An Iowa City police news release issued Monday night said Xiangnan Li, 23, surrendered to police in Wenzhou on May 13 and was arrested on June 19 to face a charge of intentional homicide.
Advertisement
“The investigation showed that on September 7, 2014, Li killed Shao and fled the United States to China,” officials said.
After Shao’s body was found on September 26, 2014, Iowa authorities began weighing their options, Johnson County prosecutor Janet Lyness said.
“I think that there was significant pressure from the Chinese government and the family of the victim on the authorities to make an arrest”, she said “The Department of Justice also indicated our hope that he would be prosecuted as well”.
A student from Zhejiang province suspected of strangling his girlfriend to death while studying overseas in the United States was arrested in China, almost 10 months after the victim was found dead, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced on Monday. During their conversation, Shao allegedly complained to the other man about Li and “said things about him that were not nice”, according to court documents.
Chinese and American investigators studied the crime scene and questioned certain witnesses.
Iowa investigators say Li was at one point intimate with Shao, who was a ex- Iowa State student.
“I said to them, ‘Once we give you this evidence, this could prevent us from prosecuting him”.
Iowa City police said it hasn’t been determined whether officials here will be going overseas for Li’s trial, but there could be a chance one or two investigators may testify.
“He had fled the country prior to us even finding the body, or at the same time we were finding the body he was on his way back to China and really out of our reach”, said Sgt.
“I think we were aware… that it was likely he wouldn’t be extradited”, Diersen said.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau of China released a statement indicating that that in recent years, thanks to the increasingly strengthened cooperation between the Chinese police and the global police, several case of violent nature have been brought to justice. Police wrote in a search warrant that “evidence of Tong Shao’s death may be found in the hotel room”.
Sept. 17: Shao is reported missing to the Ames Police Department.
Shao told CNN he was told by Wenzhou police that they had been monitoring Li’s movements since early April. Police identified Li as a person of interest after he flew to China.
Advertisement
“They went out of their way to come over here and get what they needed and I feel confident that they have what they need to effectively prosecute the case”, Zach Diersen, sergeant of investigations with the Iowa City Police Department, said. His arrest was ratified by the Wenzhou City People’s Procuratorate on June 19.
