Another double homicide

Two Chinese male farmers who were last seen on Friday were found dead, their bodies dumped in a grassy area at the old airport runway in Koblerville yesterday morning.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero said the case is being considered a double homicide as investigators found visible signs of foul play.

Deleon Guerrero said that relatives identified yesterday afternoon the bodies at the Commonwealth Health Center as Hai Ren Li, 51, and Cheng You Li, 47.

Yesterday’s incident is the third double homicide involving Chinese nationals on Saipan since December 2012, and the fourth since 1995.

Deleon Guerrero said the bodies of Hai Ren Li and Cheng You Li were found next to each other in the grassy area on the runway.

The DPS chief said the bodies were located about 50 meters from a white Toyota Tacoma that they used in going to their farm and was found abandoned within a jungle in As Gonno.

Deleon Guerrero said the bodies were already starting to decompose.

The two were found wearing the same clothes they had when they were last seen alive.

Police towed the car away for processing.

“I am particularly concerned at this point and I really seriously do appeal and urge members, especially the Chinese community, to step forward and assist DPS by providing information they may have that will help us in solving this,” Deleon Guerrero said.

According to police investigation, DPS Dispatch received a call about two missing persons on Saturday at 9:39am.

Preliminary investigation conducted by Patrol Officer Edward Cepeda showed that friends of the victims were concerned for their whereabouts.

Hai Ren Li and Cheng You Li were last seen in the afternoon of Friday when they left their respective homes in As Lito and San Antonio between 12pm and 2:30pm.

Witnesses claim that the two were headed to a farm in As Gonno and were aboard a white Toyota Tacoma. It was not clear yet who owns the Toyota Tacoma.

Later that evening, family members became aware that the victims never returned home. Phone calls made in an attempt to reach the two were unsuccessful.

On Saturday, a formal report of missing persons was made and police and family members did a search of the immediate surroundings.

A search team found the Toyota Tacoma in the jungle area in As Gonno.

Yesterday at 10:22am, family members who joined the search found the bodies at the old runway.

Aside from patrol officers, authorities from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Agency, DPS Criminal Bureau of Investigation, and members of the DPS Search and Rescue Unit assisted in the search.

Deleon Guerrero said the victims were not tied up and there were no weapons found at the scene where the bodies were discovered.

Deleon Guerrero said it appeared that the bodies were just dumped in the old runway. He declined to state how the two were killed.

He said they will be submitting a formal request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist them in forensic processing that will be required as part of the investigation.

He said Guam chief medical examiner Aurelio Espinola will conduct an autopsy on the bodies.

As of yesterday, there was no person of interest yet as investigation is ongoing, he said.

The commissioner said the victims arrived on Saipan sometime in 2006 or 2007.

Deleon Guerrero said he has no information yet as to the motive as investigation is ongoing.

He said they have reason to believe that there are individuals who may have information that can help them solve the three double homicide cases.

“It’s becoming a desperate situation for DPS at this point where we really do want to solve these murders but the limited cooperation on the part of members of the community,” he added.

The latest victims had been farming in As Gonno, the same area where Guo Huang Xu and his wife, Qing Xiu Zheng, were found charred in their house that was razed to the ground by fire last Feb. 23.

On Dec. 8, 2012, couple Jun Li Yang and Jing Liu were found murdered inside their home in San Vicente. Jing Liu was president, treasurer and secretary of a company that was planning to put up a recycling center and was engaged in apartment rental.

In March 1995, Zhao Ming Hou and his wife, Yu Hua Huang, who were then owners of Ming-Hua Market in Dandan, were found dead in separate areas in Kagman 3. Prior to the discovery of their bodies, their store was burglarized.

All these double homicides involving Chinese national have remained unsolved.