A man accused of killing his co-worker’s family inside their Texas home more than eight years ago was arrested over the weekend after arriving at San Francisco’s airport from China, officials said.
Feng Lu, 58, was charged Sunday with capital murder in the deaths of the co-worker, Maoye Sun, 50; the man’s wife, Mei Xie, 49; and their two children, Timothy, 9, and Titus, 7, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
The family was found dead in their home in the 14000 block of Fosters Creek Drive in Cypress, Texas, on Jan. 30, 2014, each shot in the head, police said.
After years of questions and few answers, authorities have finally named Lu as the assailant who stormed the Sun family’s home, apparently bitter following a workplace dispute, based on interviews and DNA evidence.
On Sunday, Lu was taken into custody by the San Francisco Police Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.
New chilling details of the slayings that shook the quiet suburb have come to light with Lu’s arrest.
The killings
Deputies arrived at the family’s home on Jan. 30, 2014, after receiving a call about a welfare check, according to the criminal complaint filed in Harris County District Court. The caller said they had not seen Sun in four days and he had not shown up for work. Authorities discovered the rear door to the kitchen open with a foul odor coming from inside.
Inside, officers found the four family members in separate rooms. Authorities believe they were killed on or about Jan. 25, 2014.
Maoye and his wife died by gunshot wounds to the head, while Titus was shot in the head and neck and Timothy in the head and torso, according to the criminal complaint.
Their deaths were ruled homicides.
Deputies found the wife’s purse lying on the floor of the laundry room with several of its items scattered, which was submitted for forensic evidence.
Inconsistencies lead to a break in the case
The complaint does not spell out when authorities started zeroing in on Lu, but the FBI interviewed him at some point.
In that interview, Lu claimed he had never been to the Sun residence, denied knowing the other family members besides Maoye and offered up a sample of his saliva, the complaint said.
Lu told the FBI about an incident at his workplace, Cameron International, in which he asked Sun to provide a recommendation so Lu could be transferred to the research and development department.
He told agents “he heard” that Sun had not provided the recommendation. He said he called him at work in the spring of 2013 to ask why he didn’t send the recommendation, but the victim responded he had, according to the complaint.
When Lu went to work the next day, he said he was “treated differently” by his co-workers and believed Sun made “derogatory comments about him to fellow co-workers” following that phone call, which may be the reason he didn’t get the promotion, the complaint said.
He also told the FBI that he had purchased a handgun sometime during January 2014 from a gun store and returned it a few weeks later.
Investigators determined he purchased a Glock 9mm handgun on Jan. 23, 2014 — two days before the killings — and returned it on Feb 4, 2014, without the barrel.
Investigators determined the bullets used in the shooting were consistent with the bullets used with the gun he purchased.
Similar to what he told the FBI, Lu told sheriff’s office investigators he didn’t know where the Sun family lived until news coverage of their deaths.
Authorities also interviewed Lu’s wife. She confirmed there was a workplace disagreement, adding that Sun allegedly didn’t agree with her husband’s pursuit of a promotion, offiicals said.
The sheriff’s office said that there were inconsistencies in her version and Lu’s versions of what happened.
Physical evidence from the scene was also analyzed for mixtures of DNA. On Jan. 11, officials reviewed a report that found a mixture of Lu’s DNA and that of Sun’s wife on her purse, contradicting his claim that he didn’t know her or where the family lived.
It was not clear Thursday why there was a gap between that discovery in January and Lu’s arrest on Sunday.
He is being held at the San Mateo County Jail pending extradition to Texas.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation remains ongoing.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
