The Lin Family Murders

Is it just me, or is everyone fascinated with true crime?

One particular Australian case has always haunted me, probably because it happened in Sydney during a time when I was living there. Something about it has always felt eerily close to home.

The Discovery

On the morning of July 18, 2009, Kathy Lin (Min Lin’s sister) and her husband, Robert Xie, went to the Lin family home to check on them. Min Lin and his wife, Yun Li “Lily” Lin, owned a family-run newsagent, and Min Lin’s sister had received a call to say the newsagent hadn’t been opened that morning.

Upon arrival, they discover the deceased bodies of Min Lin, Lily Lin, their sons, Henry (12) and Terry (9), and Lily’s adult sister, Yun Bin “Irene” Lin. All were in their beds, the bedroom walls splattered with blood. Each had received blunt force trauma to the head and upper bodies, making it almost impossible to identify them. An autopsy report later also confirmed asphyxiation as a contributing factor to their deaths.

For some reason, the killer had placed a sheet over Min’s face after beating him to death, the others had been left uncovered. Police were baffled, saying there appeared to be no clear motive for the killings.

The murders were a complete shock to Kathy and Robert, as they had all attended a family dinner the night before at Kathy and Min’s parents’ (Yang Fei Lei and Feng Qing Zhu) house and everyone had been in great spirits.

Investigators later discovered power had been cut to their home shortly before the murders. The killer entered the house without breaking any windows or locks. They went straight to Min and Lily’s room first and murdered them, before going to Irene’s room and murdering her. The killer then proceeded to the least threatening members of the house, the bedroom shared by the two boys where a struggle must have broken out as both boys had signs of defence wounds.

The detail I found most shocking was that an autopsy later confirmed Terry, the youngest son, was alive for up to two hours after the attacks. I can’t stop thinking of that poor boy, being left alive to suffer for two hours in a house with his dead family.

Although no murder weapon was ever found, forensic experts later revealed that due to the nature of the wounds, the murder weapon would have been a hammer-like object with a piece of rope attached.

Nothing was taken from the house suggesting the attack was not robbery related.

The surrounding neighbours claimed they heard nothing on the night of the murders.

The fact that the killer was able to move around in the dark house and murder most of the occupants without waking them, was a sign that it was someone who was close to the family and knew the layout of the house.

Brenda Lin, 15, the last surviving member of the family was due to arrive home from an overseas school excursion to New Caledonia on the Sunday. Her grandparents were Yang Fei Lei and Feng Qing Zhu, and police were hoping she would be able to assist them in their investigations.

Brenda’s room was left untouched on the night of the murders. It was as if the killer already knew she wasn’t at the house, and planned to strike when she was away.

Sadly, Brenda found out about the murders via Facebook, when she logged on to see what her family and friends were doing back home.

Upon arrival back in Australia, Brenda went to stay with Kathy and Robert. They moved from house to house staying with different friends and relatives as they were terrified that their lives were also in danger and they didn’t want to go home. They even asked for their faces to be pixellated during a press conference where they asked for anyone with information to come forward.

The Investigation

Detectives began one of the largest homicide investigations in NSW history by taking DNA samples from all the remaining family members. In March 2010, unbeknownst to the public, a person close to the family was identified as a suspect.

Investigators interviewed all family members and commenced a six-month covert surveillance operation on the remaining Lin family. During this time, several suspicious events occurred.

Sometime after Robert Xie’s interview, he phoned police to clarify how many bodies he saw at the scene. During his initial interview Xie had said there were “five bodies.” Later, he contacted the detective on the case to let him know he actually meant he saw “four or five.”

While the NSW Crime Commission were interviewing Kathy Lin, they informed her that they found bloody footprints from an ASICS sneaker at the murder scene. Shortly after the interview with Kathy, Robert Xie was caught on surveillance acting suspiciously, and forensic samples were gathered linking him to the scene of the murder. The footage and samples would later become crucial evidence in court.

Robert’s phone was also tapped by police and they caught him coaching Kathy and Brenda in what to say when interviewed. He told Brenda and Kathy that the reason he was being targeted was because Yang Fei Lei had told the police he was responsible.

After a family dinner at Yang Fei Lei’s home, which all family members were present at, Robert Xie’s alibi on the night of the murders included watching cricket, cycling and movies at his home.

Xie, a former ENT surgeon who moved to Australia from China, had no history of violence. He always seemed quite close with the Lins and would often play badminton with Henry and Terry.

The Arrest

In May 2011, Robert Xie was taken into custody and charged with five counts of murder and refused bail. Police believed the crime was motivated by jealousy and Xie’s belief that his brother and sister-in-law were favoured by his wife’s parents. There had apparently been ongoing tension between Xie and his parents-in-law. The Lins’ newsagent made a profit of more than $1 million in the year before their death.

Investigators later admitted they started to suspect Xie about six months after the murders. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough evidence to charge Xie earlier, so Brenda had to remain in his custody. Detectives believe Brenda was not in any danger as Xie was quite fond of his niece and had chosen to carry out the murders while she was overseas.

Three Years Inside the Courtroom

The arrest was just the beginning. Robert Xie pleaded not guilty, and between 2013 and 2016 he faced four court trials. One was abandoned when the judge fell ill, another stalled when the jury were unable to reach a verdict, and a third was delayed for an unknown reason.

In 2015, Robert was even granted bail after spending four years and seven months behind bars while waiting for a conviction. It was seen as unfair to keep someone in jail for so long without a guilty verdict. He was placed under house arrest, being required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and report to police three times a day.

Over the four court trials, the prosecution revealed damning evidence that pointed to Robert as the killer.

During the court hearing, they replay Kathy’s panicked emergency call to report she had found the bodies. She can be heard at the end of the call saying “Stay here, stay here. Wait!” followed by the sound of a car engine, before the call is suddenly ended.

The prosecutor suggested that Kathy was terrified at the shock of finding the bodies of her family and asked her husband to stay with her until emergency services arrived, but he quickly fled the scene in their car.

A witness said he saw a man and woman of Asian descent in a heated argument. The woman was quite distressed, gesturing wildly. Not long after, the man drove off in a red Corolla leaving the woman crying in the street. It seems this witness may have seen Kathy and Robert arguing not long after they discovered the bodies on the morning of the murders.

Another neighbour came forward, saying she had witnessed this argument while washing her car. The neighbour later saw the man returning in the red car with an elderly couple.

Kathy Lin denied the argument. She said she had simply asked her husband to go and pick up her parents and bring them to the house. Xie did eventually bring Kathy’s parents to the house.

The thought of finding my entire family murdered, then being left alone in the house with them gives me chills. I can’t imagine standing there in the deathly silence, just waiting.

Yang Fei Lei admitted that he and his wife, Feng Qing Zhu, were called by Robert on the morning of the murders. He told them something terrible had happened and they needed to get on a train and come to the Lin family home as soon as possible. The grandparents lived in Merrylands. This would take them 40 minutes on public transport. Robert eventually agreed to come and pick them up. The grandparents later claimed they didn’t ask Robert anything on the drive over.

Kathy remained supportive of Robert throughout the trial. She claimed, on the night of the murders, she went to bed at 2 a.m. and her husband stayed in bed with her. The prosecutor pulled transcripts from previous interviews where Kathy had claimed she couldn’t be sure if Xie left their bedroom that night or not.

Investigators confirmed they found a total of 24 bloody ASICS shoe prints at the murder scene. Xie was caught on surveillance cutting down and disposing of shoe boxes via a pinhole camera they installed in his house. He can be seen putting the boxes in a shredder, collecting the pieces in a bucket and flushing them down the toilet.

During a search of Robert Xie’s house, they never actually found a matching shoe, but they did find several family photos with him wearing shoes matching the profile. A smear of blood was also collected from under Xie’s desk, which matched DNA from the crime scene.

The court then played the footage of Xie destroying the shoe boxes and Kathy claimed they weren’t shoe boxes, but something else.

The prosecutor also suggested that Kathy tipped off Xie about the discovery of the bloody footprints and Kathy claimed she wasn’t sure if this had happened or not.

Several inmates came forward with evidence they alleged came from Robert himself.

One claimed that Xie confessed the killings were due to a “loss of face,” which has particular importance in Chinese culture. Xie apparently always believed his parents-in-law favoured their son Min over him because he worked harder. Unfortunately, when Xie moved to Australia in the 1990s, his ENT surgical qualifications were no longer recognised, leaving him unable to continue in the medical profession.

He told another inmate at Long Bay prison that he disposed of the murder weapon during the trip to get his parents-in-law on the day the bodies were discovered.

It’s alleged that he confided to an inmate that he drugged Kathy on the night of the murders. He also believed whoever was first found at the scene of a murder is the main suspect which is why he fled the scene leaving his wife behind.

A very important inmate to the case who became known as Witness A, gained Xie’s trust during his time in prison. Witness A said Xie spoke to him about buying a hammer from a store that he knew had fake cameras. He spoke of something called “Plan B,” which involved framing dead people for the murders by planting their DNA at the scene of the crime. Xie said he had a contact who worked inside a funeral parlour who would help him with this. He never officially confessed to the murders when speaking to Witness A.

It was also suspected that Witness A, who received a large reduction in his prison sentence, was an expert manipulator who had possibly targeted Xie to gain something for himself.

When Brenda Lin took the stand, she admitted that Robert had been grooming and sexually abusing her even before the murders took place. This was seen by the sentencing judge as a contributing factor in Robert’s motive.

It just breaks my heart to hear that after losing her family, this poor innocent child was then placed into the custody of her abuser and the main suspect in her family’s murder.

All family members got on and claimed there was no animosity; however, after the murders Robert and Kathy started arguing with the grandparents over inheritance and custody of Brenda. The family members began discussing who would adopt Brenda, while they were standing outside the Lin family home, even before they had official confirmation that all family members had passed. Robert Xie started this conversation.

Shortly after the funeral Xie suggested that he and Kathy should take control of the Lin’s assets worth about $2 million. Eventually the grandparents gave up and allowed Xie to take control. The assets included the family-owned newsagent which Xie claimed was heavily in debt, he claimed he wanted to take over to help ensure the newsagent stayed in business.

The Verdict

Finally, on the 12th of January 2017, Robert Xie was found guilty of all five counts of murder.

The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, but the judge allowed a majority ruling. 11 of the 12 jurors believed Xie was guilty.

Beyond The Courtroom

To this day, Xie remains in prison, serving his five life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Kathy Lin continues to support him, and appeared in court in 2021 when Xie appealed his convictions claiming expert evidence used to convict him was "unfairly prejudicial,” meaning it may have wrongfully convinced the jury of his guilt. The court dismissed the appeal.

Brenda Lin, now in her 30s, has become an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse. She co-founded The Survivor Hub, a place where victims of sexual abuse can come together and receive support. She is also completing a doctorate in criminology and rehabilitation in youth justice.

The House at the End of the Driveway

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard about the Lin family murders. I was visiting a friend in Beecroft, just two suburbs away from where the bodies were being discovered.

This was already an unlucky coincidence. I lived closer to the city and on this day, for some reason, I happened to be out in the suburbs.

We were outside and could hear the sound of helicopters flying overhead. We rushed inside and turned on the TV to try and find out what was happening. It was a breaking news update and all TV shows had been interrupted to deliver the news. They were showing footage of the house where the bodies were discovered and all of a sudden, I felt the tingling of goosebumps across my skin.

Then they said the suburb was North Epping where I used to live.

They showed aerial footage of the house. It was a large, two-storey house on a big block of land, with a smaller house situated at the front.

And then it hit me.

I used to live in the house in the front of their property! We shared the same driveway which I would walk down every day on my way to catch the train to work.

I’d never met the Lin family, but I later found out, they were also living in that house at the same time I was there. Robert Xie would have also been walking down that same driveway as he lived only a few hundred metres away.

I often think about this case and I’m so relieved that I wasn’t living there when the murders took place. Although I don’t believe I would have been in any danger, being there while the killings occurred behind me would have haunted my dreams forever.

Most of the information presented in this piece was gathered from news coverage in The Sydney Morning Herald.