In a grim act 34 3 inch long nails were fired into Chen Liu’s head in 2008 before two children stumbled across his wrapped up corpse on a canoeing trip.
A 27-year-old man was brutally killed after a horrendous total of 30 nails were driven into his skull in a grim murder that remains unsolved to this day.
In a horrifying twist of fate, two children aged nine and 14, found Chen Liu, who was also known as Anthony, as they canoed down Georges river in south Sydney in 2008.
Paddling through the mangroves in the evening of the 1 November, they spotted a badly decomposed body wrapped in a rug and rushed to get help, telling their parents.
Police released a shocking x-ray of his skull in the hope of finding the killer who used a high-powered nail gun to fire the nails, up to 3.3inches long, into the victim’s head and neck.
Chen had tragically been dead for 12 days when he was found bound with electrical wires and an extension cord. His corpse had been rolled in a domestic rug with the ends enclosing his corpse in with tightly tied wires.
“In 36 years of investigation, I’ve never come across a murder of this nature using a nail gun. May I say it’s a particularly brutal and vicious murder and we are seeking information from the public so we can bring this inquiry to a conclusion,” the head of the homicide squad, Geoff Beresford, said.
Police believe Chen was killed then driven to the river in his blue 2005 Range Rover Sport 4WD. But no arrests have been made and the weapon is yet to be found.
Two weeks before the children discovered Chen’s body, a male friend reported him missing.
Beresford said 34 nails had entered “predominantly into the head area” at very close range, fired from an 85mm nail gun.
“Certainly there were efforts made to perhaps weigh it down if you like, and it was the force of nature, the tides, whereby the body has been discovered on the river bank.”
Police investigated associates of Chen, but said there is nothing to suggest any links to a criminal group.
Chen arrived in Melbourne on a student visa from China in early 2000 and moved to Sydney, where he married for a short time and separated, police said.
One Reddit user said: “I’m not really inclined to think this disgusting killer has particular knowledge of brain anatomy. The way the nails look, it could have just been the easiest way to angle the nail gun to his skull if the killer had him restrained face down.
“I’m led to think the killer was someone who may have worked in construction; and acted in haste and rage with the first weapon he had access to – a construction tool.
“No way to know which nails entered first… the victim may have continued struggling initially, and the enraged murderer attacked excessively to make sure his victim could not possibly survive. The materials the body is wrapped in could also be construction / contractor materials that were available to him.
“There seems to be little info or leads about this case. Wherever his vehicle is, the appearance could have been altered or maybe it’s been disposed of in a body of water.”
