ESMIE TSENG
‘SHE WAS TRIED AS AN ADULT’
Highly accomplished high-school student Esmie Tseng was just 16 years old when she stabbed her mother to death. Shu Yi Zhang, 55, suffered a brutal and unrelenting death at the hands of her daughter on 19 August 2005. Tseng was arrested the same day and taken into custody. But in a case that divided the
USA, many argued that she was the true victim.
Both of her parents were Chinese immigrants, and Tseng wrote endlessly on her online blogs about the misery she suffered while trying to live up to their incredibly high expectations of her. There’s no doubt that Tseng was gifted. Ranked as one of the best classical pianists in the state of Kansas for her age, she consistently delivered top grades at school and was also an excellent athlete. Yet her parents held what she called “impossible standards” for her and when she disappointed them, she was severely punished. Her online journals make for harrowing reading, as she talked about being punished for scoring “only” 96 per cent in an exam and forced to stand naked in a corner.
Tragically, her last diary entry ten days before the killing talks about how she’d made her mother an ankle bracelet. She wrote, “It made me feel so childish, but I suppose that’s really what all parents want,” continuing, “I’ve been trying... to make them smile, make them feel better, take Esmie off their list of worries and concerns.”
In a move that shocked many, Tseng was charged and put on trial as an adult and ordered to serve a minimum of eight years behind bars. Scant details are known about the specifics of the crime. Initially, rumours swirled that Tseng’s recreational drug use had played a role in the murder, but a toxicology test at the time of her arrest showed that there were none in her system.
Prosecuting DA Paul Morrison said, “Hacking somebody to death with a butcher’s knife is about as serious as it gets. Even though everybody agrees she had been cruelly treated by her mother, it does not remotely excuse the level of violence.” On 6 March 2006, Tseng pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and became the youngest woman at Topeka Correctional Facility. Her father Tao Tseng refused to condemn her, saying that he didn’t want to lose her forever as he had already lost his wife. She was released in 2012.