Episode 25- The Abduction & Murder of Quin-Rong Wu

Episode Description- On Tuesday, May 13, 1997, 11-year-old Quin Rong Wu was walking to Public School No. 2 in Brooklyn, New York with her mother. They split ways about 100 yards from the doors to the building, and unfortunately, Quin-Rong would never make it to the school that day, disappearing in broad daylight never to be seen alive by her family again… Who took Quin-Rong Wu? This is something we still don't know the answer of to this day... In this episode we dive into the abduction and murder of Quin-Rong and some of the theories around what happened to her. We also discuss some of the cultural and language barriers that played a factor in the investigation. 

Original Episode Publication Date- March 3, 2024

Page last updated- June 10, 2024

11-year-old Quin-Rong Wu immigrated with her family to America in 1996 from the Guangdong Province of Southern China, settling in a second-floor apartment at 199 Henry Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The apartment was small, with only two rooms, one of them being a bedroom, forcing the family of five to share the two available beds in the unit. Quin-Rong was the middle child, she had a 17-year-old sister that she shared one bed with, and her parents shared the other bed with her 7-year-old brother. In China, Quin-Rong’s father was an accountant at a hospital, however when he came to America, he took a job working 12-hour shifts at a Chinese Noodle Factory for meager pay. Quin-Rong’s mother had been a farmer and began working as a seamstress in Chinatown. Things were hard for the family as they struggled to get acclimated to their new life, but overall, they felt the move was an improvement from where they had come and Quin-Rong loved everything “America” according to her family and friends.

Quin-Rong's start in life had not been easy. Prior to moving to America, Quin-Rong had been separated from her family, living with relatives due to China's One Child Policy. The one child program started to try to address concerns in China regarding their rising population. The Chinese government had been promoting family planning and birth control well before that, starting in 1949, but on September 25, 1980, the Chinese government sent out an official letter for nationwide adherence to their policy that each household could have one child, something that they had been encouraging but not enforcing starting a few years prior. The government enforced this policy by giving monetary incentives to families that complied, providing contraception, and even going so far as to force sterilization of the parents or abortions. This nationwide policy was in effect in China until 2016 and it’s been said to have had some negative consequences as they now face an aging population and disproportionate ratio of males to females as males were the preferred child in the home. Female children were either aborted in the womb, abandoned, or killed after birth, or placed in orphanages. It wasn't until Quin-Rong moved to America with her family that she lived with her parents and siblings. 

On Tuesday May 13, 1997, the day started out like any other day. Her mom walked her south on Henry Street the short distance toward the school. They parted ways about 100 yards from the school gate and her mother kissed her goodbye. Quin-Rong vanished somewhere in the short distance between where her mom said goodbye to her and the school building. Later that day, her parents would receive what was likely one of the worst phone calls of their lives, alerting them that she had not arrived for classes. Her parents would immediately notify police of her disappearance, and it seems like this was taken seriously. 

Reports went out to the media about her disappearance which would prompt a woman to come forward stating that she had seen a white man with a beard boarding the northbound subway on the Lower East Side and with him was a young Asian girl who was crying around 9 AM. She happened to see the pair again aboard the subway as it traveled from Manhattan to Brooklyn, this time the girl was not crying but appeared to be “confused and not aware of her surroundings”. The woman would exit the subway train before the pair disembarked. The man was described as approximately 40-50 years old, around 6 foot one to 6 foot 3, approximately 210 pounds with sandy colored hair and gray, blue, or green eyes. He was wearing a blue windbreaker, striped polo shirt, a pair of khakis and light-colored converse sneakers. Police took advantage of this lead to try to find him, and followed other leads as well, however they were not able to find Quin-Rong before the unthinkable happened. Two weeks after her disappearance, the body of a young girl was found floating in the East River on May 28th. The body had been in the river for several days, which meant that a lot of the available evidence was likely washed away. She was badly decomposed and it would take some time, but they were able to obtain dental records and confirmed that this was Quin-Rong Wu. She had been manually strangled and I saw conflicting reports regarding sexual assault also having been a factor. 

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Jin, L. (2021, June 26). Who Killed 11-Year-Old Quin Rong Wu. Retrieved from Medium: https://lizjin.medium.com/who-killed-11-year-old-quin-rong-wu-22d400ad7b3

The Murder of Quin Rong Wu. (2023). Retrieved from Hue and Cry: https://thehueandcry.com/quin-rong-wu