The Westchester father who stabbed his wife and two children to death before killing himself in a horrific murder-suicide this week was “under a tremendous amount of stress,” police said Friday.
Chuan-Kai Liu, 46, who went by the name Tom, used a knife to kill his wife Dorothy Liu, 42, and their children, Tennyson, 7, and Adeline, 4, inside their colonial-style home on Romer Avenue in the tight-knit community of Pleasantville, cops said. The father then fatally turned the knife on himself.
Their bodies were found by police Thursday afternoon.
Authorities did not release any other details Friday about the manner in which the family of four died or a motive.
Pleasantville Police Chief Erik Grutzner revealed during a press conference Friday that “interviews indicate that Mr. Liu was under a tremendous amount of stress,” but did not provide more information.
The family moved to the small town from Queens in October 2016 — and authorities said there were no prior incidents of domestic violence at the residence.
“Throughout the entirety of this investigation, the only information we have had about this family is that they are a wonderful, involved set of parents with two incredibly active and amazing children,” Grutzner said.
In explaining why he revealed that Tom was under “stress,” Grutzner said: “All the information that we have gotten about this family leads us to believe that this community will be in shock if we don’t explain in some small degree there were factors at play.”
Tom had a background in the finance world and most currently worked as the financial crimes project manager for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group since Aug. 2018, according to his LinkedIn page, which also stated that he worked for Credit Suisse for 10 years before that as well as UBS Financial Services.
A neighbor who lived in the same Forest Hills, Queens, co-op building as the Liu family told The Post Friday that she was shocked by the news.
“I can’t believe it. They weren’t troubled at all,” said the neighbor, Gloria Taplin, who noted that Dorothy’s parents currently live in the same apartment that the Liu family used to live in.
Dorothy’s parents refused to comment to a Post reporter.
“I just spoke to [Dorothy’s] mother and father. They just saw them for Thanksgiving. Oh god, I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this. They weren’t troubled folks not at all.”
Taplin said she used to tutor Tennyson and called the Liu children “fantastic, smart kids.”
“I find it almost impossible to believe,” said Taplin as she noted that Tom and Dorothy “got along well.”
“I never saw any negativity on Tom’s part at all. I saw them together all the time. They went out together did things together, shopped,” she said.
Taplin said that the family moved to Pleasantville where they had friends because “they thought it would be a much better outdoor life for the children.”
Richard Rolandi, the board president of the 108th Street building where the Liu family lived, said that Tom “was happiest when he was with his family.”
“When you think of a typical Queens couple you picture them,” Rolandi said, adding that Dorothy “would always make cookies in all types of shapes cats, dogs, bats for the holiday parties.”
“I never would have guessed it,” Rolandi said of the horrific incident.