A source in Beijing says that the murder in Beijing of American Todd Bachman and the wounding of his wife Barbara and their Chinese tour guide were committed by someone other than the individual identified in China’s state-run press.
The three were attacked on August 9 while visiting the Drum Tower, a popular Beijing tourist site. The next day, Xinhua reported that they had been murdered by a 47-year-old factory worker named Tang Yongming who had recently been thrown out of work. Tang was said to have committed the murder out of hopelessness and rage at society, and then to have committed suicide by jumping 150 feet to the concrete below.
According to the Epoch Times’ source, however, a local store clerk saw something different.
Immediately after the murder a witness came out of one of the stores nearby where she works, shaken at what she had seen. According to this store clerk, the murderer was a very tall Chinese man between 30 and 40 years old in a business suit. The killer was said to be very agile and quick and used a double-bladed military knife to commit the murder.
The clerk says that there were security guards within 20 feet of the murder who did nothing to stop or apprehend the killer. While she and other witnesses were too shocked to react, the killer quickly ran away.
The source pointed out “There was a tight security check there with many public security officers. No one could pass the security check with a weapon.”
The subsequent press coverage in the state-run media has been strange. After the murder, the Chinese regime mouthpiece Xinhua published an article about the life of Tang, explaining why he committed the murder. However, that article has been deleted from the Web site, and no follow-up report on the murder has been published.
After the murder, the U.S. .Volleyball Team, whose coach is an in-law of the victim, held a press conference. After the press conference, the notes and photos of Chinese media were confiscated by regime officials.
The Epoch Times is preserving the source’s anonymity out of concerns for his or her safety.
