Where is Xiangnan Li now? Explained

True crime documentaries are big business for broadcasters, and Warner Bros. is reaping the rewards with its channel investigative discovery.

A mainstay of the channel is I see no evila true crime series that uses the basics of CCTV, interviews and talking heads to investigate some disturbing cases.

One such case in the series was the detailed investigation into the 2014 death of a nineteen-year-old Chinese girl in Iowa. What should have been a simple case turned into a nightmare involving two countries and a carefully orchestrated exploration of the mind of a killer .

This article examines the details of the case and attempts to explain where Xiangnan Li is currently located.

Who is Xiangnan Li?

Xiangnan Li was the friend of murdered student Shao Tong. Shao had studied English in Beijing as a student but left unexpectedly, leading friends to eventually contact the authorities.

Xiangnan Li came from a wealthy family in Wenzhou, southern China, and the show explains his obsession with Shao and the troubles he went to to be with her. He would transfer to the University of Iowa from the Rochester Institute of Technology to be close to Shao and live with her until his stint in Iowa City in 2013.

He also traveled over three hundred miles to meet up with her parents in Beijing, who disapproved of him despite his wealth and upbringing. It was also apparent that Shao’s friends were suspicious of him as well, and his aloof nature meant he did not associate with people, although the Chinese community was usually very tight-knit.

What did Xiangnan Li do?

The couple often left Shao’s home and stayed in hotel rooms on weekends. On a particularly tragic weekend in September 2014, the couple booked a hotel in Nevada, which they frequented. Xiangnan and Shao had stayed at this special place a number of times before, and it didn’t take long for the horror of this special visit to become apparent.

The story explains how Xiangnan overheard Shao talking to a friend about him and complained about it.

Soon after, he would murder the young student in the hotel room and then try to hide the body before leaving the hotel at night and catching a flight from Ceder Rapids to China, texting Shao’s friends from their phone to cheer them up along the way catching him off guard made his escape.

The police would find evidence in the hotel room that a crime had taken place and it appeared that Shao had been murdered.

Her body was hidden in the trunk of her car and left in the parking lot of his apartment complex before she fled. There was evidence of blunt head trauma, a dumbbell was found next to the body and it also appeared that Shao had also been suffocated.

When police searched his home, they found evidence that he had fled in a hurry, and some documents detailing his travel plans were also found in Shao’s car.

Where is Xiangnan Li now?

The possessed murderer is in prison in China. The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office had no doubt as to what had happened and charged Xiangnan with first-degree murder. They issued an arrest warrant in March 2015. Chinese authorities were aware of the situation and on social media. There were campaigns calling for his arrest.

Chinese police eventually cooperated with their American counterparts, resulting in investigators flying to Iowa in April 2015 to investigate the crime.

Xiangnan surrendered to Wenzhou authorities in May 2015 and was detained in China after pleading guilty to murder.

Although Xiangnan committed the crimes in Iowa, the case went to China.

The US and China do not have an extradition treaty.

How long will Xiangnan Li stay in prison?

In 2016, he received a life sentence, but there is a possibility that the sentence will be reduced to thirteen years.

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