Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Autopsy Reveals Pair Stabbed, Choked

From Staff Reports

A Moscow, Idaho, couple found stabbed to death Sunday in rural Wyoming were stuffed head-first into separate sleeping bags and dumped on the side of a road.

An autopsy revealed that the female victim also had been choked with a wire.

Arrested for the murders was Wenkai Li, 25, a Chinese graduate student at the University of Idaho who confessed to the killings.

He is in jail in Laramie, Wyo., where he was found Monday.

Police believe the victims are Ning Li and Xiahiou Ge, a married couple who lived in an apartment near the University of Idaho. Ning Li was a graduate student there.

According to police reports, Wenkai Li got mad at Ning Li one day last month, when he started insulting Wenkai Li’s girlfriend.

Wenkai Li told police he went to the victims’ apartment on May 29 and stabbed Ning Li to death in the kitchen. When the victim’s wife came out of the bedroom and started to struggle with Wenkai Li, he tried to choke her with a wire and then stabbed her, according to records.

Police said Wenkai Li then loaded the bodies in the victims’ car and drove to Wyoming, where he bought the sleeping bags. After dumping the bodies, Wenkai Li sold the 1982 four-door Mazda for $35 to a dealer.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in the Spokane Edition

Cut in the Spokane Edition