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Killing at sea
ignites probe

U.S. authorities are investigating
a report of murder on a ship
now moored off Oahu


By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

The U.S. Justice Department in Honolulu is leading a multiagency investigation of a possible double homicide on the high seas.

The FBI, Immigration & Naturalization Service, Coast Guard and U.S. attorney's office are looking into reports that a crew member of the Full Means II, a fishing vessel out of China, killed his captain, threw the body overboard, then killed the ship's first mate.

Yesterday morning, federal investigators from the different agencies boarded the ship, which was anchored in waters off of the Big Island, and interviewed crew members for several hours.

As of last night the ship was anchored several miles off Honolulu Airport's reef runway, where the main suspect as well as the rest of the crew remained on board.

Federal sources said information so far is sketchy because they were getting different versions of what happened.

According to Ellen Chen, assistant to the director general of the Taipei Economic Cultural Office in Hawaii, the ship's captain was Taiwanese, while the rest of the crew may have been from mainland China.

Chen identified the captain of the ship as Chen Chung She, but she did not know the identity of the ship's first mate.

"The captain is our national, so we are concerned about that very much," Chen said.

The U.S. attorney's office was awaiting word last night from the State Department in Washington, D.C., as to whether the United States should handle the case or to turn it over to the Chinese or Taiwanese governments or both.

Besides being based out of mainland China, the ship was also flying the flag of the island nation of Seychelles, which is in the Indian Ocean next to Africa.

There was no word last night about whether the Coast Guard did or will search for the captain's body.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Lauren Smith said the Coast Guard was assisting in a "maritime law enforcement investigation."

Because of the sensitive nature of the investigation and with the U.S. Justice Department as the lead agency, Smith said she could not comment further on the case.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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