Chinese Activist, Husband Found Suffocated

Jan. 30, 2003

NEW YORK -- A Chinese-American activist who tapped new sources of money and votes for New York Republicans was found bound with duct tape and suffocated along with her husband in their apartment, officials said.

Josephine Lin, 65, and her husband Shan Lin, 70, were discovered Tuesday night in their Brooklyn apartment, which Josephine Lin also used as an office. The apartment did not appear to have been broken into or ransacked, police said.

The couple, devout Christians who emigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s, had been suffocated with plastic bags and strangled, according to the medical examiner's office. Shan Lin was found with duct tape over his nose and mouth.

The bags had been taped over the heads of the victims, who were lying on the floor in the kitchen and living room, police said.

The apartment was jumbled with the Lins' possessions and it was not immediately known if anything had been taken.

The couple had four children. Their son discovered the bodies after Shan Lin missed a doctor's appointment, and he went to check on them.

Josephine Lin, a retired insurance saleswoman, held many fund-raisers and donated tens of thousands of dollars over the years to Republicans including Gov. George Pataki.

"The governor is proud of the support he's received in the Asian-American community, and certainly Josephine Lin was part of that support," Pataki spokeswoman Lisa Dewald Stoll said Wednesday.

Lin was well-known as a facilitator for Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans, helping them find housing and sometimes using political contacts to ease immigration problems, acquaintances said.

Asian-Americans have been increasingly supportive of New York Republicans over the past decade, with party candidates spending more time mining Asian communities for votes and donations in an effort to broaden their political base.

"She was the grandmother of the Asian Republican Party movement," said John Johnson, director of constituent services for state Sen. Marty Golden, a Brooklyn Republican. "She was one of the reasons why the Republican Party recognized the Asian-American community as the powerhouse they were."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/1757584