Prosecutor: Murder victim stabbed more than 100 times
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SEATTLE -- Aggravated murder charges were filed Tuesday against a Seattle doctor accused of killing his young son and fatally stabbing his partner more than 100 times in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood.
Prosecutors say the murders were premeditated, and the charges leave open the possibility that suspect Louis Chao Chen, 39, could face the death penalty.
The bodies were discovered Aug. 11 after family members began raising concern with others in Seattle that they couldn’t reach Chen.
Chen's sister told prosecutors she hadn't heard from him since Monday Aug. 8 and he wasn't returning any of her phone calls.
On Thursday, she phoned and asked the building manager to go to Chen's apartment and see if he was there and if so, to have him call her.
The manager went to the apartment and knocked on the door. Chen called from the other side of the door to come back in an hour, court documents said. The manager said it wasn't necessary, but told him to call his sister.
Meanwhile, the victim didn't show up for his job orientation at Virginia Mason. About an hour after his scheduled arrival time, Chen's sister called the victim's manager at the hospital and asked that she check up on him, detectives said.
The hospital employee walked over to the apartment building and met with the building manager to explain the circumstances. The building manager went to Chen's the apartment and knocked on the door and told Chen the co-worker wasn't leaving until she spoke with him, according to prosecutors. Chen agreed to let her come up.
When the two women came upstairs and knocked on Chen's door, they said they heard rustling noises "like paper or slippers sliding on a floor," according to court documents. After trying to open the door and finding it locked, they knocked several times.
Prosecutors say Chen answered the door, naked and covered in dried blood. The hospital manager noticed a man's body on the floor and immediately called 911. The operator asked her if she saw any weapons and she replied there was a butcher knife near the body. The operator told her to get it away from the body so she kicked it into the kitchen.
After the 911 call, police rushed to the apartment at 910 8th Avenue, where they found the doctor's 29-year-old partner and their 2-year-old son stabbed to death. Chen was also found injured, and when officers asked him who attacked him and his partner, Chen responded "I did," court documents said.
Chen was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he is still undergoing treatment but is expected to recover. Once he is released he will be brought to jail.
Investigators said they found five separate knives strewn about the apartment with dried blood on them, and an autopsy conducted on Chen's partner showed he was stabbed over 100 times to his face, neck, chest, back and hands, while the toddler had several cuts to his neck.
Chen and the two victims had been living together in the 17th-floor unit at the M Street Apartments for about a month. According to records obtained by KOMO News, Chen had just moved to Seattle with his partner and son from Durham, N.C., where he had just wrapped up a residency studying endocrinology at Duke University.
Prosecutors have asked that Chen be held without bail.
Prosecutors say the murders were premeditated, and the charges leave open the possibility that suspect Louis Chao Chen, 39, could face the death penalty.
The bodies were discovered Aug. 11 after family members began raising concern with others in Seattle that they couldn’t reach Chen.
Chen's sister told prosecutors she hadn't heard from him since Monday Aug. 8 and he wasn't returning any of her phone calls.
On Thursday, she phoned and asked the building manager to go to Chen's apartment and see if he was there and if so, to have him call her.
The manager went to the apartment and knocked on the door. Chen called from the other side of the door to come back in an hour, court documents said. The manager said it wasn't necessary, but told him to call his sister.
Meanwhile, the victim didn't show up for his job orientation at Virginia Mason. About an hour after his scheduled arrival time, Chen's sister called the victim's manager at the hospital and asked that she check up on him, detectives said.
The hospital employee walked over to the apartment building and met with the building manager to explain the circumstances. The building manager went to Chen's the apartment and knocked on the door and told Chen the co-worker wasn't leaving until she spoke with him, according to prosecutors. Chen agreed to let her come up.
When the two women came upstairs and knocked on Chen's door, they said they heard rustling noises "like paper or slippers sliding on a floor," according to court documents. After trying to open the door and finding it locked, they knocked several times.
Prosecutors say Chen answered the door, naked and covered in dried blood. The hospital manager noticed a man's body on the floor and immediately called 911. The operator asked her if she saw any weapons and she replied there was a butcher knife near the body. The operator told her to get it away from the body so she kicked it into the kitchen.
After the 911 call, police rushed to the apartment at 910 8th Avenue, where they found the doctor's 29-year-old partner and their 2-year-old son stabbed to death. Chen was also found injured, and when officers asked him who attacked him and his partner, Chen responded "I did," court documents said.
Chen was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he is still undergoing treatment but is expected to recover. Once he is released he will be brought to jail.
Investigators said they found five separate knives strewn about the apartment with dried blood on them, and an autopsy conducted on Chen's partner showed he was stabbed over 100 times to his face, neck, chest, back and hands, while the toddler had several cuts to his neck.
Chen and the two victims had been living together in the 17th-floor unit at the M Street Apartments for about a month. According to records obtained by KOMO News, Chen had just moved to Seattle with his partner and son from Durham, N.C., where he had just wrapped up a residency studying endocrinology at Duke University.
Prosecutors have asked that Chen be held without bail.
