Context: Visual excerpts from the location where Jian Chan’s body was discovered in September 2024 (KKTV). Inserts: Stephen Chan (El Paso County Sheriff’s Office) on the left and Jian Chan (GoFundMe) on the right.
A Colorado man who turned himself in for shooting his wife and leaving her body by a pond has been sentenced to life in prison.
After nearly a year post a 911 call reporting the murder of his wife, 80-year-old Stephen Chan was convicted of first-degree murder. Chan had admitted to the murder of his 54-year-old wife, Jian Chan. Based on court documents retrieved by KKTV at the time of the incident, Stephen Chan confessed to confronting Jian about supposedly taking his garden produce and kitchenware as well as accusing her of extramarital relationships. He then tied her up, forced her into his vehicle, and transported her to a nearby body of water where he fatally shot her twice in the torso.
A neighbor discovered Jian Chan’s remains hours subsequently, following a 911 report made on the morning of September 1, 2024, from a man intending to surrender for murdering his wife. That individual was Stephen Chan, who then approached a division of the Colorado Springs Police, confessing to the homicide.
KKTV reported that in his statement to law enforcement, Stephen Chan declined legal representation. He disclosed his 26-year history with Jian, beginning in China, growing suspicious about her involvement in theft and infidelity for the past seventeen years. Two years preceding her death, the couple ceased communication, triggered by Stephen’s confrontation regarding these suspicions.
Authorities relayed that Stephen Chan expressed his intention to commit murder stemming from suspicions of Jian’s theft of his gardening yields and cookware. Documentation elaborates, “He confronted her about her actions with his cookware, her purported partner, statements from this partner about her, and the partner’s residence.”
The records further detail, “Initially, she denied any intimate relationship but fell silent once specific details were revealed. Jian inquired about Stephen’s demands, to which he replied that she must pay dearly.”
Stephen Chan then told police that he waited until Jian Chan was sleeping to ambush her, tie her up, gag her with a belt from a bathrobe, and drag her into his car. At some point, he got his gun from a safe in their home and grabbed a drink of water. Stephen Chan put his wife into the back seat of his car and drove her to the location where she was eventually found.
He shot her twice in the chest while she was bound and gagged then left her for dead.
In April, Stephen Chan’s defense team attempted to offer up a plea deal on one manslaughter charge, but it was rejected, and a jury trial moved forward. Stephen Chan was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and assault by strangulation on Friday.
On Monday, Stephen Chan was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 32 years for the assault charge and six years for kidnapping.
