Cheng Long Wang was 60 years old when he died on Thursday, October 20, 2016, in Diamond Bar, in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 3300 block of Bent Twig Lane. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
He was known to friends as David, and he was killed in his own home together with his wife of 30 years, Mei Chu Chung, known as Marian.
According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, one of the couple's children, away at college, asked a friend to check on them after not hearing from them for a while. The friend went to the house, found them and called 911. Sheriff's Lt. John Corina said the two were found in separate rooms, both "had been stabbed multiple times," and there were "signs of a struggle." The weapon was never found.
The Sheriff's Department said the attack happened "sometime between Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at 7 p.m. and Thursday October 20, 2016 at 9 a.m." Its statement described him as an "avid table tennis player and retired father of two." The couple had emigrated from Taiwan in 2000. Accounts of his working life differ: the couple's adult son told reporters he had worked as a computer programmer, while a neighbor told the Tribune he was a retired doctor of Chinese medicine.
At first, detectives said there were no obvious signs of robbery. By March 2017 that view had changed. Capt. Steve Katz said investigators believed the couple "had been victims of a robbery" and that about $15,000 had been taken, and that "the assailant knew the couple kept large amounts of cash in the home," according to the Associated Press. CBS Los Angeles reported that the house showed no signs of forced entry. Those details suggest the killer may have known the couple or their habits, though detectives never said so directly.
At a news conference that March, their son, Dr. Gary Wang, flew in from Iowa. "They didn't deserve a death like this," he said. "They were just honest people who lived within their means." Sheriff Jim McDonnell called the couple "a classic example of the American success story," and officials announced a $30,000 reward, $20,000 from the county and $10,000 from the city of Diamond Bar.
Diamond Bar is a hillside suburb near the junction of the 57 and 60 freeways, incorporated as a city in 1989. Katz called the killings "extremely unusual" for the community. Like many smaller cities in the county, Diamond Bar contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Cheng Long Wang could be found in news archives or public records. More than nine years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew the couple, who had heard talk of cash kept in their home, or who saw anything on Bent Twig Lane on the night of October 19, 2016, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
