I knew you IT types were bad seeds

[The Irish Doggy]

Cincy Enquirer

 

 

Rape suspect betrayed friends

 

BY SHARON COOLIDGE | SCOOLIDGE@ENQUIRER.COM

 

One teen dreamed she was being raped. But when she woke up after her nightmare, there was no sign anything bad had happened.

 

She was clothed, with no sign of a break-in.

 

Even Hamilton County sheriff's detectives couldn't find evidence of a crime on that night in June 2006.

 

Prosecutor Joe Deters says that's because Chien Tai Wu, a Taiwanese software engineer who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years, was methodical about covering his tracks.

 

Deters says Wu spent years cultivating friends in Cincinnati's small Taiwanese community, gaining their trust to the extent they gave him security codes to their houses and talked about when their teenage daughters would be home alone.

Investigators say Wu used those codes to enter the homes.

 

Masked, he would use a stun gun on his victims and his own homemade anesthetic . And when he was done with his victims, he put their clothes back on.

 

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted the 50-year-old Symmes Township man Wednesday on 17 charges related to the attacks of three teenage girls, one of them three separate times.

 

Charges of rape, attempted rape, aggravated burglary, felonious assault, gross sexual imposition and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material relate to attacks dating back to 2001.

 

Deters worries there are more victims and urged families who knew and socialized with Wu to talk to their daughters. He said any suspicions should be reported.

 

Wu was arrested last week and is being held in the Hamilton County Justice Center on $2 million bond.

 

Wu's lawyer, James Kolenich, said the allegations are serious, but just allegations.

 

"It's a police fairy tale at this point," he said. "Prosecutors always come out and say they have a slam-dunk case. I don't think there should be such a rush to judgment."

 

Wu, who has a doctorate in computer science from the University of Michigan, was part of a small community of Taiwanese immigrants, all friends who live in the Symmes Township and Montgomery area, Deters said.

 

Wu was the guy who walked your dog or watched your house while you were on vacation, he said.

 

The men in the group played poker nearly every Friday night.

 

"It is in gaining this trust that he was able to do what he has done here," Deters said. "He violated their trust in such a horrific and monstrous way.

 

"The pain he caused these families is almost unspeakable," Deters said. "Having a daughter raped is bad enough. Knowing a friend did it is horrific."

 

Wu got sloppy last month, which led to his capture, Deters said.

 

Wu is accused of breaking into a Barnswood Court home at 8 a.m. on July 16, where he waited for a 16-year-old girl to come home, knowing she was dropping her younger brother off at a sports practice and that her parents were at work.

 

Masked, Wu confronted the girl in the kitchen, shocked her with a stun gun and sedated her with a chloroform-soaked rag, Deters said.

 

The girl was hospitalized and doctors found she had been sexually assaulted. They also found burn marks on her chest consistent with being zapped by a stun gun and chemical burns around her mouth, Deters said.

 

Deters said the last victim had a hazy memory of what happened and thought Wu was her attacker.

 

She also got a description of the car that matched Wu's. Finally, Deters said that as the other families came forward they all realized Wu had access to their homes.

 

Wu left DNA evidence behind, Deters said.

 

The girl's family told detectives the teenage daughter of some friends had something similar happen in 2006. In that case, the teen girl thought the attack was a dream.

 

Officials now say it was no dream and Wu was the attacker.

 

Word spread quickly about the attacks and investigators learned about a third alleged victim.

 

The indictment says that girl was attacked twice in 2001 and again in 2004. She also was knocked out with chemicals in the last incident, and became so ill she was hospitalized for two weeks, Deters said.

 

"This particular offender really thought he was too smart to get caught and he got away with it for a long time," Deters said.

 

Sheriff's deputies searched Wu's home last week.

 

They found a stun gun, bottle of chloroform and photos hidden behind a drawer of one victim taken during an attack, Deters said.

 

Twelve computers were seized and deputies are searching to see if there are more photos and if they were posted on the Internet.

 

Wu works for the Milford office of UGS, a company that provides software to manufacturing companies. Spokeswoman Mendi Paschal said UGS is cooperating with authorities.

 

A teenage boy answered the door at Wu's house in Montgomery Point, but he and his mother refused to comment.

 

Neighbor Karen Freeman, 58, said Wu's poker parties disrupted the neighborhood by attracting huge crowds, and although the Wu family kept to themselves, she never saw any sign of problems.

 

"It's terrible, scary of course," she said. "This is a nice neighborhood."

 

Wu is expected to be arraigned next week. Deters said his staff will ask Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge William Mallory to raise the suspect's bond.

 

If convicted, Wu could spend the rest of his life in prison.