Asian female, age 49, Pang Xiong was found shot to death on July 2, 2016, inside a Mountain View apartment in Anchorage, Alaska. Police and medics were called late that Saturday; when officers entered, they discovered the body of the 49-year-old victim and a gravely wounded man with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. News accounts from that week placed the killing within a spate of summer homicides that unsettled the city.
Detectives quickly identified the wounded man as 44-year-old Cher Lor, who lived with the victim in the apartment. According to police statements reported at the time, two children, ages 10 and 15, were inside during the shooting but were not physically harmed. Neighbors told officers the couple shared the residence, and investigators treated the scene as a domestic murder that turned into an attempted suicide.
Authorities said the evidence indicated that Cher Lor shot and killed Pang Xiong and then turned the gun on himself. Because he was hospitalized in critical condition, police noted mid-week that no charges had yet been filed; the case remained classified as a murder/attempted suicide while detectives continued their work. Subsequent memorial listings echoed the police account, describing the killing as an act by the victim's partner followed by his suicide attempt.
