A man who admits he beat his mother to death with a hammer described Thursday how he threw the weapon and a suitcase containing the body into the Fraser River. Yuan Xi Tang, 28, has pleaded not guilty to the June 2012 first-degree murder charge in relation to the June 2012 killing of Lianjie Guo, 47, in a Richmond rooming house.
A jury was shown video of Tang confessing to the killing and admitting to undercover police officers he planned to murder his mother, who he believed was too controlling and had destroyed his life.
On Wednesday, Tang testified he had used a hammer to strike his mother over the head, but insisted it was not a planned attack.
He said he stuffed her body into a suitcase and placed the suitcase in a storage locker along with the hammer, which was in a school bag. On Thursday, he testified at first he didn’t know what to do with the body and did some Internet research on how to dispose of bodies, but determined the methods were too “brutal” for him to try.
Then he recalled there was a river near No. 2 Road in Richmond and the river would lead out to the sea, he testified Thursday.
In the early morning hours of June 8, 2012, he collected the suitcase and the hammer and drove to the No. 2 Road bridge, which crosses the middle arm of the Fraser River.
He parked in a nearby parking lot and walked with the bag containing the hammer to the middle of the bridge, he said.
“I took the opportunity when there were no cars passing to throw the school bag with the hammer with great force into the middle of the river,” he told a B.C. Supreme Court jury.
Tang said he decided not to throw the suitcase containing the body off the bridge because it might raise suspicion.
Instead, he carried the suitcase underneath the bridge, walked into the river and released the suitcase.
“I saw the suitcase being carried away by the water and drifting into the river.”
Tang’s mother and his father were visiting him from China at the time of the slaying.
After he killed his mother, Tang told his dad she was missing and contacted police. Several months later, RCMP launched an undercover operation aimed at wringing a confession out of Tang.
The trial continues.
