A Queens grand jury indicted a Brooklyn man for the fatal stabbing of a Flushing woman after visiting her apartment for sex in August 2022.
Shao Tong Lian, 41, of Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, was arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Thursday on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree for the death of 55-year-old Fang Chen at her 41st Avenue home. If convicted, Lian faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
According to the charges, on the night of Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, Lian allegedly went to meet Chen at her apartment building at 132-59 41 Road to pay her for sex. The victim let Lian into the building’s front door at 8:53 p.m. According to video surveillance, Lian left the building at 9:08 p.m.
The following morning, at around 7 a.m., Chen’s body was discovered by her roommate lying face down in a pool of blood on her bedroom floor. Police from the 109th Precinct in Flushing responded to a 911 call of an unconscious female inside the apartment and found Chen had sustained four stab wounds to her neck, 10 stab wounds to her back, injuries to her right hand and a blunt trauma injury to the brain.
EMS responded to the location and pronounced Chen dead at the scene. Crime scene investigators recovered DNA that was matched to Lian.
“As alleged, this defendant arranged to pay the victim for sex and then brutally stabbed her to death in less than 20 minutes after arriving at her apartment,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Lian was additionally charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant remanded Lian into custody without bail and ordered him to return to court on June 24. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
“My office, working with the NYPD, secured an indictment against this defendant charging him with murder,” Katz said. “Our condolences are with the Chen family as they continue to mourn her loss.”
