Torres administration utilizing all resources to solve cold cases

The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is using all available resources and is doing all it can in solving several high-profile cases that have gone cold in the last two years. Torres is personally concerned in the unsolved cases particularly those involving two pairs of missing sisters.

Siblings Faloma and Maleina Luhk, who were only 10 and 9 years old, were last seen on May 25, 2011 near a bus stop pavilion in As Teo, while Japanese sisters Natsuki and Chinatsu Yamada went missing in June 2014.

A fatal shooting of a security guard and a number of murder cases involving Chinese farmers are also among the cases that have yet to be solved.

Torres has instructed Department of Public Safety Commissioner Robert Guerrero to use their available resources and find ways to solve the cases.

The administration said they have talked to both the families of the Luhk and Yamada sisters and the DPS informed them that they are trying to get all of its resources in place to solve the said cases.

The governor said he wants to give all the families closure and resolution on the case of both missing Luhk and Yamada sisters. The administration added that they want the investigation to continue and have the cases move forward as long as all four still remain missing.

Last May marked the fifth year that the Luhk sisters have been missing, while last June was the second year of the mysterious disappearance of the Yamada siblings.

The disappearance of the Luhk sisters became the most extensive island-wide search of missing persons in the CNMI’s history with the FBI along with local law enforcers and civilian volunteers taking part.

Hideki and Kozue Yamada, Natsuki and Chinatsu’s parents, have been coming back every two to three months to get an update on the case of their missing daughters. The couple even participated in this year’s Saipan Marathon to keep the community aware of their situation.

Tomorrow also marks the first year of the disappearance of Chinese businessman Jian Zhu Deng, who went spear fishing in Marpi in September 2015.

A number of homicide cases also remain unsolved with 39-year-old James Patrick Deleon Guerrero being gunned down in what looked like an attempted robbery in a poker arcade in Afetnas. In November 2014, the bodies of Chinese farmers Hai Ren Li and Cheng You Li were found dumped at the old airport runway in Koblerville.

Guo Huang Xu and his wife Qing Xiu Zheng, also farmers, died after their house was gutted by fire in what police classified as a double homicide case on Feb. 23, 2014, while another Chinese couple—Jun Li Yang and Jing Liu—were murdered execution style in their home in San Vicente in December 2012.