The man accused of slaughtering a family of four from Cypress in 2014 did so because of a work dispute involving a job promotion with one of the victims, according to court documents that prosecutors filed Wednesday.
Feng Lu is charged with capital murder for the killings of Maoye and MeiXie Sun and their two sons, Timothy and Titus. The family was found slain in their home on Fosters Creek Drive on Jan. 30, 2014. They'd all been shot in the head, in separate bedrooms.
The case went unsolved for more than eight years — until Tuesday, when Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced that investigators had identified a suspect who was subsequently arrested in San Francisco on Sept. 11 after arriving in the U.S. on a flight from China.
Lu's Motive Determined as Professional Jealousy
The murders had baffled and alarmed friends and family for years. The new documents reveal that Lu's motive boiled down to professional jealousy, according to the criminal complaint filed in the Harris County District Clerk's Office.
During an interview with investigators, Lu told police he asked Sun, who worked alongside him at the oil and gas company Cameron International Corporation, for a recommendation for a promotion – a move to the company's research and development section.
Lu told police he heard that Sun did not provide the recommendation, so he called him to ask why he didn't give it. Sun reportedly told Lu he did recommend him, the documents state. But when Lu arrived at work the next day, his coworkers treated him differently, leading him to think Sun had made derogatory remarks about him and "may have been the reason he didn't get the promotion."
According to court documents, Lu bought a gun on Jan. 23, 2014. Investigators believe he used that same gun to kill the Sun family two days later.
DNA Evidence
Lu told investigators he didn't know the rest of the Sun family, or where they lived. However, court documents say DNA evidence contradicts that statement.
The records also show that forensic technicians recovered DNA mixtures from a Coach purse they recovered at the Sun family home but weren't initially able to identify them. In January, analysts from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences subsequently used another test which identified the mixtures as containing Lu's DNA and MeiXie Sun's DNA.
Investigators sought a warrant shortly after that, but weren't able to arrest Lu until earlier this week, when he arrived in California on a flight from China. Lu is currently in California awaiting extradition. A lawyer has not yet been appointed in his case. Prosecutors are asking he be held without bail, records show.
