Teen Couple Allegedly Kills Her Parents

N E W   Y O R K, Nov. 17, 2000 -- A teenage girl and her boyfriend strangled herparents because they disapproved of their relationship, then dumpedthe bodies into the East River, police said.

Connie Leung, 17, and her boyfriend Eric Louissant, 20, werearrested Wednesday at the YMCA where they were staying. The twowere scheduled to be arraigned today on murder charges.

William Taylor, an assistant police chief in Manhattan, said thekillings appeared to have been planned and that neither suspect hadshown remorse. Both were in police custody, and law enforcementofficials did not know whether they had attorneys.

Police said the body of 55-year-old Stephen Leung, a waiter atan upscale city hotel, was recovered last week. They were stilllooking for the body of his wife, 41-year-old Chilin Leung, whoworked at a Chinese restaurant.

They said Leung’s parents had strongly disapproved of theyearlong relationship between the high school senior and herunemployed boyfriend, neither of whom had a criminal history.

The parents were worried that their daughter was missing school,and her father met with a school counselor the day before he waskilled, police said.

Strangled With a Belt

On Nov. 2, Stephen Leung was strangled with a raincoat belt ashe sat watching television in his bedroom, shortly after he camehome from his job at the Parker Meridien hotel, police said.

Taylor said Louissant and his girlfriend then used a leatherbelt to strangle Chilin Leung when she returned from work.

The two allegedly locked the corpses in a bedroom and stayed inthe apartment for several days. The girl’s 19-year-old brother, whoalso lived in the apartment, was not aware of the deaths, Taylorsaid.

“It was not unusual for the parents not to see him for a weekor so, due to their hours and his hours,” he said.

Taylor said that on Nov. 7, the couple put Chilin Leung’s bodyin a laundry bag and pushed it in a shopping cart to the EastRiver, where they dropped both the cart and the corpse. Policedivers were searching for the body.

Three days later, Taylor said, they wrapped Stephen Leung’s bodyin a laundry bag and threw it in the same spot. A passer-by whonoticed the floating bag called police.

Leung’s body was found clad in pajamas, the raincoat belt aroundhis neck, said Lt. Louis Caniglia.

When Chilin Leung’s sister filed a missing persons report onMonday, police began to speculate that the body in the river wasthat of Stephen Leung.

They said Connie Leung and Louissant stole $1,000 in cash andabout $4,000 in jewelry — mostly rings and gold chains — from theapartment and pawned the items.