Press Release

QUEENS MAN INDICTED ON MURDER CHARGES FOR MURDER AND SEX ABUSE OF WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN BUILDING LOBBY

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Quiming Wan, 52, has been indicted by a Queens grand jury and arraigned in Supreme Court on murder and related charges in the death of a 29-year-old woman whose body was found in the lobby of the defendant’s building on November 1, 2021.

District Attorney Katz said, “The defendant is accused of sexually abusing and then killing the victim, whose body was found near the residential building’s stair landing. The brutality of this crime and the subsequent disregard for this young woman belies a level of callousness that must be held to account.”

Wan, of Main Street in Flushing, Queens, was arraigned yesterday before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise on a six-count indictment charging him with two counts of murder in the second degree, aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Justice Aloise ordered the defendant to return on January 25, 2022. If convicted, Wan faces 25 years-to-life in prison.

According to the indictment, at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Monday, November 1, 2021, officers responded to the Main Street location and upon entering the lobby area, they observed the 29-year-old victim Joamei Zhou unconscious and unresponsive. She was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

The investigation was conducted by Detective John Seel of the New York City Police Department’s 109th Precinct Detective Squad and Detective Shaquan Harvin of the NYPD’s Queens North Homicide Squad.

Assistant District Attorney Courtney Charles and Antonio Vittiglio, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John Kosinski and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chiefs and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.