Louis C. Chen, a gay doctor who was found bloody and semiconscious at his Seattle apartment, has been held in custody on investigation of two counts of aggravated murder in the homicide of his partner and their toddler son, according to The Seattle Times.
Chen (pictured) is still hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, but according to the probable cause affidavit issued, Chen confessed to Madonna Carlson, a registered nurse and the manager of endocrinology and the Benaroya Diabetes Center at Virginia Mason Medical Center, who discovered the carnage during a welfare check Thursday when the physician didn’t show up for work.
Chen’s family has flown in from Taiwan to seek legal representation for him, and prosecutors must file official charges by Tuesday.
The 39-year-old Chen was just beginning a new job this week as an endocrinologist at Virginia Mason. Carlson discovered Chen and his partner, Eric A. Cooper, 29, bloodied in the living room. Police found the couple's nearly 3-year-old son in the bathroom. All had knife wounds; only Chen was alive, and his injuries were not life-threatening.
"It's just so horrific," said police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb told the Times. "The officers came here not expecting an incident of this magnitude."
Chen was a promising physician who was named a fellow at Duke University's medical school last year and had recently obtained a grant to study diabetes patients with gastric problems. He and Cooper were longtime partners who had lived together for years in North Carolina. They moved to Washington in July. Their son was reportedly adopted from Southeast Asia.
Neighbors told reporters there was nothing out of the ordinary about the family.
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