CA CA - Maria Hsiao, 21, Palo Alto, 10 June 2001

Palo Alto cold case: Video released in Maria Hsiao homicide investigation
By Jason Green Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: 02/06/2015 01:49:47 PM PST

The Palo Alto Police Department is counting on the power of social media to provide the spark needed to solve a 13½-year-old cold case homicide.

On Friday, authorities released a video calling for anyone with information about the killing of Maria Ann Hsiao, 21, of San Leandro, to come forward. Hsiao was shot once in the head while standing outside the now-defunct Q-Café, located at 529 Alma St., just after midnight on June 10, 2001.

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The police department posted the video to its website, www.cityofpaloalto.org/police, as well as on its various social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Perron said he is hopeful it will reach someone with the information needed to crack the case.

[...]

A $100,000 reward is still being offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Maria Hsiao's killer, Perron said at the press conference.

[...]

Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org,, sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984, or submitted through the Palo Alto Police Department's free mobile app, which can be downloaded at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay. Tipsters may also call the detective bureau during business hours at 650-329-2597.

Email Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/jgreendailynews.

much more at the link

Homicide Cold Case: Who Killed Silicon Valley College Student Maria Hsiao, 21, in 2001?
By Renee Schiavone (Patch Staff) February 9, 2015 at 2:00pm

Please share far and wide so this new video will reach the person who knows something ... because someone knows the truth.


Maria Hsiao

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...se-murder-maria-hsiao-youtube-video-facebook/

"14 years later police search for witnesses in Palo Alto cold case"

http://wn.ktvu.com/story/29302923/14-years-later-police-search-for-witnesses-in-palo-alto-cold-case

For Hsiao's sister, the memory of that night remains. She wants justice.

"It would help me to heal so that I can move forward," said Andrea Hsiao. Police hope that changes in people's lives over the past 14 years could bring about a change of heart from a witness or the person responsible.

"Maybe they're in a different place in their life now and they're ready to come forward and tell the truth," said Sgt. Reifschneider.

Click to expand...

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/...dia-for-help-in-cracking-palo-alto-cold-case/
June 10 2017

Police look to public, social media, for help in cracking Palo Alto cold case

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PALO ALTO — Sixteen years after 21-year-old Maria Hsiao was gunned down outside a downtown nightclub, Palo Alto police are again asking members of the public for help in cracking the cold case homicide.

In recent years, authorities have pinned their hopes on the power of social media. Police on Saturday re-circulated a video calling for anyone with information about the killing to come forward and asked people to share the video on their social networks. The 10-minute video, which features interviews with police and some of Hsiao’s loved ones, was first released in 2015.

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She was studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to be a digital special effects designer
Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. Tipsters may also call the detective bureau during business hours at 650-329-2597

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[video=youtube;faP6-0NBNYM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faP6-0NBNYM[/video]

17 year anniversary of unsolved murder that's still "an open wound" for Palo Alto Police Department



Seventeen years ago today, a young woman was shot and killed outside of a Palo Alto nightclub. The killer was never found, the murder weapon was never recovered, and despite interviewing hundreds of people, police could not find one eyewitness.

The unsolved murder case of Maria Hsiao is something Palo Alto Police Captain Zach Perron says is always on the back of his mind. "It really has been an open wound for our police department," he said in a phone interview with KTVU.

Perron was a brand new patrol officer at the time and one of the first to respond to the shooting. He performed CPR on Hsiao, who had a gunshot wound to the head.

June 10 2022 rbbm.

''PALO ALTO, Calif. - It's been 21 years since 21-year-old Maria Hsiao was fatally shot in the head outside a downtown nightclub, and as they do every summer, police are asking the public for help in cracking this "open sore" for the Palo Alto community.

Police on Friday re-circulated a 10-minute video calling for anyone with information about who killed Hsiao outside the Q Cafe nightclub in June 2001 to speak up, and for others to share her story on their social networks.''

''Her sister, Andrea Hsiao, said in the video that all they were trying to do was have a nice evening out together to celebrate a birthday and seeing her sister killed was something she would have never expected. Her sister had no known enemies. She wasn't in a gang. She was not intoxicated.


''Hsiao was studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to be a digital special effects designer.''

Perron said that getting the word out there every year might jog the memory of the nearly two dozen people who were outside the club at the time.

"Somebody has some knowledge that they haven't shared with us yet," Perron said. "And they know who fired that shot. Whoever has this information has had this information pent-up inside of them since June 2001."

The murder weapon has never been found.

There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.

Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. Tipsters may also call the detective bureau during business hours at 650-329-2597''

Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writer
June 12, 2001 rbbm.
''A promising student at the California Academy of Art College in San Francisco and active member of the Chinese Bible Church, Hsiao lived in San Leandro her entire life and only recently celebrated her 21st birthday. On Saturday, she and her older sister went to Palo Alto to have dinner with three friends.

According to Ryan, the five dined at a sushi restaurant on University Avenue and decided to go dancing after a group of men they met at the Miyake restaurant urged them to follow them to the Q nightclub located just around the corner on Alma Street.

After a couple of hours of dancing, the group of women left the club and were apparently saying their goodbyes on the sidewalk -- where several other nightclub patrons were also standing -- when they heard a loud pop. Many on the sidewalk ducked and then noticed that Hsiao had been hit.''

"There were three or four people within 5 feet of her," said Ryan.

Hsiao's older sister, a nurse, tried to help. The club's doorman quickly pushed as many as he could from the sidewalk back inside the club, but some in the crowd fled in the aftermath.''


''Andrea Hsiao, the eldest of the five children, didn't want to talk yesterday about the chain of events that led to her sister's death, but she spoke fondly of Maria Hsiao's love and passion for art and how she wanted to one day work for one of the major movie animation studios like Pixar or Dreamworks.

"She really wanted to win an Oscar for special effects in a movie," said Hsiao.

Teachers at the California Academy of Art College, where Maria Hsiao had been enrolled since 1999, described her as "one of our best and brightest" students.''