These are sad, and really creepy cases, IMHO. They rival those of big city Toronto. Many of them, which I have read about elsewhere, seem to have absolutely no leads, and are open ended mysteries.
I remember there was also a post-2000 case of a massacre in a brothel or massage parlour in York Region that is still unsolved, too. Many of these appear to be sex crimes, but some of them seem like planned hits, or assassinations.
Wonder who the retired LE thought was the killer in the massage parlour murders?
Also, if the 100k reward is still valid?
http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Canada/2007/04/27/4134988-sun.html
MARK BONOKOSKI
Apr 27, 2007
" Three execution-style murders tend to create a buzz in the news business, and rarely do they die a quick death.
But these murders did.
A few weeks ago, York regional police sent out a press release indicating that its police services board was doubling -- to $100,000 -- the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for the shooting deaths of two women and one man three years ago at a licensed body rub parlour in Markham.
Even that got minor play.
A day later, police officers blitzed the Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave. area surrounding the bustling Pacific Mall, distributing colour posters in English and Chinese -- to residents, businesses and to passersby -- in hopes of triggering a memory, or loosening the tongue of anyone who knew anything about the deaths of Zhu Xia Lin, 41, or Yan Jun Liu, 35, or Walter Xian Chen Zhang, 40.
Or of the distinctly unique-looking man in the composite sketch who is wanted for questioning, not necessarily as a "suspect" but definitely as a "person of interest."
snip>
" The best lead so far is apparently a witness who told police of an angry confrontation between Lin and a heavyset man shown in the composite sketch that took place inside the Mirage not long before the murders.
"He was not a customer of the spa, he was there to conduct business with Lin," Martin has said.
According to retired Toronto detective-sergeant Jim Kelly, it was also the same man he encountered on numerous occasions while working an undercover consulting contract on behalf of the Woodbine Champions off-track betting corporation, and who attracted his attention as an outsider involved in an illegal betting operation.
"He doesn't exactly have the kind of face you'd easily forget," said Kelly"
