejected, along with an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Earl Bramblett was executed in the electric chair for the murder of the Hodges family at Greensville Correctional Center, Jarratt, Virginia, on April 9, 2003. Rainbow Girl Murders Book Stirs Modern Controversy - West Virginia He killed his bother Raymond first, and shot him in the upper chest area. Fairfax County police believe Hong Chen fatally shot Zhou, his wife, and James Chen, his son. After hearing this, and finally digging up the floor in Chens former house, the blood stain tested positive for blood. Nonetheless, it was impossible to mount a case without bodies, and despite Edwards former friend, Michael Reese, claiming he helped the former dump the bodies in the Chesapeake Bay, the police were unable to locate them. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. "I shot them. Chen was initially charged with aggravated first-degree murder shortly after his son, Cooper Chen, and partner, Eric Cooper, were killed in the family's First Hill condominium. Law enforcement officials determined all four victims were stabbed and beaten, with a vast majority of the injuries on their faces and heads. . HENRY COUNTY, Va. A decades-old murder case now has new leads. Wu-Hung and Weh-Mei Chen, natives of Taiwan, continued to frequently visit their two sons, Raymond and Edward, at their Great Falls home in Fairfax, Virginia. A deputy's body cam video . Once questioned, Mandy mentioned that her relationship with Edward was quite challenging since his family was against the union. 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. In the weeks following the murder, local Pastor Charlie Muller's church donated $5,000 for a reward. That night, he admitted to investigators that he had purchased a .30-30 Winchester rifle, went into his family members' bedrooms in the middle of the night and shot them. The police could tell when she was telling them about it she was being honest, and she was having to relive the horrific day. Thus, Edward Chen remains behind bars at the Baskerville Correctional Center in Baskerville, Virginia, and will be released in August 2033. The elder Chens lived mostly in Taiwan and were not reported missing. Can we all agree a one year statute of limitations on disposing a body is RIDICULOUS? [6] They attended the local elementary school. 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). However, a search of the Chens former residence revealed a dried-up blood stain, which matched Wu-Hungs blood, and convinced the police of Edwards involvement. Earl Bramblett - Wikipedia "He can't get out until he's 60," Horan said. At Eds trial, his attorney, Peter Greenspun, said the confession should be thrown out because it was coerced. The bodies of Wu Hong Chen, 53; Shieh Yeh-Mei Chen, 52, and Raymond Chen, 26, have never been found. Horan had announced that he would not seek the death penalty, but Chen still could have faced three life sentences if convicted by a jury. Horan said he would not seek charges against Chen's ex-wife, who saw the bodies but did not report the killings, or Reese. The brothers lived in a house in Herndon, and each graduated from Herndon High School. July 17, 2022 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. Ed Chen murdered his mother, father, and brother in their home and went undiscovered until . Gaining entry, authorities found 37-year-old Teresa Lynn Hodges' body on a couch, still burning she had been strangled and doused with diesel fuel. My brother and my parents." However, Mandy allegedly never reported the incident to the police out of fear and instead settled with Edward before having a child together and staying married for a year. Bramblett murdered each family member in their residence before setting it on fire, and in 1997 was sentenced to death for the murders.