Maria Hsiao had just turned twenty-one years old, and by all measures, had a bright future ahead of her. She had grown up in San Leandro, California, where she still lived, and was attending college at the California Academy of Art in San Francisco, where she was studying to be a digital effects designer. According to her family, she dreamed of working in the movies, and hoped to win an Oscar for her effects work someday.
On the evening of Saturday, June 9th, 2001, Maria, her older sister Andrea, and three of their friends were spending a night on the town. Early in the evening, they had eaten dinner at the Miyake sushi restaurant on University Avenue in Palo Alto, California, and while there, reportedly ran into a group of young men who invited the five of them to the popular Q nightclub, located just around the corner from the restaurant. The women agreed, and spent the following few hours dancing and having a great time.
Shortly after midnight, the group decided to call it a night, and gathered on the sidewalk outside the club to say goodbye and go their separate ways. Several other people were also standing on the sidewalk chatting, and two of Q’s doormen were nearby.
Without warning, a single loud pop rang out. Several members of the gathered crowd instinctively ducked and looked around, but didn’t see the source of the noise. What they did see, however, was Maria Hsiao collapsing to the ground in a heap. Chaos ensued, as people began running from the scene in terror, while the two doormen simultaneously attempted to herd bystanders back into the safety of the bar.
Andrea, a nurse, immediately knelt at her sister’s side and tried to help, but sadly, her efforts were to no avail. Maria had been shot once in the head, and would not survive her injuries.
In spite of the fact that multiple people had been standing on the sidewalk in front of the nightclub within a few feet of the victim, no one had seen the shooter, or even which direction the shot had come from. One witness thought they might have seen a puff of smoke very briefly, about a block from the establishment, but had not seen any sign of the perpetrator.
Authorities recovered a fragment of the bullet that killed Maria, but it was not enough to determine what caliber of firearm had discharged it, and the weapon has never been found. Because a thorough investigation of Maria’s background and associates unearthed nothing at all that would make anyone want to kill her, police surmised that she had most likely been the victim of a random or accidental shooting, and was probably not targeted specifically.
In 2015, investigators rereleased a video about the case to the media, in the hopes that a new lead would surface, but as of this writing, the murder is still unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 