A Sydney couple are believed to have been killed in a “targeted double murder” before their bodies were dumped in a park and the alleged offenders fled overseas, New South Wales police have said.
The body of Zhuojun “Sally” Li, 33, was found wrapped in plastic in bushland at Sir Joseph Banks Park in Botany near Sydney airport on 9 December. On Tuesday, police said detectives found a second body about 10 metres from where they had found Li’s body.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Det Supt Danny Doherty said there was a “strong likelihood” the body was that of Li’s husband, Jai-Bao “Rex” Chen, also 33. The body was yet to be formally identified.
Doherty said the second body was found submerged in the creek covered by reeds and had not been removed yet.
Doherty said it could be difficult to identify the body because it was in such a state of decomposition, but police had contacted Chen’s next of kin in Taiwan.
“There is a strong likelihood and assumption that this is the body of Rex,” he said.
He said police believed Chen and Li had been murdered in Greenacre in Sydney’s west, where they lived, and then dumped in the bushland at the same time, around the end of November.
“At this stage, we are treating it as more than likely a targeted double murder,” he said. “As we said previously, a very strong investigative theory is that a third party is involved.”
Doherty said a “strong line of inquiry” was that the suspected killers were motivated by Chen and Li’s “financial debts”.
“They owed money,” he said. “There was no other criminality that we were aware of, and certainly Sally has unfortunately become a victim because of that.”
He said at least two people were likely involved, and police believed they had travelled to Queensland before travelling overseas.
He said Chen’s phone, which was retrieved in Queensland, had been used by someone responsible for his suspected death.
“That phone has been forensically examined as well,” he said.
Doherty said detectives were working with police in Queensland as well as authorities in China and Taiwan.
He sought to dispel the “innuendo” that Chen may have been involved in Li’s death.
“That’s obviously not the case,” he said.
Homicide detectives created Strike Force Zygon to investigate Li’s death after her body was found earlier this month.
She was reported missing when her mother was unable to get in contact with her, police said.
On 14 December, police made a public appeal to locate Chen, saying they held “grave concerns” for his welfare.
Police have said their investigation continues and they are still appealing for people to contact them if they have any information about a silver Toyota Avensis they say stopped on the northern side of Foreshore Road in Botany between 4am and 5am on 30 November.
