Name: Six months after Cypress family slain, wary community wonders
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Six months after Cypress family slain, wary community wonders

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe Toyota Corolla and Sienna minivan that Maoye Sun and his wife, Mei Xie, drove are still parked outside their spacious Cole's Crossing home. The vehicles are clean. The lawn at the two-story brick residence gets mowed regularly by the local homeowners association, and the lights still come on at night.Nothing hints at the horrible events that took place six months ago, when the middle-age couple and their two sons were found slain inside the Cypress-area house."It's almost like they're still in there, like nothing really happened," said Cathy Berry, who lives across the street from the Suns' house.On Jan. 30, authorities checking on the family found the bodies of Maoye Sun, 50; Mei Xie, 49; and their boys, Timothy, 9; and Titus, 7. All four had been shot in the head in their bedrooms, authorities said.The slayings, which authorities described as "baffling," shook the neighborhood.In the six months since Harris County sheriff's deputies found the bodies, investigators have been running down leads, testing evidence from the scene of the crime and working to better understand the background of the victims.They have put up messages on two donated billboards on Houston highways, seeking information, and consulted with the FBI.Supporters of the family collected $70,000 in reward money, trying to entice would-be informants to come forward.But all of that, investigators said, has led them back to where they started, to a mystifying crime with little to go on."There just isn't a lot of information out there," said Sgt. Felipe Rivera, of the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide squad, adding that the family's relatives live in China and couldn't offer much perspective on their lives in the U.S.After the initial investigation, deputies said they didn't find a firearm. Neighbors hadn't heard any gunshots. Authorities believe the killings took place days before the bodies were found. Sun was last seen alive on Friday, Jan. 24, when he left work.Reaching out for helpThis week, Harris County homicide investigators are again reaching out to the public in a news conference scheduled for Wednesday, where they hope to jog loose new clues and help bring justice for the Sun family."If anybody knows anything we need them to do their part and step up," said Sheriff's Lt. Toby Kroeger.He and his investigators said they were surprised by the scale of the carnage.Many of the residents of the well-manicured suburban block where the Sun family had lived were reluctant to talk about the killings.Berry said her son used to play video games with Timothy and Titus, and that Mei Xie used to talk to her occasionally about the boys' schooling. Their mother kept the boys busy with typical suburban youth activities - they swam in the community swim team, played in the local soccer league, took piano and karate lessons, and were in the local Cub Scout pack. Photos of the family show the two smiling boys with their parents at barbecues and at a Christmas party with Santa. On Saturdays, they also attended Chinese school, Berry said."I think she wanted them to have a mix of two cultures," Berry said.Timothy spent two years on the team that 39-year-old Jon Balter coached for the Cole's Crossing soccer league."He was such an outgoing player … always active, wanting to play, driven to be there and be with the team. He wasn't one of those isolated or quiet children," said Balter, remembering that the 9-year-old especially excelled playing goalie. His mother was nice, but reserved, said Balter, adding that Mei Xie made sure Timothy never missed a game or practice."She always brought her son and supported him at games," the coach said. "She came to a lot of practices with him."'Still very concerned'Neighbors wondered if the deaths might have been the result of a domestic dispute, but investigators ruled out that scenario after they were unable to find a gun.That gave rise to other theories, like a case of mistaken identity or a contract killing. News reports abroad popped out stories about a murder arranged overseas. But investigators won't join in the speculation about possible motives or any specific theories."In one sense, it's horrifying that something like a potential internationally organized crime could invade our backyard," said resident Stephen Knight. "If it does turn out to be the case, it's terrifying, but also seems less likely it could happen to any member of the community if [the Sun family] were intentionally targeted."It also rattled the local Chinese community, said David Cao, a board member of the Houston Chinese Alliance."People are still very concerned - especially when the perpetrator or perpetrators are still at large," Cao said."It's been quite a few months and we still don't have a clue," he said. The case had led some members of the Chinese community to contemplate buying guns, he said, adding that others wondered if the premeditation that appeared to have gone into the slayings meant they would be too difficult for local authorities to solve."Maybe this is just too complicated for anybody," Cao said.But Kroeger, the sheriff's lieutenant, said he had confidence in his team."Whatever resources we don't have, we have access to," Kroeger said. "If this was my family, I'd want these guys on the case."Family not forgottenHsiao-Ming Wang, a professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, helped the Sheriff's Office reach out to the local Chinese and Taiwanese community in a town hall meeting earlier this year."Even after six months, it doesn't mean there are no chances to solve [the case]," he said. "But we do need more cooperation from the community and from citizens."Sun and Mei Xie were both naturalized citizens, authorities said. Sun had studied at the University of Texas at Austin, and worked as a stress analyst at Cameron International, according to his social media pages. Officials at Cameron declined to talk to the Chronicle for this story. Sun's wife had stayed at home, and took care of the boys. She and Sun had married in 2000, and bought their home a year later.A little less than a mile away from the Sun home is Sampson Elementary School, a one-story brick building of 1,200 or so students. Both Sun boys were pupils at Sampson, the metaphorical center of Cole's Crossing, a community of about 2,600 homes.Across from the school campus are two young redbud saplings, each tree adorned with a small tan sandstone marker. "In loving memory of Titus Sun, Always in our Heart - Cub Scout Pack 1179," reads one marker. The other is inscribed in memory of his older brother. At a ceremony in May, the pack wrote notes for the boys, leaving them in the holes where they planted the saplings."These folks in the neighborhood haven't forgotten," said Knight, also packmaster of Pack 1179. "Everyone was pretty deeply shaken because this was highly intentional, and not some strange sudden act."Still, friends and neighbors are left to wonder who killed them, and why."It's still an open wound. Everybody is looking for closure, but it's difficult realizing closure may never come," Knight said, his voice catching slightly.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe Toyota Corolla and Sienna minivan that Maoye Sun and his wife, Mei Xie, drove are still parked outside their spacious Cole's Crossing home. The vehicles are clean. The lawn at the two-story brick residence gets mowed regularly by the local homeowners association, and the lights still come on at night.Nothing hints at the horrible events that took place six months ago, when the middle-age couple and their two sons were found slain inside the Cypress-area house."It's almost like they're still in there, like nothing really...

Six months after Cypress family slain, wary community wonders

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