SEATTLE -- Former Duke University doctor Louis Chao Chen was charged Tuesday with two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the deaths of his partner and their nearly 3-year-old son last week in a Seattle high-rise apartment.
If convicted, Chen, 39, could face either life in prison or the death penalty.
The bodies of Eric Cooper, 29, and the couple's son, Cooper Chen, were found Thursday in their penthouse in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood. In charging documents, prosecutors allege that Cooper was stabbed at least 100 times, including on his face, neck, chest, back and hands. The child suffered numerous cuts to his neck, documents say.
Police and prosecutors allege that as many as five knives may have been used in the attack.
"All of the knives had reddish-brown stains on them that appeared to be blood," according to the charging documents.
The apartment manager was contacted by Chen's sister Thursday because she had not heard from him in three days, according to the charges. The manager knocked on the door of the apartment and was told to come back in an hour, court documents state. The manager told Chen that his sister was trying to reach him, the documents say.
The sister also called a manager at Virginia Mason Medical Center, whom Chen was to have met with Thursday morning for orientation for a new job. When the hospital representative arrived at the building, both she and the apartment manager went to the apartment, where Chen eventually opened the door and the bodies were discovered, according to prosecutors.
Autopsies have been performed on the victims, according to the documents, but the King County Medical Examiner's Office has not released information relating to the case, including the date of the victims' deaths. Prosecutors allege that the murders occurred anywhere from Aug. 8 to Thursday.
Prosecutors have asked that Chen be held without bail, saying that he has close ties to his native Taiwan and has the financial means to flee.
Chen remains in Seattle's Harborview Medical Center with an undisclosed injury. After he is released from the hospital, he will be booked into the King County Jail, according to the prosecutor's office. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug 29.
Family moved in July
Chen, Cooper and the child had just moved to Seattle from Durham in July. They spent two years in Durham while Chen had a two-year clinical fellowship in endocrinology at Duke. Cooper apparently stayed at their Ivy Meadow Lane home with the child while Chen worked.
Cooper Chen was conceived with Chen's sperm and the egg of an anonymous donor, then was carried to term by a surrogate mother. When the child was born nearly three years ago, he was adopted by Eric Cooper.
The two men met about 12 years ago when Chen was attending the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Cooper was a 17-year-old high-school senior in Tinley Park, Ill.
The men moved in 2000 to California, where Chen did his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Diego. They also had lived in Minneapolis, where Chen was granted a faculty appointment at the University of Minnesota and served as an attending physician at the VA Hospital, while Cooper earned his bachelor's degree from the university.
The child was born while they were living in Minnesota.
After the move to Durham, Chen obtained a grant to study diabetics with gastric problems, according to publications.
Colleagues of Chen's at Duke were instructed not to speak to the media this week. But on Friday, one of his supervisors, Dr. Mark Feinglos, said Chen "was just outstanding. A really good guy."
Police find bloody scene
Seattle police said that when they were summoned to the apartment Thursday, they found Eric Cooper dead and Cooper Chen slain in a bathroom. Chen was slumped over near the front door.
Police asked him, "Who stabbed you and your partner?" according to an affidavit for probable cause.
Chen said, "I did," according to the affidavit.
