Tou Ger Xiong was on vacation in Medellín for the holidays with his family when he planned to meet a mystery woman he encountered on social media. After he left for his date, his friend received a phone call from him around 7 pm local time saying men had abducted him, were holding him at gunpoint, and demanding $2,000 (8 million Colombian Pesos) in exchange for his release, the New York Post reports.
Hours before this, police responded to an incident of a woman stealing items from the residence Xiong had been staying at, however, she ran off before they could catch her.
Xiong was reportedly stabbed over a dozen times by his captors before payment was able to be made, sparking an investigation into whether he was murdered because he tried to escape.
His body was found in the La Corcovado ravine with stab wounds and multiple bruises which local newspaper El Colombiano said was caused by "an apparent fall from over 60 feet."
The victim's brother, Eh Xiong, reported that police were able to apprehend one of the suspects after they found clothes and a bag with blood on them but said he is still in shock over his brother's horrific death.
“It’s kind of funny how I don’t even feel like he’s really gone yet. Right? I feel like at any moment now he could be knocking on the door,” he said.
Tou Ger Xiong was an immigrant living in Minnesota who was known to "share his personal stories across the country to build cultural competency and address racial discrimination,” according to the Bush Foundation who named Xiong a 2019 fellow.
“This is a heartbreaking tragedy. Tou Ger was an incredible person who was constantly working to uplift his community,” US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) said in a statement to KSTP. “My office is in contact with Tou Ger’s family and the embassy in Colombia as they work to bring his body back to Minnesota. My thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones during this difficult time.”
