WSVN — Twenty years ago, a pipe bomb went off in front of the WSVN-TV studios, killing a Chinese man. As 7’s Craig Stevens tells us, the case has been out of the limelight for two decades, but it’s not been forgotten.
Agent: "It would have been right about here. Yeah, it would have tripped it right here."
Miami-Dade homicide detectives and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are walking the scene of a murder.
Agent: "He’s at a perfect kill spot."
Working together on a case that’s stumped investigators for two decades. On Jan. 23, 1996, an explosion ripped apart a bus stop shelter in front of the WSVN studios, killing Gouquiang Situ, a 40-year-old immigrant from China.
Agent Kevin Bonikowski, ATF: "He inadvertently activated a crude bomb, killed him right on the spot."
Situ was walking home from work., when he stumbled into a tripwire. Afterward, investigators reenacted the blast to see how it happened.
Agent Kevin Bonikowski: "The tripwire would have run down to about four inches off the ground, and it would have come across to the fence here."
The bomb was made with a metal pipe from a ceiling fan extension rod and filled with nails.
Miami-Dade Police Detective Maria Mederos: "He was a very hardworking, humble man, had come to join his wife, who had lived here a little longer than he did."
Kit Fong: "I want him back!" (cries)
Situ’s widow, Kit Fong, talked to 7News after her husband was killed.
Kit Fong: "I want him to come home."
Detective Maria Mederos: "She provided a lot of information, she did, initially."
At first, police thought it was a random act. Not anymore.
Agent Kevin Bonikowski: "We think it was targeted. It was a targeted event."
As time went by, investigators found out about complications in Situ’s marriage.
Detective Maria Mederos: "There was a domestic situation going on in Mr.Situ’s life, in his marriage, so at that point, that also became very interesting to us, because it brings a motive."
The domestic situation was an apparent love triangle.
Detective Maria Mederos: "It’s about a year and a half to two years later, after the victim was killed. that she married Mr. Ng. The person that was in the domestic triangle before."
They married, but later divorced.
Detective Maria Mederos: "A lot of times, domestic situations can lead to somebody being killed. Is that a possibility in this case? Absolutely."
Detectives have resubmitted evidence from the scene.
Agent Kevin Bonikowski: "Developments in DNA technologies and other technologies available to us now that weren’t available to us then have helped us focus our resources in a couple of different areas."
And detectives are also looking for the public’s help to solve this case.
Detective Maria Mederos: "A lot of things change in time. People are no longer frightened, so perhaps, if there’s someone out there with information, we can make a case at that point and bring it forward to an arrest."
Twenty years have gone by, but these investigators won’t stop until they arrest the person who killed Gouquiang Situ that January night.
Detectives have translators standing by and can take written or verbal information in Mandarin and Cantonese. And there’s a new reward: $13,000, so if you have any information-, you can help by calling Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
Craig Stevens, 7News.