USA Unsolved 21 (TX) - Grace Chen

Jessica (0:01)

Welcome back to another USA Unsolved episode where we discuss unsolved cases involving the Asian community in the United States. I'm currently on a journey to look into cases in states outside of California and we covered a case out of Ohio last time. This week, we are revisiting Texas to review a case involving an unsolved homicide. She was a business owner, a wife, a mother, and a friend to those around her. No one has been able to find any rhyme or reason as to why someone would want to kill her. But then again, this is why crime can be described as heinous and senseless. Her name is Grace Chen, and her case has remained unsolved for over 10 years now. Let's begin.

So, who is Grace? Grace Xiaojia Chen was originally from China, and based on reports, it appeared that she had once been married, but had gotten divorced prior to moving to the United States. She had a son from that marriage, and sometime around 2009, she immigrated to the US along with her son, Jackie. They settled down in Austin, Texas. After moving to the US., she remarried, and her husband, Robert, became her son, Jackie's stepfather. It is also worth noting that Jackie was already a teenager when he immigrated to the US., and just a few years later, he would move to San Francisco, California for college. Grace made great use of her time connecting with her community in Austin, and by 2013, she had started her own business.

She founded the Grace Language and Cultural Institute, specializing in teaching Chinese and cultural arts. The school was located in northwest Austin, on the second floor of the Galleria Oaks Shopping Center. I believe it's very standard and common for children of immigrants to be sent to these kind of schools, where they learn their parents' language, specific art forms such as calligraphy in this case, and cultural teachings and history.

All in all, Grace was thriving. She was 47, found herself a new home, something of a new beginning as well. Despite her son living miles away in San Francisco, they remained very close. Grace flew to visit her son in February of 2014, returning to Austin on February 17th. Neither one of them would know that this would be the last time that they would ever see each other.

The facts surrounding Grace's murder are straightforward, but also odd. On Wednesday, February 19th, Grace was at her language school as expected. I won't pretend I am familiar with the layout of the shopping center, but this is my best assumption based on the facts. So, I believe there is an employee-only bathroom on every floor, reserved for those who work at the shopping center, and each business has their own set of bathroom keys. Sometime around 3 p.m. that day on the 19th, Grace's husband called 911 telling dispatchers that he had just found his wife dead in one of the stalls in the employee bathroom on the second floor. The police and an ambulance arrived shortly after, but it appeared that Grace had already been deceased for a couple of hours. Her time of death was officially declared at 3:45 p.m. Right off the bat, it's pretty weird. If the time estimate is correct, she may have been in the bathroom stall for over two hours.

Assuming she had responsibilities at her school, did anyone try to look for her right away? Or did they assume she was out taking care of business, or had to run errands? Both possible scenarios. Or perhaps people did look for her but couldn't find her, and eventually her husband, Robert, had to venture into the women's bathroom, and that's when he found her. As for her cause of death, it was determined to be from asphyxiation, but it wasn't confirmed whether strangulation was the cause.

Either way, it landed on the side of homicide rather than natural causes, so understandably, her husband Robert was a person of interest. He was questioned extensively, but there was nothing that tied him to the murder. Robert still remains a suspect, though. It wasn't until a year after Grace's death that some sketchy news about Robert came out. He was arrested sometime in 2015, but not in connection with Grace's death. Prior to living in Austin, he was living and working in New York. When he made the move to Austin, though, it was said that he took artwork that didn't belong to him worth around $100,000.

He was also accused of selling, said Art, on eBay. He was sentenced to two months in federal prison and also ordered to pay over $80,000 in restitution.

True, stealing art is not the same as murder, but is there a chance that the two could be connected? It's not completely out of the realm of possibility, where someone harbored a grudge against Robert and his crimes, which then somehow led to Grace's death. Or perhaps Grace found out something that wasn't meant for her to know.