Defendant says he used power saw to cut up victim’s body
• Advisory: Story includes graphic details
VANCOUVER — A man accused in the murder of West Vancouver millionaire Gang Yuan confessed to police that after he shot the victim, he used a power saw to cut up the body parts.
Li Zhao told police that soon after the shooting, his wife and mother-in-law returned home from a walk to find Yuan’s body in the driveway of a British Properties home.
“They were so horrified, I think they wanted to call … for emergency, because I knew he was not going to make it,” Zhao told RCMP Const. Wilson Yung during a statement he made at the Vancouver Police Department following his arrest.
Zhao, who was a business partner of the victim, and his wife and his mother-in-law were also living at the home, which was owned by Yuan.
“After I cut him up, then I piled [the body parts] up there, piled them up inside the garage,” Zhao said. “After piling inside the garage, I was yet to decide what to do.”
Zhao told the officer that he placed the body parts in plastic bags, then cleaned the power saw in the kitchen. He said he also cleaned a hammer that was wielded during a fight between the two men that culminated in the shooting.
Friday was the second day that the videotape, introduced into evidence by Crown counsel Kristin Bryson, was played for B.C. Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes. Zhao’s lawyers are challenging the admissibility of the statement, arguing that it should be excluded because Zhao’s rights were violated by police.
Asked by Yung why he didn’t call the police after he started cutting up the body, Zhao responded that the victim was dead, and he was “very scared.”
“I was worried that this, this, like, in any case, I’ll leave it to fate. If I get caught, I get caught. If I don’t get caught and being lucky, then I’ll conduct myself properly in the future.”
Zhao, who came to Canada with his wife and daughter in 2001, told the officer that he felt he was still able to “do a lot of things” and make a contribution to Canada.
Asked by the officer whether he had ever been told that he had mental-health issues, Zhao said he had never been assessed by a doctor.
Zhao, 56, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the May 2015 death of Yuan, 42, and not guilty to interfering with a human body. The trial is expected to continue Monday.
Zhao told Yung that he told his wife and her mother to “leave right away” because he felt they were going to suffer mental breakdowns or lose their minds. “They were so confused. I was confused, too.”
Zhao said that after the two women left, he dragged Yuan’s body into the garage and wanted to “discard” the corpse, but wasn’t sure how.
He decided to use the power saw. It has previously been revealed that Yuan’s body was cut up into more than 100 pieces.