By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 4, 2009; 11:49 PM
The identities of a married couple whose bodies were discovered inside their burning home in Herndon early Thursday were confirmed yesterday by Fairfax County police. Investigators believe that the husband stabbed his wife to death and then set their home on fire.
Ho Bih Chen, 55, and his wife, Chi-Lin Chen, 55, had raised their two children in the house on Eddyspark Drive, in the Kingstream neighborhood near Fairfax County Parkway, that they bought in 1987. Their children, a daughter who is a freshman in college and an older son, were not home when the fire was discovered by neighbors shortly before 4 a.m.
Although the fire was raging through the second floor of the colonial house when firefighters arrived, it did not take them long to extinguish the blaze, and they soon found the Chens' bodies. Not long after the embers had cooled, fire marshals quickly determined that the blaze had been ignited from inside the house and almost certainly by one of the Chens.
An autopsy Friday revealed that Chi-Lin Chen died of stab wounds to the upper body, police said. Detectives theorize that Ho Bih Chen stabbed his wife and then torched the house, Officer Tawny Wright said.
Police declined to discuss a motive for the apparent murder-suicide or the family's financial situation. Someone, possibly Ho Bih Chen, had moved two of the family's vehicles away from the home before the fire, and they were found elsewhere in the Kingstream neighborhood, Wright said. Sources familiar with the case said the vehicles contained some of the family's personal belongings and documents.
Wright said police did not know the exact sequence of the stabbing, the moving of the cars and the ignition of the fire. Homicide detectives and fire marshals are still investigating.
The Chens, originally from Taiwan, were well-liked by their neighbors.
"They were a very, very nice couple," longtime friend Alice Huang said as she stood stunned outside their home Thursday morning. "I just can't believe it."
She said Chi-Lin Chen was a schoolteacher in Taiwan but a stay-at-home mother in Herndon. She also volunteered at a senior center in Tysons Corner.
"She has lots of good friends," Huang said. "She was always laughing. I never saw her sad."
Ho Bih Chen was a highway engineer with his own company in Sterling until 1998, when he pleaded guilty in federal court in the District to paying more than $170,000 in kickbacks to an official with the Federal Highway Administration to obtain federal contracts. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Neighbors were unclear about what he had been doing in recent years and thought he worked from home. Some investigators think that he might have been trying to work as a day trader in the stock market.
Nearby residents of the private cul-de-sac where the Chens lived were awakened by roaring flames, and some heard an explosion, shortly before 4 a.m. Thursday. They ran to the house and tried to awaken the couple, but the upper floor, containing the bedrooms, was already engulfed.
Fire officials said the smoke alarms in the home were not working. Damage to the house was assessed at $370,000.
Residents said the Chens were gracious and helpful neighbors. "Very generous and kind," said Wendy O'Connell, who tried furiously to awaken the couple after her dog alerted her to the fire. She said Chi-Lin Chen "would make Chinese egg rolls every Chinese New Year and bring them around to everyone."
"They would wait until you got home," neighbor Elizabeth Sherrill said, "so they were hot."
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