Scarborough woman found guilty of murdering husband for $2M life insurance
Posted January 11, 2017 12:13 pm.
Last Updated January 11, 2017 6:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After deliberating for five hours, a jury has found Xiu Jin Teng guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of her husband, Dong Huang.
Teng, who faces a mandatory life sentence with no parole for 25 years, was smirking when led away in handcuffs after the verdict was read.
The Crown successfully argued that she killed her husband in an ill-fated attempt to collect a $2-million life insurance policy.
Teng was charged after her landlord found the body of her husband (pictured below), stuffed in a storage closet in their basement apartment in Scarborough on Feb, 29, 2012.
Landlord Sharon Gu testified that she entered the apartment at 15 Ridgcrest Drive near Warden and Sheppard avenues when she noticed Teng moving items out of the apartment and feared she would flee without paying rent.
When she tried to collect the rent, Teng said her husband was in Hong Kong and would be back in about a week.
Gu told the court that while she was looking around the apartment, she saw a foot sticking out from under sheets and boxes in a storage closet. Teng then told Gu her husband had died of a heart attack.
Gu called her husband, Ken Wang, who found the body in the closet and called 911 (audio below).
Teng also called 911 at the around the same time.
When police arrived, they found Huang wrapped in plastic and soaked in bleach. He had a green rope around his neck.
An autopsy revealed he had died of ligature strangulation and there was no evidence of heart disease.
The Crown said Teng attacked her husband, striking him on the head and administering a drug used as a sleeping aide. She then allegedly restrained and strangled him to death.
The Crown further alleged she was preparing to dump his body in a river but her plan was foiled by the landlord’s discovery.
Teng, who wasn’t represented by a lawyer, made her own closing remarks on Wednesday saying “My dear jurors, the Crown has failed…first-degree murder charge failed…fire Mr. Crown from this trial and set Mrs. Teng free.”
Teng also said the Crown’s theory that she killed and planned to throw her husband’s body in a river made no sense because it wouldn’t be possible to collect on life insurance without a body.
