AROUND CALIFORNIA

jurors during Leibel’s trial who was using an alias that he had used a sharp at the time, met with object – perhaps the green Ruochen “Tony” Liao, 28, paring knife or bloodied several times under the razor found in the couple’s pretense that he would bathroom – and his bare help him collect a debt. hands to cut and rip pieces During their third meeting, of Kasian’s scalp. Most officials said, Shen of the blood was drained kidnapped Liao from a from her body. She died of San Gabriel shopping mall severe blood loss. on July 16, 2018, and then,

Kasian was alive during with Yang, held him hostage much of the torture and at a house in Corona died “a very slow, excruciating, and attempted to collect a painful death,” $2 million ransom from his Deputy District Attorney family. Beth Silverman said. The killing was patterned after “Syndrome,” a graphic novel that Leibel helped create years earlier, she said. Its cover shows a baby doll with a partially removed scalp.