According to Chicago officials, a man has been charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend who went missing a month ago. According to records from the Cook County State Attorney’s office, Yaer Shen, 46, is charged with first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and concealing a homicidal death. Shen was arrested on November 1.
The allegations are in response to the disappearance of Bilian Fang, 40. According to prosecutors, Fang’s daughter reported her missing on October 10. The night Shen disappeared, Shen was with her. Authorities claim that they discovered throughout the investigation that Fang worked at a Lincolnwood restaurant run by Shen. Fang was eight months pregnant with Shen’s child at the time the two were dating.
Shen lived with his ex-wife and kids, and she was not aware of their relationship or the pregnancy.
According to the prosecution, the two left Shen’s restaurant on October 9 in his car and traveled to his house. The two got into an argument over money while in the car outside Shen’s house. Shen left his girlfriend in the vehicle. After that, Fang went to Shen’s front porch, where his wife noticed her crying. Shen drove Fang back to his car when his wife informed him there was a woman on the porch. Fang called her daughter, who was 14, using Shen’s phone at about 10:50 p.m. while she was still in the car. Fang didn’t have her phone because Shen had broken it during a previous argument.
Prosecutors claim that Fang called her daughter and requested her to arrange for one of her friends to pick her up close to 36th Street and California Avenue. Fang was not there when the friend got to the pick-up location, though.
Prosecutors claim that although Fang’s daughter made two additional calls to Shen’s phone and spoke to both Shen and Fang, she was unable to bring her mother to the pick-up location. Around midnight, the 14-year-old tried calling again but got no response. Shen kept the vehicle moving as Fang was seated inside. As the pair was driving, another verbal argument broke out, and Fang allegedly hit Shen in the face. Shen then started strangling his girlfriend by grabbing her neck with his hands.
Prior to her losing consciousness, he stopped. According to the prosecution, Shen noticed bruising and swelling on Fang’s face and neck not long after this. Shen again choked his lover out of concern that she might call the police. This time, she reportedly collapsed unconscious.
Shen started CPR after recognizing that Fang had stopped breathing, according to the prosecution. He failed, so he drove her body to a water reclamation area, flung her pink jacket into the woods, and buried her with branches. Fang’s daughter kept calling Shen to inquire about her mother’s whereabouts when she had still not come home by October 10. According to court filings, Shen advised the teenager to “be patient.”
Investigators discovered Fang’s body, according to the prosecution, using mobile phone data. They discovered an apology message written in Cantonese and signed by Shen in her jacket pocket. I’m a lousy person. I caused your pain. I was defrauded. I understand that abandoning you would be reckless. I really hope we don’t cross paths again. A second note that Shen left in his wallet before being taken into custody, according to authorities, stated that he intended to turn himself in but did not want to go to prison and that he wanted to kill himself but was unable to.
Fang died of blunt force trauma consistent with strangulation and homicide, according to an autopsy report. An independent autopsy on Fang’s unborn baby revealed that it might have lived if delivered at the same time as Fang’s death.
