HOUSTON — The man charged in the 2014 killings of a Cypress-area family will stay behind bars for now. A Harris County judge denied a bond request for 58-year-old Feng Lu.
He is charged with capital murder for the execution-style shooting deaths of Maoye Sun, 50, Mei Xie, 49, and their sons, 7-year-old Timothy and 9-year-old Titus.
Lu was taken into custody earlier this month when he landed in San Francisco on a flight from China, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
The crime
On Jan. 30, 2014, Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies showed up at a Cypress-area home on Fosters Creek Drive on a welfare check.
They found all four members of the Sun family dead from gunshot wounds.
At the time, investigators had no idea who killed the family or why anyone would want them dead.
The case stunned the community and the Houston Chinese Alliance and Crime Stoppers offered a $75,000 reward in 2015.
"I want you to remember that you killed two children. I want that to burn in your brain," Sheriff Adrian Garcia said at a news conference to announce the reward. "I want it to give you a heart condition. I want it to give you ulcers."
What was the motive?
The killings made news coverage in China where some reports said Maoye Sun may have been connected to a high-ranking Chinese government official being investigated for corruption. The story and theories of a professional assassination also circulated in the neighborhood. Others thought it could have been a hate crime.
The Houston Chinese Alliance formed the same year of the family's deaths. HCA President Yingying Sun (not related to the victims) said it held a vigil for the family.
“I remember very clearly,” Sun said in a previous interview with KHOU 11 News. “Everyone in the Chinese community and in that neighborhood feared about their own safety.”
Investigators identified and charged Lu with capital murder. He was taken into custody after arriving from China and was taken to the San Mateo County Jail, where he was held until he was extradited to Texas.
“I’m very happy to know the updates on this case because, for a very long time, we think this became a dead case,” Sun said during the previous interview. “I think we need the truth, to bring justice and let everyone feel peace.”
Maoye Sun was an engineer and his sons went to school at Sampson Elementary.
Maoye Sun and Lu worked together in Houston and Lu could have been mad at his co-worker after not getting a promotion, according to court records. In January, forensic technicians were able to identify DNA found at the scene as Lu's, according to court documents.