Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Shao Tong Lian was indicted by a grand jury and charged with murder in the second degree for the August 2022 death of 55-year-old Fang Chen, who was discovered fatally stabbed after the defendant visited her Flushing apartment for sex.

District Attorney Katz said: “As alleged, this defendant arranged to pay the victim for sex and then brutally stabbed her to death less than 20 minutes after arriving at her apartment. My office, working with the NYPD, secured an indictment against this defendant charging him with murder. Our condolences are with the Chen family as they continue to mourn her loss.”

Lian, 41, of Sixth Avenue in Brooklyn, was arraigned yesterday on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant remanded the defendant and ordered him to return to court June 24.

If convicted, the defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges, on August 25, 2022, at approximately 8:48 p.m. Lian allegedly went to meet Fang Chen at her apartment on 41^st Road in Flushing to pay her for sex. The victim let the defendant into the building’s front door at 8:53 p.m. According to video surveillance, Lian left the building at approximately 9:08 p.m.

The following morning, at approximately 7 a.m., Chen’s body was discovered by her roommate lying face down in a pool of blood on her bedroom floor. Chen sustained four stab wounds to the neck, 10 stab wounds to the back, injuries to her right hand and a blunt injury of the brain.

DNA left at the crime scene was matched to Lian.

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Rella, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Veronika Podoprigora, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, Bureau Chief, and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.