Murder of Shao Tong by Xiangnan Li examined on See No Evil

ID is re-airing the See No Evil investigation into the murder of Shao Tong, who was strangled to death by her boyfriend Xiangnan Li in Nevada, Iowa.

Tong and Li were native Chinese students studying at Iowa State University. The pair had formed a romantic relationship. However, Li plotted his girlfriend’s murder after supposedly learning that she wanted to date another man.

The 19-year-old Tong was last seen alive on September 6, 2014, the day after the pair had checked into a motel in Nevada, IA.

The police stated that Li strangled Tong the following day. Her body was found in the trunk of her car in Iowa City on September 26.

In the meantime, Li fled to China. The cops said the killer made his travel plans on the day before he killed Tong, which proved the crime was premeditated.

The police also learned that Li had purchased a suitcase and two dumbbells, having planned to dump the body in a nearby pond; however, he abandoned those plans.

Xiangnan Li admitted to Chinese cops that he killed Shao Tong

Li was on the run for eight months before he turned himself in to the Chinese police in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Providence.

China and the United States do not have an extradition treaty, but the authorities did work together to make sure Li received a murder conviction.

Chinese cops came to Iowa in June 2015, and two Iowa City police investigators and an assistant Johnson County attorney traveled to China in March 2016 to witness the murder trial.

Xiangnan Li received life sentence for Shao Tong murder

Li was subsequently was found guilty of intentional homicide and was sentenced to life in prison. He avoided the death penalty because he had turned himself in and had shown remorse.

At the time, Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said, “I’m very happy they convicted him and also that he got the same sentence he would have gotten if convicted here of first-degree murder.” She added, “I think it really is a great example of the United States and China working together to try to bring justice for a victim of crime.”

In contrast, the victim’s father, Shao Chunsheng, told reporters he wasn’t happy with the verdict, “We were at least expecting a death sentence with reprieve even though we had accepted the compensation. But what can we do? We can only accept the judgment.”

This episode of See No Evil re-airs Tuesday at 7/6c on Investigation Discovery.