Joyce Chiang (; December 7, 1970 – ) was an American attorney with the

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

who disappeared on January 9, 1999, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and was later found dead. The story of her disappearance and the discovery of her remains in the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

, which drew only local news coverage at the time, was rediscovered and received some national attention in the wake of the similar disappearance of

Chandra Levy Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – May 1, 2001) was an internship, intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek P ...

in May 2001. Police initially promoted the idea that she had committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

, but a decade later said she had been the victim of a robbery-related

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

, although no one was charged with the crime. Chiang was the sister of future

California State Treasurer The state treasurer of California is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of California. Thirty-five individuals have held the office of state treasurer since statehood. The incumbent is Fiona Ma, a ...

John Chiang.

Life

Joyce Chiang was one of four children and the only daughter of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese immigrants raised in Chicago and in Southern California. Her three brothers are John Chiang, who became Controller of the State of California in 2007 and Treasurer of California in 2015; Robert Chiang; and Roger Chiang, who is currently the Executive In Charge at the television show ''

America's Most Wanted ''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Alternative Entertainment division of Fox Corporation. At the time of i ...

'' and in 1999 lived with Joyce and was working for the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

. Chiang attended

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, where she was student government president in 1992. She graduated from the evening division of

Georgetown University Law School The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and t ...

in 1995, while working for Congressman

Howard Berman Howard Lawrence Berman (born April 15, 1941) is an American attorney and retired politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1983 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the state's 26th congressional ...

as an immigration advisor. After earning her law degree, she worked in the General Counsel's office of the

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

Disappearance and death

On January 9, 1999, the day of Chiang's disappearance, she had met with several friends for a movie and dinner, and one of those friends offered her a ride home. Chiang asked her friend to make one quick stop at the

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

at the intersection of

Connecticut Avenue Connecticut Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., and suburban Montgomery County, Maryland. It is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from the White House, and the segment south of Florida Avenue was one ...

NW and R Street NW. Chiang told her friend that she would walk the four blocks home from the coffee shop, but she never made it to her apartment. Her brother Roger was her roommate and reported her missing. Because Chiang was a federal employee, the FBI took the lead in investigating the case. A couple walking through

Anacostia Park Anacostia Park is operated by the United States National Park Service. It is one of Washington, D.C.'s largest and most important recreation areas, with over 1200 acres (4.9 km2) at multiple sites. Included in Anacostia Park is Kenilworth Pa ...

the next day found Chiang's billfold and turned it in to park police, who filed it in the park's lost and found. Four days later, the couple recognized Chiang's photo in media coverage and alerted the FBI, who arranged a search of the park and discovered her apartment keys, video and grocery cards, and gloves. The jacket in which Chiang was last seen was also found, torn down the back. During the three-month span in which she was missing, a candlelight vigil was held every Saturday night in Dupont Circle. Her brother Roger was instrumental in several televised and print appeals for more information on her case and disappearance. Three months after the disappearance and away, a canoeist on the

found a badly decomposed body later identified through

DNA analysis Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

as Chiang's. The cause of death could not be determined, and for more than 12 years it was considered a

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...

Speculated connection with Chandra Levy disappearance and promotion of suicide theory

In addition to the Congressional intern connection, Chiang had lived only four blocks away from where

would later take up residency, in

Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...

. Both were young, brunette women of petite stature. The Starbucks where Chiang was last seen was later frequented by Levy. These similarities have led to various theories that both women were killed by the same person, although the Congressman-in-sex-scandal aspect of Levy's case, coupled with the long time that passed before her body was found, led to more media interest. In 2001, at the height of the media frenzy surrounding the disappearance of Chandra Levy, police attempted to discourage a serial killer theory by stating that Chiang had committed

. Chiang's family turned to the media to dispel that notion.

Later developments in 2011

In January 2011, WTTG-Fox 5 reported that the police had solved Chiang's murder, identifying two suspects who had attempted to rob her on the night she disappeared. In May 2011, D.C. police held a press conference in which they said that Chiang had not committed suicide, but was instead the victim of a

, and said the case was now considered closed. They said that one suspect was in prison in Maryland for a different offense, and another suspect was living in Guyana, which has no

extradition treaty Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...

with the U.S. According to WTTG-Fox 5, an unnamed "source familiar with the case has identified the men as Steve Allen and Neil Joaquin, two men who worked as a team abducting people off the street with the intention of robbing them." Partly based on similarities to another attack committed by the two men after Chiang's disappearance, police hypothesized that the men drove Chiang to the

Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...

(which eventually leads to the Potomac). On the day of the press conference, the anti-crime television show host John Walsh stated that the men either threw Chiang into the river, or Chiang attempted to escape but slipped on the icy river bank and

drown Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...

ed. The police did not confirm or deny Walsh's theories, nor were any charges filed. Chiang's family expressed thanks for reopening the consideration of the cold case and for giving the family closure by announcing the new conclusion.

Remembrances

The Joyce Chiang Memorial Scholarship was established with the help of her family, to support one student each year with an internship at the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) in Washington, D.C. The Joyce Chiang Memorial Award was established at

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

by her friends and colleagues. It supports "an evening student with a demonstrable commitment to public service."

References

External links

Joe Harten, Georgetown Joins the Search For Missing Law School Alum, The Hoya, January 26, 1999

Congressional Record, Farewell to Joyce Chiang, April 13, 1999

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiang, Joyce 1990s missing person cases 1999 deaths 1999 murders in the United States January 1999 crimes in the United States American people of Taiwanese descent Female murder victims Georgetown University Law Center alumni Lawyers from Chicago Missing person cases in Washington, D.C. People from Dupont Circle People murdered in Washington, D.C. Smith College alumni University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni Unsolved murders in the United States American lawyers of Chinese descent Women in Washington, D.C. 1999 in Washington, D.C.