Three adults and one teenager arrested and charged in kidnapping and murder of Tou Ger Xiong

MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA: Three adults and a teenager have been arrested and charged in the abduction and murder of an Asian-American comedian and activist in Colombia last month.

As per the local El Colombiano Newspaper, the suspects in Tou Ger Xiong’s death were charged with aggravated kidnapping for extortion and aggravated homicide in the Medellín Section of the country.

Xiong, who reportedly went out on a date with a woman he met on social media prior to his abduction on December 10, was the victim of a horrific trend in the South American country, where criminals lure people to meet in public before taking them and holding them for ransom.

Who are the criminals?

The three adults charged in the disturbing crime have been identified as Sharit Gisela Mejia Martinez, Santiago Bustamante Londono and Andres Hincapie Obregon. All three denied the charges at a recent hearing, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

The teen admitted to committing the crimes

A 17-year-old had given himself up to the Prosecutor’s office in the Medellín region after the crime, admitting he participated in the events surrounding Xiong’s kidnapping and murder, according to the local El Colombiano newspaper.

The teen was transferred to a special detention center for minors.

What charges do the perpetrators face?

On January 16, the three adults were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping for extortion and aggravated homicide. They have denied the charges.

According to the newspaper, several phones and a vehicle related to the case had been seized by investigators, judicial proceedings revealed this week.

Xiong frequently flew to Colombia

Xiong, who lived in Minnesota and frequently flew down to Colombia, had traveled to the South American country on November 29 where he planned to spend the holiday season.

The woman Xiong was supposed to meet on December 10 was said to be a part of a new group of friends he made during recent visits to the area, his brother, Eh Xiong said. 

What happened on the night Xiong was captured?

On the night he was kidnapped, Xiong was reportedly held against his will inside an apartment in Robledo. His captors had tied him up, and stripped him of his credit cards, cell phone and wallet.

Around 7 pm that evening, Xiong placed a call to another friend in Colombia, revealing that he was under threat at gunpoint, and the assailants were demanding a $2,000 ransom for his freedom.

However, even with Xiong's family in the US promptly transferring $3,140 to a woman's account, the comedian met a tragic end. His lifeless body was discarded in the La Corcovado ravine, bearing over a dozen stab wounds and blunt force injuries.

The woman Xiong was talking to got arrested

The woman Xiong was talking to online was arrested prior to the discovery of his body. 

Xiong linked his ancestry to the Hmong people, an indigenous group from East and Southeast Asia and was the valedictorian at Humboldt High School.

He was born in Laos in 1973, while his father was working with the CIA, before fleeing to a refugee camp in Thailand to escape the Laos communist takeover in 1975. The family eventually emigrated to St Paul in 1992.

The comedian would “share his personal stories across the country to build cultural competency and address racial discrimination,” the Bush Foundation said in 2019 when Xiong was named a fellow there.