Prosecutors allege that a troubled drug addict had been stealing from his 76-year-old mother for several months before brutally killing her with a skateboard. A methamphetamine pipe was discovered next to her body.
Wei Hou, 41, was apprehended by federal marshals at a motel in upstate New York on Christmas Eve after Zhu Hou was found dead in her Lower East Side apartment on December 18. He appeared in court in Manhattan on Wednesday to face murder charges.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, it was Hou’s older brother who made the grim discovery.
“Upon entering the apartment, they found the victim’s body wrapped in a blanket on the floor,” Assistant District Attorney Taylor Holland stated in court. “An electric skateboard belonging to the defendant was found over the body and showed signs of blood.”
Holland continued, “The defendant was in the room with the body, sitting on the bed when his brother came in. Nearby, there was a meth pipe with residue and the victim’s keys. The defendant fled before his brother could intervene.”
Reports indicate that the suspect reached out to his estranged wife in upstate New York to arrange a train ticket to Albany, which led her to move him around to three different motels to evade capture.
After a short standoff, which resulted in hospitalization for the alleged killer, U.S. marshals detained Hou on December 24 at the Castle Inn Motel in Schodack, just south of the state Capitol.
Though he remained in the hospital initially, he was later arraigned and ordered to be held without bail.
Prosecutors revealed that Hou had been living with his mother for two months before the fatal incident, with frequent conflicts arising after she accused him of stealing money for drugs. In a prior fit of rage, he had even broken down her door.
On the afternoon of December 18, his brother came to fix that door but then left. Surveillance footage captured Hou exiting the building around 5:30 p.m., returning shortly before 8:20 p.m. wearing a mask, and then leaving again around 10:45 a.m. on December 19 with a bag.
Prosecutors remarked that Hou’s brother, unable to reach their mother that evening, arrived at the apartment and found Hou next to her body.
“This is a compelling case where the defendant attacked his elderly mother so violently with a skateboard that he not only fractured her spine but also nearly all of her ribs,” Holland informed the judge.
Additionally, reports indicated that Hou had been arrested in June on a felony drug racketeering charge but managed to avoid a significant prison sentence by entering a 90-day drug treatment program.
